Editing Boeotia (section)

==Legends and literature==
[[File:Helikonmountainascent.JPG|thumb|[[Mount Helicon]]]]
[[File:Ancient Regions Central Greece.png|thumb|300px|Map showing ancient regions of central Greece in relation to geographical features]]

Many ancient Greek legends originated or are set in this region. The older myths took their final form during the [[Mycenaean Greeks|Mycenean age]] (1600–1200 BC) when the [[Mycenean Greeks]] established themselves in Boeotia and the city of [[Thebes, Greece|Thebes]] became an important centre. Many of them are related to the myths of [[Ancient Argos|Argos]], and others indicate connections with [[Phoenicia]], where the Mycenean Greeks and later the [[Euboea|Euboean Greeks]] established trading posts.

Important legends related to Boeotia include:

*[[Eros]], worshiped by a fertility cult in [[Thespiae]]
*The [[Muses]] of [[Mount Helicon]]
*[[Ogyges]] and the [[Ancient Greek flood myths#Ogyges|Ogygian deluge]]
*[[Cadmus]], who was said to have founded Thebes and brought the [[alphabet]] to Greece
*[[Dionysus]] and [[Semele]]
*[[Narcissus (mythology)|Narcissus]]
*[[Heracles]], who was born in Thebes
*The [[Theban Cycle]], including the myths of [[Oedipus]] and the [[Sphinx]], and the [[Seven against Thebes]]
*[[Antiope (mother of Amphion)|Antiope]] and her sons [[Amphion and Zethus]]
*[[Niobe]]
*[[Orion (mythology)|Orion]], who was born in Boeotia and said to have fathered 50 sons with the daughters of a local river god.

Many of these legends were used in plays by the tragic Greek poets, [[Aeschylus]], [[Sophocles]], and [[Euripides]]:

*Aeschylus's ''[[Seven Against Thebes]]''
*Sophocles's ''[[Oedipus Rex]]'', ''[[Oedipus at Colonus]]'', and ''[[Antigone (Sophocles)|Antigone]]'', known as the [[Sophocles#Theban plays|Theban plays]]
*Euripides's ''[[Bacchae]]'', ''[[Phoenician Women]]'', ''[[The Suppliants (Euripides)|Suppliants]]'', and ''[[Herakles (Euripides)|Heracles]]''

They were also used in lost plays such as Aeschylus's ''Niobe'' and Euripides's ''Antiope''.

Boeotia was also notable for the ancient oracular shrine of Trophonius at [[Lebadea]]. [[Graea]], an ancient city in Boeotia, is sometimes thought to be the origin of the Latin word ''Graecus'', from which English derives the words ''Greece'' and ''Greeks''.

The major poets [[Hesiod]] and [[Pindar]] were Boeotians. Nonetheless, the French use the term [[wikt:béotien|béotien]] ("Boeotian") to denote [[Philistinism]].