It is located west of Corinth, northwest of Stymfalia, north of Tripoli, and south of Derveni.

Cyllene (or Kyllene) herself was a mountain nymph who had taken for her consort Pelasges in the most ancient times recounted by Greek mythographers.

There was a port in Elis in antiquity named Cyllene near the mouth of the Alfeios, where the traveler Pausanias noted the image of Hermes, "most devoutly worshiped by the inhabitants, is merely the male member upright on the pedestal."

In Greek mythology, Hermes was born in a sacred cave on the mountain, and so Cyllenius is a frequent epithet of his.

[5] Gaius Julius Hyginus records that it was on Cyllene that the seer Tiresias changed sex when he struck two copulating snakes.