Argolic Gulf in the context of "Hydra, Saronic Islands"

The Saronic Islands or Argo-Saronic Islands is an archipelago in Greece, named after the Saronic Gulf in which they are located, just off the Greek mainland. The main inhabited islands of this group are Salamis, Aegina, Agistri, and Poros. The islands of Hydra and Dokos, which lie off the northeast tip of the Peloponnese (technically between the Saronic Gulf and the Argolic Gulf), are sometimes included as part of the Saronic Islands.

Many mainland Greeks have vacation homes in the Saronic Islands, which are regularly served by ferries from the Athen's port of Piraeus and the Peloponnese. Salamis, the largest island of the group, is where the ancient Greek navy defeated the Persians in the Battle of Salamis in 480 BC.

Argo-Saronic Gulf (Greek: Αργοσαρωνικός Κόλπος) is a term used to combine the adjacent Saronic Gulf and Argolic Gulf of Greece. It contains the Argo-Saronic Islands, the Diapori chain and is located in the Attica region of Greece.

Halieis (Ancient Greek: Ἁλιεῖς), or Halice or Halike (Ἁλίκη), or Halia (Ἁλία), or Alycus or Alykos (Ἄλυκος), or Haliai (Ἁλιαί), was a port town of Hermionis, in ancient Argolis at the mouth of the Argolic Gulf. The district is called Halias (ἡ Ἁλιάς) by Thucydides.

The townsfolk derived their name from their fisheries. The Tirynthians and Hermionians took refuge at Halieis when they were expelled from their own cities by the Argives. This town was taken about Olympiad 80 (c. 460 BCE) by Aneristus, the son of Sperthias, and made subject to Sparta. The district was afterwards ravaged on more than one occasion by the Athenians. After the Peloponnesian War Halieis is mentioned by Xenophon as autonomous.

In classical Greece, Lerna (Greek: Λέρνα or Λέρνη) was a region of springs and a former lake located in the municipality of the same name, near the east coast of the Peloponnesus, south of Argos. Even though much of the area is marshy, Lerna is located on a geographically narrow point between mountains and the sea, along an ancient route from the Argolid to the southern Peloponnese; this location may have resulted in the importance of the settlement.

Its site near the village Mili at the Argolic Gulf is most famous as the lair of the Lernaean Hydra, the chthonic many-headed water snake, a creature of great antiquity when Heracles killed it, as the second of his labors. The strong Karstic springs remained; the lake, diminished to a silt lagoon by the 19th century, has vanished.