Crisa
A Phocian city below Delphi, sometimes confused with Cirrha, associated with Apollo's arrival in central Greece.
The Story of Crisa
Crisa lay in the fertile plain below the cliffs of Delphi and was among the first settlements Apollo visited after slaying the Python. The Homeric Hymn to Apollo describes Crisa as a place where Apollo considered founding his temple before settling on the rocky slopes above. The region of Crisa gave its name to the "Crisaean plain" — the sacred land that could not be farmed after the Sacred War — and the Crisaean Gulf, the body of water through which all sea pilgrims to Delphi sailed. Mycenaean remains beneath modern Chryso confirm this was a significant Bronze Age centre.
Parents
{Apollo (passed through)}
Children
{}
Symbols
Fun Fact
The Crisaean plain was kept deliberately unfarmed as a sacred precinct for over a thousand years — an unusually long-lasting act of religious enforcement in the ancient world.
Explore Further
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The Argolid plain dominated by the city of Argos, one of the oldest and most mythologically saturated regions of Greece.
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Phocis
🏛 placeregion, central Greece
A region of central Greece whose chief distinction was containing Delphi, the most important oracle and religious centre in the Greek world.
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A fertile central Greek region whose name means "ox-land," birthplace of Heracles and setting of the Cadmus myth.
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🏛 placegeography
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Chaonia
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An ancient city near Corinth claiming to be one of the oldest in Greece and site of Prometheus's sacrifice trick