The Thracians were a particularly fierce culture in terms of violence and conflict and so they appeared in Greek Mythology as mostly associated with its stories of strife.

In the Odyssey, there is only one instance of Thracians, that of Cicones again on the coast, but they are weak. The Thracians, prominent warriors who became allies of Troy, came from the Aegean coast. The Greek Temenids ousted the Thracians from Pieria (later central Macedonia). Instances of Thracian people engaging in armed conflict occur in the Iliad of Homer and in Greek mythology.