The Archipelago on Fire is an adventure novel written by Jules Verne, taking place during the Greek War of Independence. On the 18th of October, 1827, about five o’clock in the evening, a small Levantine vessel was heading close-hauled for Vitylo, in the Gulf of Koron, endeavouring to reach that port before nightfall. Vitylo, the ancient Oitylos of Homer, is situated in one of the three deep indentations which on the Ionian and Aegean coasts cut into the mulberry leaf to which southern Greece has been so aptly compared.