The highest mountain in Greece is Mount Olympus.
The Palace of Olympus Drawing by Mirta Croxatto
Its steep rock walls make it almost impossible to climb. So high is that you can hardly see the top, always surrounded by clouds.
There, on the top of Olympus had their palace the twelve most important gods of the Greeks.
The palace had been built by the Cyclops.
The palace was built like the palaces of kings. So he was very big and lavish.
It had many apartments for each of the gods to live comfortably and a hall where the Council met where the thrones of the gods were arranged.
The palace also had dining rooms, kitchens, armaments rooms, rooms for servitude, stables for horses, kennels for hounds and even a zoo where they kept their sacred animals. These included a bear, a lion, a parrot, an eagle, tigers, a cow, a turtle, a ferret, white oxen, an owl, a deer, a stork, swans, mice and a pond full of fish.
It was a place located in the deepest region of the earth. Much lower than the kingdom of Hades or hell.
The place was surrounded by a triple wall. It had a watchtower and a huge gate that it was impossible to go through even for the gods themselves.
The gods locked their worst enemies in Tartar. The great criminals were also going to stop there, after the judgment of souls.
When the souls descended into the Tartarus, whose entrance was in a forest of black poplars, the relatives of the dead put a coin in their mouths, under their tongue to pay for their entrance. The souls that did not carry the coin had to wait eternally before they could enter or search for a side entrance, where a dog named can Cerbero, waited ready to devour the intruders.
The Can Cerbero guarding the entrance to the Tatar Drawing by Mirta Croxatto
Zeus sent the Titans there after a great battle.
It was such a chilling place that even the gods themselves were afraid of him.
Oracles were not precisely places but part of religion. There were some established. Of Zeus in Dodoma, Of Apollo in Delphi.
The Oracles were ways of consulting about the future.
Priestchalk interpreting oracles Drawing by Mirta Croxatto
They appear in many myths and legends. When a hero is going on a journey, battle, or adventure, first consult the oracle to find out what risks they will have to face.
Each oracle had its system of divination. The flight of birds, dreams, the creaking of leaves and others.
Labyrinths are constructions full of cheats passageways. Corridors and nooks that lead nowhere.
Maze Drawing by Mirta Croxatto
They are built in such a way that once someone enters it is impossible to find the way out.
The labyrinth of the Minotaur in Crete is famous.
You can see Mythological Legends.
The country of the Hesperides was located in the far west, on the edge of the Ocean River and very close to Mount Atlas.
The Garden of the Hesperides Drawing by Mirta Croxatto
He was guarded by the Hesperides. Daughters of the evening star. These nymphs, of sweet and melodious voice, according to traditional legends, were daughters of Zeus and Themis.
They guarded a wonderful garden, full of fountains of ambrosia, whose trees were full of fruits in all seasons of the year, called the garden of the Hesperides.
This garden was consecrated to the goddess Hera, because she had planted there the golden apples that the earth goddess Gea gave her as a wedding gift.
The tree of golden apples was guarded by the Dragon Ladon.
At the gates of the garden was the giant Atlas, holding the celestial vault on its back.
Also called “Lucky Fields” or “Islands of the Blessed,” it was a happy territory where mortals favored by the gods were taken without proving death to enjoy eternal happiness.
The Champs Elysées remained on the western margin of the earth bathed by the current of the ocean.