Phthia

In Greek mythology Phthia (/ˈθaɪə/; Greek: Φθία or Φθίη Phthía, Phthíē) was a city or district in ancient Thessaly.^[1] It is frequently mentioned in Homer's Iliad as the home of the Myrmidons, the contingent led by Achilles in the Trojan War. It was founded by Aeacus, grandfather of Achilles, and was the home of Achilles' father Peleus, mother Thetis (a sea nymph), and son Neoptolemus (who reigned as king after the Trojan War).

Phthia is referenced in Plato's Crito, where Socrates, in jail and awaiting his execution, relates a dream he has had (43d–44b):^[2] "I thought that a beautiful and comely woman dressed in white approached me. She called me and said: 'Socrates, may you arrive at fertile Phthia on the third day.'" The reference is to Homer's Iliad (ix.363), when Achilles, upset at having his war-prize, Briseis, taken by Agamemnon, rejects Agamemnon's conciliatory presents and threatens to set sail in the morning; he says that with good weather he might arrive on the third day "in fertile Phthia"—his home.^[2]

Phthia is the setting of Euripides' play Andromache, a play set after the Trojan War, when Achilles' son Neoptolemus (in some translations named Pyrrhus) has taken Andromache, the widow of the Trojan hero Hector as a slave.

Mackie (2002) notes the linguistic association of Phthia with the Greek word phthisis "consumption, decline; wasting away" (in English, phthisis has been used as a synonym for tuberculosis) and the connection of the place name with a withering death.^{[clarification needed]} This suggests the possibility of a wordplay in Homer, associating Achilles' home with such a withering death.^[3]