Melitaea (Thessaly)

Melitaea or Meliteia (Ancient Greek: Μελιταία[1][2][3] or Μελίτεια[4] or Μελιτία[5]) was a town and polis (city-state)[6] of Phthiotis in ancient Thessaly, situated near the river Enipeus, at the distance of 10 stadia from the town of Hellas, whence the residents of Melitaea had come.

[1] According to Greek mythology its eponymous founder had been Melitaea and there was a legend according to which Aspalis, a beautiful maiden of the place, had been hanged to avoid being possessed by a tyrant of the city which they called Tartarus.

[7] Thucydides relates that during the Peloponnesian War, when Brasidas was marching through Thessaly to Macedonia, his Thessalian friends met him at Melitaea in order to escort him (424 BCE),[5] learning from this narrative that the town was one day's march from Pharsalus, whither Brasidas proceeded on leaving the former place.

[4] Melitaea is also mentioned in the Periplus of Pseudo-Scylax,[9] and by Stephanus of Byzantium,[3] Pliny the Elder,[2] and Ptolemy who erroneously calls it Μελίταρα (Melitara).

[10] Melitaea's site is near the town of Melitaia (Μελιταία), formerly Avaritsa but renamed to reflect its association with the ancient city, in the municipality of Domokos.