a lofty mountain in Greece, stands on the frontier line between Thessaly and Macedonia. Its position and aspect are worthy of its ancient fame; and it might still be called, as it was by the classical poets, "the leafy," "the shady," "the many-ridged," and "the snowy" Olympus. It rises boldly up from the pleasant vale of Tempe on the south, and the Macedonian plains on the north, to the height of 9754 feet, towering above all the neighbouring summits, and looking eastward over the Thermaic Gulf to the distant peaks of Mount Athos. Forests of pine, oak, chestnut, beech, and other trees, sweep along its base and climb its sides; its rocky masses farther up are cleft by numerous yawning ravines; and its broad summit rises against the clear sky covered with a sheet of sparkling snow. Such lofty grandeur rendered Olympus a worthy habitation for the deities of the early Greeks. There Jove sat when he filled the sky with his thunder-clouds, and scattered his lightning-shafts over the world. There, too, in a palace reared by Vulcan, he summoned the gods to council or to banquet. From this spot also he was wont to pass out into the exterior sphere of the universe through an opening which was made in the metallic dome of the sky, and which had a thick cloud for a door. Becoming thus, in course of time, identified with the abode of the gods, the Olynthus word Olympus was afterwards used as a synonyme for heaven.

There were several other mountains called Olympus, the most important of which were the hill in Elis near Olympia, the range in Mysia extending eastward along the boundary line between Phrygia and Bithynia, and the chain of heights in the island of Cyprus.