Neon (Ancient Greek: Νεών) was a town of ancient Phocis, a region in central Greece. According to tradition, it was said to have been built after the Trojan War. The town was situated at the foot of Mount Tithorea, one of the peaks of Mount Parnassus.
During the Greco-Persian Wars, the Persian army under Xerxes I invaded Phocis in 480 BC. Herodotus records that many Phocians took refuge in the nearby area of Tithorea near Neon, and that Neon was destroyed by the Persians. The town was subsequently rebuilt, but it was destroyed again along with other Phocian towns at the conclusion of the Third Sacred War (also known as the Phocian War, 355–346 BC). In the vicinity of Neon, the Phocian general Philomelus was defeated and perished by throwing himself from a high rock.
After these events, Neon disappears from historical records, and in its place the town of Tithorea appears. The ancient writer Pausanias regarded Tithorea as occupying the same site as Neon, stating that Tithorea was originally the name of the broader district and that when the inhabitants of neighboring villages were gathered into the city, the name Tithorea replaced Neon. However, Plutarch presents a different view, suggesting that Tithorea (a fortress where Phocians took refuge from Xerxes) and Neon were two distinct places. Modern scholars remain divided on whether the two settlements were identical or separate. Some place Neon at the Hellenic ruins called Paleá Fiva on the Cephissus River, distant from the modern town of Tithorea (formerly Velitsa).
