# Discussion on Specific Authors & Books > Author List: >  HELP - Which Forest in Midsummer Night's Dream...?

## Scrundles

Hi all, this goes out to you hardcore Shakespeare friends. In real life Athens, which forest do you believe is the Magical forest from Midsummer Night's Dream? There's no mention of a name in the Literature, trying to see if anyone has researched this and found out from outside sources. The only hint in the lit is a sentence saying it is 3 miles outside of Athens. Would love to hear what everyone thinks.

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## Charles Darnay

In worrying about this, you miss the point of the play entirely.

Let's compare _Dream_ to a more "realistic" play that utilizes the "green space". In _Merchant of Venice_ you have two spaces - Venice and Belmont. Belmont is meant to be the green space - where the cruel business world is transformed into a place of excess, feasting. Now, there are no faeries in Belmont, and no magic either. To say that Belmont could exist as it does in the play is a fair assessment. So many have tried to place where Belmont is exactly. My favourite interpretation is one that places it in what is called Villa Fuscari.

Now back to _Dream_. Like _Merchant_ dream shifts between two spaces - Athens and the Forest. Again, one place represents the cruel patriarchal order (Athens) and the other the anarchy of freedom (The Forest). But unlike Belmont, the dream-like state of the Forest - and thus its non-existence in a real world - is key.

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## Scrundles

No no, I ask because I want to go visit it in person. Wasn't trying to get any type of literary, metaphoric analysis. Literally just want to know, based on context clues or outside sources, if anyone knows or can dileneate which real life forest it's most likely to have been set in around Athens. 






> In worrying about this, you miss the point of the play entirely.
> 
> Let's compare _Dream_ to a more "realistic" play that utilizes the "green space". In _Merchant of Venice_ you have two spaces - Venice and Belmont. Belmont is meant to be the green space - where the cruel business world is transformed into a place of excess, feasting. Now, there are no faeries in Belmont, and no magic either. To say that Belmont could exist as it does in the play is a fair assessment. So many have tried to place where Belmont is exactly. My favourite interpretation is one that places it in what is called Villa Fuscari.
> 
> Now back to _Dream_. Like _Merchant_ dream shifts between two spaces - Athens and the Forest. Again, one place represents the cruel patriarchal order (Athens) and the other the anarchy of freedom (The Forest). But unlike Belmont, the dream-like state of the Forest - and thus its non-existence in a real world - is key.

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## OrphanPip

Shakespeare had likely never been to Greece, or knew anything about the surroundings of Athens, nor would any woods outside Athens from the Early Modern period be likely to survive until today. It's important to note that not only is the forest in the play a mythical, magical place, but the Athens of the play is a mythical one ruled over by Theseus.

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## Charles Darnay

Well, good luck to you as you try to find the forest. Let me know if you stumble upon Illyria along the way.

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## Scrundles

There's actually three national forests around/outside of Athens - they very likely would have been around, as they are sprawling national parks/mountain ranges - both of which are capable of enduring anything shy of an ice age. Just wondering if anyone's heard anything biographical about shakespeare that might lead one to believe it was one forest over the next. 





> Shakespeare had likely never been to Greece, or knew anything about the surroundings of Athens, nor would any woods outside Athens from the Early Modern period be likely to survive until today. It's important to note that not only is the forest in the play a mythical, magical place, but the Athens of the play is a mythical one ruled over by Theseus.

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## OrphanPip

I suspect you greatly overestimate the population of Athens circa 1600. The municipal area of Athens today contains 3 million people, during Shakespeare's time Athens was a small walled city of a few thousand people. The city has certainly eclipsed anything that was on its outskirts at the time. (This besides the fact that the Athens of the play is a mythical Athens that has no bearing on any place in the real world)

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## PeterL

> Well, good luck to you as you try to find the forest. Let me know if you stumble upon Illyria along the way.


I can direct you to Illyria, if that's where you want to go.

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## Charles Darnay

If you go stumbling through Albania, you will have as much luck finding Illyria as you would the Forest in _Dream_.

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## PeterL

> If you go stumbling through Albania, you will have as much luck finding Illyria as you would the Forest in _Dream_.


You would have to even go to Albanisa to find Illyria. The whloe coast of what was Yugoslavia was the Illyrian coast. I believe that the wrod is still used in some places.

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## Charles Darnay

It was a Roman territory, wasn't it?

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