Geography of ancient Boeotia

mountain in Livadia municipality, Greece

thumb|200px|alt=The site of the sanctuary of Apollo Ptoios at the western end of mount Ptoion|The site of the sanctuary of Apollo Ptoios at the western end of mount Ptoion

thumb | right | Map of ancient Boeotia Aonia (Ἀονία; ) may have been a district of ancient Boeotia, a region of Greece containing the mountains Helicon and Cithaeron, and thus sacred to the Muses, whom Ovid calls the Aonides. Or Aonia may have been an early name for Boeotia as a whole. Pausanias describes the defeat of the Aones, a Boeotian tribe, by Cadmus. The Greek poet Callimachus may have been the first to call Boeotia "Aonia". In Roman literature and thereafter, "Aonia" was used more or less as a poetic term for it, and especially for Mt. Helicon, home of the Muses and the birthplace of