Haemus Mons


In earlier times, the Balkan Mountains were known as the Haemus Mons. It is believed that the name is derived from a Thracian word *saimon, 'mountain ridge', which is unattested but conjectured as the original Thracian form of Greek Emos.
Another classic etymology derives the name 'Haemos' from the myth about the fight of Zeus and the dragon Typhon:


In antiquity, the mountain range and the area around it was populated by free Thracian peoples such as the Bessi, Dii, and Satrae. Herodotus records that an oracle-shrine of Dionysus was located atop one of its mountains.
John Milton's Sylvarum Liber contains a reference to "lofty Haemus",
Alexander Pope mentions Haemus in connection with Orpheus in his Ode for St. Cecilia's Day:
In classical Latin poetry Haemus was drawn into association with the Roman civil wars; although geographically incorrect, it was attractive most likely because it was a homonym with the Greek word for blood and bloody, as well as for its connection to the singer Orpheus.

Other uses

is also a 10 km high mountain on the Jupiter moon Io.