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Phlegra (Ancient Greek:Φλέγρα)[1] is both a real and a mythical location inGreek andRoman mythology.
Phlegra is a peninsula ofMacedonia (more specifically inChalkidike) in modernGreece; it is an ancient name forPallene in historicalThrace, the latter as per thetoponymy of the ancients. Pallene and Phlegra is most commonly called nowadaysKassandra, or Peninsula of Kassandra.[1] In Greek mythology, it is the site of Zeus's overthrowing of the Giants (Gigantes) at the end of theGigantomachy.[2][3]: 235 (58)
The Greek geographerStrabo (c.63 BC – c. 24 AD) writes:
The peninsula Pallene, on whose isthmus is situated the city formerly called Potidaea and now Cassandreia, was called Phlegra in still earlier times. It used to be inhabited by the giants of whom the myths are told, an impious and lawless tribe, whom Heracles destroyed.
Nevertheless, various places have been associated with the Gigantomachy. The presence of volcanic phenomena, and the frequent unearthing of the fossilized bones of large prehistoric animals throughout these locations may explain why such sites became associated with the Giants.[5]Pindar writes that the battle occurred at Phlegra ("the place of burning"),[3]: 235 (58) as do other early sources.[6] Phlegra was an ancient name for Pallene,[7] and Phlegra/Pallene was the usual birthplace of the Giants and site of the battle.[8]Apollodorus, who placed the battle at Pallene, says the Giants were born "as some say, in Phlegrae, but according to others in Pallene". The name Phlegra and the Gigantomachy were also often associated, by later writers, with thePhlegraean Plain, the volcanic fields, at the east ofCumae.[9]Diodorus Siculus presents a war featuring multiple battles, with one at Pallene, one on the Phlegraean Fields, and one onCrete.[10] Even when, as in Apollodorus, the battle starts at one place, individual battles between Giant and god might range further afield, withEnceladus buried beneathSicily, andPolybotes under the island ofNisyros (orKos).[11]
Strabo also refers to the Phlegraean Plain (Φλέγρας πεδίον,Phlegras pedion, orΦλεγραία πλάξ,Phlegraia plax,[1] laterCampi Flegrei[2]), inCampania, "whichmythology has made the setting of the story of the Giants":
This river[Liternus] flows through Venafrum and the centre of Campania. Next in order after these two cities comes Cumae [...] In earlier times, then, the city was prosperous, and so was what is called the Phlegraean Plain, which mythology has made the setting of the story of the Giants — for no other reason, it would seem, than that the land, on account of its excellence, was a thing to fight for.
According to the Greek geographer, the Giants who survived, were driven out byHeracles, finding refuge with their mother inLeuca (Apulia),[13] in Italy's 'heel'. A fountain there had smelly water the locals claimed to be from theichor of the giants.[13] Strabo also mentions an account of Heracles battling Giants atPhanagoria, a Greek colony on the shores of theBlack Sea.[14]
Its site is clearly marked by an ancient church still calledSta. Maria di Leuca [...] Strabo tells us that the inhabitants of Leuca showed there a spring of fetid water