Iolcos

Infobox Greek Dimos
name = Iolkos
name_local = Ιωλκός


periph = Thessaly
prefec = Magnesia
province =
population = 2071
population_as_of = 2001
population_ref = [http://www.statistics.gr/gr_tables/S1101_SAP_1_TB_DC_01_03_Y.pdf source]
pop_dens = 1,045.4
area = 1.981
elevation = 156
lat_deg = 39
lat_min = 24
lat_hem = N
lon_deg = 22
lon_min = 58
lon_hem = E
postal_code = 385 00
area_code = 24210
licence = ΒΟ
mayor =
website = [http://www.iolkos.gr/welcome.html www.iolkos.gr]

Iolcos (also known as Iolkos or Iolcus, Greek: Ιωλκός) was an ancient city in Thessaly, central-eastern Greece (near the modern city of Volos). Today Iolcos is a small village (pop 103 in 2001), which has a school and a small square ("plateia"). It is located in the surrounding Iolkós Municipality, in central Magnesia Prefecture, north of the Pagasitic Gulf. With a land area of only 1.981 km² it is the 13th-smallest municipality or community in Greece, and the smallest that is not a suburb of Athens or Thessaloniki. The municipality is divided into three municipal districts with a total population of 2,071. Its Ágios Onoúfrios district has a land area of 0.200 km², the smallest municipal district in all of Greece. The district has a population of 506 inhabitants.

The municipal seat is the village of Áno Vólos (pop. 529). The small town of Anakasia (pop. 933) is the centre of the municipality of Iolkos. Anakasia has a school, a lyceum, a gymnasium, banks, a post office and a square ("plateia"). The only other villages are Ágios Onoúfrios (pop. 506), and Iolkós (103).

Mythology

According to ancient Greek mythology Aeson was the rightful king of Iolcos, but his half-brother Pelias usurped the throne. It was Pelias who sent Aeson's son Jason and his Argonauts to look for the Golden Fleece. The ship Argo set sail from Iolcos with a crew of fifty demigods and princes under Jason's leadership in the 13th century B.C. Their mission was to reach Colchis in Aea at the eastern seaboard of the Black Sea and reclaim and bring back the Golden Fleece, a symbol of the opening of new trade routes. Along with the Golden Fleece Jason brought a wife, the sorceress Medea, king Aeetes' daughter, granddaughter of the Sun, niece of Circe, princess of Aea, and later queen of Iolcos, Corinth and Aea, and also slayer of her brother Apsyrtus and her two sons from Jason, a tragic figure whose trials and tribulations were artfully dramatized in the much staged Euripides' "Medea". The place of ancient Iolcos is believed to be located in modern-day nearby Dimini, where a Mycenaean palace was recently excavated [http://www.arcl.ed.ac.uk/a1/stoppress/stop769.htm] .

Historical population