Pieria
（
Πιερία).
1.
A narrow strip of country on the southeastern coast of Macedonia, extending from the mouth
of the Peneus in Thessaly to the Haliacmon, and bounded on the west by Mount Olympus and its
offshoots. A portion of these mountains was called by the ancient writers
Piĕrus, or the Pierian Mountain. The
inhabitants of this country, the Pieres, were a Thracian people, and are celebrated in the
early history of Greek poetry and music, since their country was one of the earliest seats of
the worship of the Muses, hence called
Pierĭdes, and Orpheus is said to have been buried there. After the
establishment of the Macedonian kingdom in Emathia in the seventh century B.C. Pieria was
conquered by the Macedonians, and the inhabitants were driven out of the country.
2.
A district in Macedonia east of the Strymon near Mount Pangaeum, where the Pierians
settled, who had been driven out of their original abodes by the Macedonians, as already
related. They possessed in this district the fortified towns of Phagres and Pergamus.
3.
A district on the northern coast of Syria, so called from the mountain Pieria, a branch of
the Amanus, a name given it by the Macedonians.
