Ancient Greek Geography (Map View)

        Troy is located near the "T" of "Troas" on the right.  The large island to the east is Lesbos, home of Sappho.  East across the Aegean at the top is Mount Olympus, mythic home of the gods, and to the south, Thermopylae where the Spartans held off Darius' invading Persian army in 490 B.C.E., Mount Parnassus (home of the muses), Delphi (oracle of Apollo that gave Oedipus his doom), Thebes (ruled by Oedipus and his descendants), and Athens at the head of the Saronic Gulf.  Just to the east of Athens is the bay of Salamis, where the Greek fleet defeated Xerxes' Persian invasion fleet in 480 B.C.E..  East from Salamis, at the head of the Argolic Gulf, is Argos and its inland akropolis of Mycenae, ruled by Agamemnon.  South on the Peloponese peninsula is Sparta, ruled by Menelaos.  On the east coast is Pylos, site of Nestor's opulent but ill-defended palace.  North above Pylos on the east coast of the peninsula is Olympia, home of the Olympic games, and just northward of that, sheltered from the Ionian Sea by the larger island of Cephalonia, is Ithaca, home of Odysseus, the hero whose return took 10 years longer than all the other Greeks at Troy.