The Flegrean Islands (Italian: Isole Flegree) are an archipelago in southern Italy, comprising the islands of Ischia, Procida, Vivara, Capri and Nisida.
The islands, situated in the Gulf of Naples: Ischia, Procida, Vivara and Nisida. are denominated also Flegree islands, name that derives from the common affiliation to the geologic area of the Phlegraean Fields. The island of Capri, also situated in the gulf in Naples, it doesn't generally come inclusive in the archipelago flegreo, in how much not belonging to the geologic area Flegrea.
The flegrean islands and Capri are defined in fact with the name of Archipelago they live (Partenopeo or Napoletano); more rarely also as Partenopee Islands, locution that was also given once Ponziane or Pontine (before the institution of the province of Latina, and before still in the province in Naples) to the islands. The locution has actually remained in use to the institution of the political regions, happened in 1970 in realization of the Constitution, following which the province of Latina meets in the Lazio.
In classical epoch the flegree islands was called Pithecussae (from Greek: Πιθηκοῦσαι Pithekousai) "islands of the monkeys." The myth, of Greek origin, it tells in fact that two brigands Cercopes of Ephesus, making himself pranks of Zeus, they were from this punished, turned into monkeys and relegated in the islands of Aenaria (Ischia) and Prochyta (Procida).
Another Greek myth, conflicting with the precedent, it says that Zeus was fighting with two Titans, one called Typhon and the other Miming. The clash ended with the defeat of the two Titans, that, for punishment, they came buried under two blocks of rock: precisely, Tifeo under Ischia and Miming under Procida. This version of the myth could be important as probable answer of the ancient Greek to the mystery (for them) of the volcanism of the whole area: earths would have been so changeable because of the constant intervention of a divinity.