Tempe
Tempe is a narrow valley located in northern Thessaly, Greece, measuring approximately five to six miles in length and thirty to fifty-five yards in width. This picturesque area is defined by the river Peneus, which flows through it, framed by the majestic Mount Olympus and Mount Ossa. Historically, the Vale of Tempe served as a crucial passage between Thessaly and Macedonia, with its strategic significance noted during various military conflicts, including the Persian Wars and wars involving Alexander the Great. In Greek mythology, the valley is said to have been formed by Poseidon's trident and is associated with several legendary events, such as the purification of Apollo after defeating the serpent Python. Tempe is also home to an ancient shrine of Apollo, where a sacred laurel branch was annually transported to Delphi. The valley's dramatic landscape and rich historical context make it an important site in both ancient Greek culture and military history. As such, it offers a fascinating glimpse into the intersection of mythology, warfare, and sacred traditions in the region.
Tempe
A narrow valley, between five and six miles long and from thirty to fifty-five yards wide, in northern Thessaly (northeastern Greece), through which the river Peneus breaks through to the coast between Mounts Olympus and Ossa
The vale of Tempe provided the principal road between Thessaly and Macedonia and could be held by a few troops, though there were also mountain routes further inland. According to Greek mythology, the defile had been cut by Poseidon's trident.
During the Persian Wars, in 480, the Greeks sent a force 10,000 strong to hold Tempe against Xerxes I, but withdrew this contingent soon afterward to Thermopylae, thus abandoning Thessaly to the invader. In 336 Alexander the Great, faced by Thessalian hostility, turned Tempe without a fight by cutting steps (`Alexander's ladder’) up the slopes of Ossa. Rome's Second Macedonian War ended with an armistice between Flamininus and King Philip II at Tempe (197). In the Third Macedonian War Perseus fortified the valley against Quintus Marcius Philippus (170), but two years later Lucius Aemilius Paullus penetrated into Macedonia over another pass. After Roman rule had been established (146), the civil war of 48 between Julius Caesar and Pompey the Great prompted the construction of a road through the valley, undertaken by Caesar's general Lucius Cassius Longinus.
At the eastern entrance to Tempe stood an ancient shrine of Apollo, from which, every eight years, a procession conducted a sacred laurel branch to Delphi, in memory of the branch planted there by Apollo—after he had killed the serpent Python, and had purified himself in the waters of the Peneus, plucking a laurel branch from its bank. The Thessalians, according to Herodotus, attributed the creation of Tempe to convulsions produced by the god Poseidon, a story echoed in the myths of the War of the Gods and Giants.