the region where Zeus buried the Serpentine giant Typhon, and the humanoid giant Enceladus in classical mythology. The Cyclopes, giant one eyed humanoid creatures in classical Greco-Roman mythology, known as the maker of Zeus' thunderbolts, were traditionally associated with Sicily and the Aeolian Islands. The Cyclopes were said to have been assistants to the Greek blacksmith God Hephaestus, at his forge in Sicily, underneath Mount Etna, or perhaps on one of the nearby Aeolian Islands. The Aeolian Islands, off the coast of Northwestern Sicily, were themselves named after the mythological king and "keeper of the heavy winds" known as Aeolus. In his Hymn to Artemis, Cyrene poet Callimachus states that the Cyclopes on the Aeolian island of Lipari, working "at the anvils of Hephaestus", make the bows and arrows used by Apollo and Artemis. The Hesiodic Latin poet Ovid names three Cyclopes "Brontes, Steropes and Acmonides" working as forgers inside Sicilian caves. Besides Demeter (the Greek goddess of agriculture and law), and Persephone (the Greek personified goddess of vegetation), The Phoenician bull god Moloch (a significant deity also mentioned in the Hebrew Bible), the Phoenician moon goddess of fertility and prosperity Astarte (with her Roman equivalent being Venus), the Punic goddess Tanit, and the weather & war god Baal (which later evolved into the Carthaginian god Baal Hammon), as well as the Carthaginian chief god Baal Hammon, also had centres of cultic-worship throughout Sicily. The river Anapo was viewed as the personification of the water god Anapos in Greek-Sicilian mythology. The Elymians inhabited the western parts of Sicily, while the Sicanians inhabited the central parts, and the Sicels inhabited the eastern parts. Ancient history From the 11th century BC, Phoenicians began to settle in western Sicily, having already started colonies on the nearby parts of North Africa and Malta. Sicily was later colonized and heavily settled by Greeks, beginning in the 8th century BC. Initially, this was restricted to the eastern and southern parts of the island. As the Greek and Phoenician communities grew more populous and more powerful, the Sicels and Sicanians were pushed further into the centre of the island. The independent Phoenician colonial settlements were eventually absorbed by Carthage during the 6th Century BC. By the 3rd century BC, Syracuse was the most populous Greek city state in the world. Sicilian politics was intertwined with politics in Greece itself, leading Athens, for example, to mount the disastrous