history, mythology and culture that came from this small area. Well, I was thinking more about it and realized that Mythic and "Dark Age" Greece was a points of light settings. Now, I know this isn't a knew thought and others have probably written about it elsewhere but it just dawned on me.
Lets look at it from the perspective of the heroic age of Greek mythology.
You had well established towns which were bastions of (sometimes capricious) law and order. Athens, Sparta, Mycenae, Argos and Thebes to name a few. In these walled and guarded enclaves you were safe from the depredations of the wilds, from the bandits and the beasts and the monsters. Of course, you still had to watch out for scheming aristocrats and paranoid kings but that was something else.
Between these towns, however, all bets were off. Let's take Theseus for example. When he was planning his initial journey from Troezen to Athens, he decided to make the journey by land instead the "easy" sea journey. Troezen to Athens is approximately 100 miles. He met and defeated six foes during the journey: four famous bandits, an monstrous wild pig and a murderous king. So that's a trip of just over 16 six mile hexes with an encounter about every two and a half hexes. That's quite the trip!
Sea travel wasn't any better. Jason and Odysseus faced monsters of various sorts, both on land and sea, navigational dangers and hostile islanders. They also faced foul and dangerous weather. So sea travel could be just as perilous.
"Dark Age" Greece could be difficult, too. Just remove the supernatural dangers and you are still left with bandits, pirates, weather and hostile inhabitants. Not fun.
So, to state the obvious, Ancient Greece can be a great setting for points of light adventure.
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