Ortygia

Ortygia (/ɔːrˈtɪdʒiə/ or-TIJ-ee-ə; Italian: Ortigia [orˈtiːdʒa]; Ancient Greek: Ὀρτυγία, romanized: Ortygía) is a small island which is the historical centre of the city of Syracuse, Sicily.

[1] The Homeric Hymn to Delian Apollo has it that the goddess Leto stopped at Ortygia to give birth to Artemis,[2] the firstborn of her twins.

[7] Eos, the goddess of the dawn, fell in love with the mortal hunter Orion and abducted him to Ortygia, where he met Artemis and joined her retinue.

[9] Ortygia was the mythological home of Arethusa, a chaste nymph who, while fleeing a river god, was transformed by Artemis into a spring, traversed underground and appeared here as the Fountain of Arethusa, thus providing water for the city.

Ortygia, being an island just off the coast, was easily transformed into a natural fortress with harbors and was big enough that it could hold a significant population in ancient times.