Phthia (/ˈθaɪə/;Ancient Greek:Φθία orΦθίηPhthía, Phthíē) was a city or district inancient Thessaly according toGreek mythology.[1]
It is frequently mentioned inHomer'sIliad as the home of theMyrmidons, the contingent led byAchilles in theTrojan War. It was founded byAeacus, grandfather of Achilles, and was the home of Achilles' fatherPeleus, motherThetis (asea nymph), and sonNeoptolemus (who reigned as king after theTrojan War).
Phthia is referenced inPlato'sCrito, whereSocrates, in jail and awaiting his execution, relates a dream he has had (43d–44b):[2] "I thought that a beautiful and comely woman dressed in white approached me. She called me and said: 'Socrates, may you arrive at fertile Phthia on the third day.'" The reference is toHomer'sIliad (ix.363), whenAchilles, upset at having his war-prize,Briseis, taken byAgamemnon, rejects Agamemnon's conciliatory presents and threatens to set sail in the morning; he says that with good weather he might arrive on the third day "in fertile Phthia"—his home.[2]
Phthia is the setting ofEuripides' playAndromache, a play set after the Trojan War, when Achilles' son Neoptolemus (in some translations named Pyrrhus) has takenAndromache, the widow of the Trojan heroHector as a slave.
Mackie (2002) notes the linguistic association of Phthia with the Greek wordphthisis "consumption, decline; wasting away" (in English,phthisis has been used as a synonym fortuberculosis) and the connection of the place name with a withering death.[clarification needed] This suggests the possibility of a wordplay in Homer, associating Achilles' home with such a withering death.[3]
The HomericCatalogue of Ships speaks of Achilles' kingdom as follows (Hom. Il. 2.680-5):
These names are generally believed to have referred to places in theSpercheios valley in what is nowPhthiotis in central Greece.[4][5] The river Spercheios was associated with Achilles, and atIliad 23.144 Achilles states that his father Peleus had vowed that Achilles would dedicate a lock of his hair to the river when he returned home safely.
However, a number of ancient sources, such as Euripides'Andromache, also located Phthia further north in the area ofPharsalus.[6] Strabo also notes that near the cities of Pharsalus andPalaepharsalus there was a shrine dedicated to Achilles' mother Thetis, theThetideion.[7] Mycenean remains have been found in Pharsalus, and also in other sites nearby,[8] but according to Denys Page, whether the Homeric Phthia is to be identified with Pharsalus "remains as doubtful as ever".[9]
It has been suggested that "Pelasgic Argos" is a general name for the whole ofnorthern Greece, and that line 2.681 of theIliad is meant to serve as a general introduction to the remaining nine contingents of the Catalogue.[10]
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