Cithaeron is also a spider genus (Cithaeronidae

Cithaeronidae

The Cithaeronidae are a small spider family with only six species in two genera.-Biology:Cithaeronidae are fast moving spiders which actively hunt at night and rest during the day in silken retreats they construct below rocks.. Female Cithaeron are about 5 to 7 mm long, males about 4 mm...

).

Kithairon (Κιθαιρών, -ῶνος) is a mountain range ("No corner of Kithairon echoless", Oedipus Rex 440) about 10 mi (16 km) long, in central Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

, standing between Boeotia

Boeotia

Boeotia, also spelled Beotia and Bœotia , is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Central Greece. It was also a region of ancient Greece. Its capital is Livadeia, the second largest city being Thebes.-Geography:...

 in the north and Attica

Attica

Attica is a historical region of Greece, containing Athens, the current capital of Greece. The historical region is centered on the Attic peninsula, which projects into the Aegean Sea...

 in the south. It is mainly composed of limestone

Limestone

Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....

 and rises to 4,623 ft (1,409 m). Its northeast side is formed by the mountain Pastra

Pastra (mountain)

Pastra is a mountain located on the NNW end Attica on the border with the prefecture of Voioteia. It is part of the Kithaironas mountain range. Its highest peak is Kourteza or Tsouka . Its morphology is defined by steep slopes and four deep gorges on the NE side. Its flora consists of...

.

The range was the scene of many events in Greek mythology

Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...

 and was especially sacred to Dionysus

Dionysus

Dionysus was the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness and ecstasy in Greek mythology. His name in Linear B tablets shows he was worshipped from c. 1500—1100 BC by Mycenean Greeks: other traces of Dionysian-type cult have been found in ancient Minoan Crete...

. Oedipus was exposed on the mountain, while Aktaion and Pentheus

Pentheus

In Greek mythology, Pentheus was a king of Thebes, son of the strongest of the Spartes, Echion, and of Agave, daughter of Cadmus, the founder of Thebes, and the goddess Harmonia....

 were both dismembered on its slopes. It was also the place where Heracles

Heracles

Heracles ,born Alcaeus or Alcides , was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon and great-grandson of Perseus...

 hunted and killed the Nemean lion

Nemean Lion

The Nemean lion was a vicious monster in Greek mythology that lived at Nemea. It was eventually killed by Heracles. It could not be killed with mortal weapons because its golden fur was impervious to attack...

, in the first of his long series of heroic deeds.

In historic times, the mountain acted as a backdrop to the Battle of Plataea

Battle of Plataea

The Battle of Plataea was the final land battle during the second Persian invasion of Greece. It took place in 479 BC near the city of Plataea in Boeotia, and was fought between an alliance of the Greek city-states, including Sparta, Athens, Corinth and Megara, and the Persian Empire of Xerxes...

 of 479 BC

479 BC

Year 479 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Vibulanus and Rutilus...

 and was the scene of much skirmishing before the battle itself. In later times fortifications were built both at Plataea

Plataea

Plataea or Plataeae was an ancient city, located in Greece in southeastern Boeotia, south of Thebes. It was the location of the Battle of Plataea in 479 BC, in which an alliance of Greek city-states defeated the Persians....

 and Erythrai

Erythres

Erythres known as Κριεκούκι Kriekouki "red-head" in Arvanitika, perhaps named after an Arvanite leader; ) is a village and a former municipality in the northernmost part of West Attica, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Mandra-Eidyllia, of which it is a...

 as the mountain formed the disputed natural border between Athens and Thebes

Ancient Thebes (Boeotia)

See Thebes, Greece for the modern city built on the ancient ruins.Ancient Thebes was a Boeotian city-state , situated to the north of the Cithaeron range, which divides Boeotia from Attica, and on the southern edge of the Boeotian plain...

.

The people of Plataea also personified the mountain as their primal king: "The Plataians know of no king except Asopos and Kithairon before him, holding that the latter gave his name to the mountain, the former to the river". (Pausanias

Pausanias (geographer)

Pausanias was a Greek traveler and geographer of the 2nd century AD, who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. He is famous for his Description of Greece , a lengthy work that describes ancient Greece from firsthand observations, and is a crucial link between classical...

9.1.1)