Graea

Graea or Graia (Greek: Γραῖα Graîa) was a city on the coast of Boeotia in ancient Greece.

It is placed under Boeotia in Homer's Catalogue of Ships. It seems to have included the city of Oropos, though by the fifth century BC it was probably a kome (district) of that city. According to Pausanias the name was a shortcut of the original name Tanagraia, who was daughter of Asopos. Graia was a greater area including Avlida, Mycalissos, Arma etc. It is also described by some sources as a city; Fossey argues for its identification with the hill of Dhrámesi 8 km from Tanagra, while others suggest it is identical with Oropos itself.

Graea was sometimes said to be the oldest city of Greece. Aristotle said that this city was created before the deluge. The same assertion about the origins of Graia city is found in an ancient marble, the Parian Chronicle, discovered in 1687 and dated to 267–263 BC, that is currently kept in Oxford and on Paros.

Reports about this ancient city can be also found in Homer, in Pausanias, in Thucydides, etc. The name Graïke (Ancient Greek: Γραϊκή [ɡra.ikɛ̌ː]) was used of the Oropus area, which was dependent on Athens during the Peloponnesian War, by Thucydides, and the term was also used by Stephanus of Byzantium.