Ancient Greece


Hellas

The center of the flat, circular earth, with the exact center at Mount Olympus or Delphi. The Sea (Mediterranean Sea) and the Euxine were the great seas. Around the earth flowed the River Ocean. The northern portion was Hyperborea. The southern portion was Æthiopia. On the western margin is Elysium. The abode of the gods was the summit of Mount Olympus in Thessaly.

The Dawn, the Sun, and the Moon rose out of the Ocean on the eastern side and drove through the air to give light to gods and men. The stars, excluding Wain or Bear and others near them, rose out of and sank into the Ocean. The sun-god flew in a winged boat over the northern part of the earth and back to his origin in the east, alluded in Comus.

Obviously they knew little of people besides those to the east and south of their own country.

A gate of clouds kept by the Seasons, goddesses, opened to permit the passage of the Celestials to earth and back. The gods feasted on ambrosia and nectar, the latter served by Hebe, and listened to Apollo's lyre and singing by the Muses in Jupiter's palace until returning to their individual abodes.

(Bulfinch's Mythology by Thomas Bulfinch, 1796. Page 7-9.)