Tempe
The Vale of Tempe, a gorge in Thessaly sacred to Apollo where laurel for the Pythian Games was gathered
The Story of Tempe
The Vale of Tempe is a narrow gorge carved by the Peneus River between Mount Olympus and Mount Ossa in Thessaly, stretching for approximately ten kilometres. In mythology, the valley was created when Poseidon struck the mountains with his trident, splitting them apart to allow the waters that flooded the Thessalian plain to drain to the sea. Apollo was said to have come to Tempe to purify himself after killing the dragon Python at Delphi, and from that time the laurel needed for victors' crowns at the Pythian Games was ceremonially gathered from the valley by a procession of youths who retraced Apollo's path. The gorge was celebrated in poetry as one of the most beautiful landscapes in Greece: sheer cliffs rising on either side, the river flowing through groves of laurel, plane trees, and ivy, with the songs of birds echoing from the rock walls. The phrase "Vale of Tempe" became a standard literary description for any idyllic valley. During the Persian invasion of 480 BCE, the Greeks initially planned to defend Tempe but withdrew when they realised the pass could be bypassed, retreating to Thermopylae instead.
Parents
None recorded
Symbols
Fun Fact
Every four years before the Pythian Games, a sacred procession walked from Delphi to Tempe and back to gather the laurel branches for victors' crowns
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth. See our full guide to English words from Greek mythology.
Explore Further
Vale of Tempe
🏛 placebeauty, Apollo
A narrow gorge in Thessaly between Olympus and Ossa, sacred to Apollo.
Mount Ossa
🏛 placemountain, Thessaly
A mountain in Thessaly that the Giants stacked beneath Pelion in their attempt to storm the heavens and overthrow the Olympian gods.
Pieria
🏛 placeSacred geography
The region at the foot of Mount Olympus sacred to the Muses, who were sometimes called the Pierides
Eridanus
🏛 placeSacred geography
A mythological river associated with the fall of Phaethon and later identified with the constellation and the Po River
Mount Parnassus
🏛 placeMountain of Apollo and the Muses
Mount Parnassus was the mountain above Delphi sacred to Apollo and the Muses — the symbolic home of poetry, music, and artistic inspiration.
Isthmus of Corinth
🏛 placegeography
The narrow land bridge between mainland Greece and the Peloponnese, site of the Isthmian Games and Sinis the bandit.
Chaonia
🏛 placegeography
A region of northwestern Greece (Epirus) associated with the oracle of Dodona and the earliest Greek mythology.
Arcadia
🏛 placePastoral paradise of Pan
Arcadia was both a real mountainous region in the central Peloponnese and an idealised landscape of pastoral innocence, forever associated with Pan, nymphs, and rustic simplicity.
Libya
🏛 placeGeography
The ancient Greek name for the entire continent of Africa, personified as a daughter of Epaphus and Memphis
Meroe
🏛 placegeography
A distant African kingdom mentioned in Greek mythology as the land at the source of the Nile, associated with the Ethiopians.
Crisa
🏛 placegeography
A Phocian city below Delphi, sometimes confused with Cirrha, associated with Apollo's arrival in central Greece.
Nemea
🏛 placeValley of the Nemean Lion and Games
Nemea was the valley in the Argolid where Heracles slew the Nemean Lion and where the biennial Nemean Games were held in honour of Zeus.