Anthela (Thessaly)

Anthela, also spelled Anthele, was a town and polis of Malis in ancient Thessaly, situated between the small river Phoenix and the pass of Thermopylae according to Herodotus. The Thessalian Asopus river ran through its surroundings, and the town held a sanctuary of Demeter where the Amphictyonic League held its autumnal meetings, alongside a temple of Amphictyon; legend held that the league was founded in part to protect Demeter's temple there. At Anthela, Mount Oeta draws back a little from the sea to leave a plain a little more than half a mile wide, narrowing again near Alpeni, the first town of the Locrians, where the passage becomes barely wide enough for a single carriage. Modern scholars place its site near the village of Anthili in the municipality of Lamia.