In earlier times the Balkan mountains were known as the Haemus Mons. It is believed that the name is derived from a Thracian word *saimon, 'mountain ridge', which is unattested but conjectured as the original Thracian form of Greek Haimos.
In antiquity, the mountain range and the area around it was populated by free Thracian peoples such as the Bessi, Dii, and Satrae. Herodotus records that an oracle-shrine of Dionysus (a Thracian god borrowed by Greeks) was located atop one of its mountains.
John Milton's Sylvarum Liber (Naturam non pati senium, v. 29) contains a reference to "lofty Haemus",
- Tunc etiam aërei divulsis sedibus Hæmi
- the summit even of lofty Haemus shall crumble;
Alexander Pope mentions Haemus in connection with Orpheus in his Ode for St. Cecilia's Day:
- Hark! Haemus resounds with the Bacchanals' cries.
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