(anc. geogr.), a most pleasant place or valley of Thessaly. That it was there, appears from the epithets Thesalia (Livy), Thessala (Ovid); but in what particular district is the question. From the Phthiotica of Catullus, it should seem to be of Phthiotis: but the Peneus, which ran through Tempe, was at too great a distance, being separated from it by Mount Othrys and others. First, however, we shall define Tempe, previous to the determining the particular district in which it lay. The Peneus, according to Pliny, running down between Offa to the south and Olympus to the north for 500 stadia, is for half that space navigable: in the direction of this course lies what is called Tempe, extending in length for five miles, in breadth for almost an acre and an half, with gentle convexities rising on the right and left beyond ken of human sight. Within glides the Peneus in its verdant light, green in its pebbles, charming in the grass on its banks, harmoniously vocal with the music of birds. In this description Strabo and Athenaeus agree; the last adding, that it has an agreeable variety of places of retreat; and that it is not the work of man's hand, but the spontaneous production of nature; and Strabo says, that formerly the Peneus formed a lake in this spot, being checked in its course by the higher grounds about the sea; but that an opening being made by an earthquake, and Mount Offa torn from Olympus, the Peneus gained a free course between them. But Livy, who calls Tempe a grave, remarks a degree of horror rather than amenity, with which the Roman army was struck on marching over the narrow pass; for, besides the defile, difficult to go over, which runs on for five miles, there are steep rocks on each hand, down which the prospect is apt to cause a dizziness, heightened by the noise and depth of the interfluent Peneus. Hence it appears that Tempe was in the Peloponnesus, whose extremity was formerly the Peneus, but afterwards, as is probable, allotted to Magnesia; and thus Pliny places the mouth of the Peneus not in Thessaly itself, but in the Magnesia of Thessaly.