Hellas, an ancient name of Thessaly, more generally applied to the territories of Acarnania, Attica, Ætolia, Doris, Locris, Bœotia, and Phocis, and also to all Greece. It received this name from Deucalion, and now forms a part of Livadia. Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 7.—Strabo, bk. 8.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 3.—Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 20.——A beautiful woman, mentioned by Horace as beloved by Marius: the lover killed her in a fit of passion, and afterwards destroyed himself. Horace, bk. 2, satire 3, li. 277.
Helle, a daughter of Athamas and Nephele, sister of Phryxus. She fled from her father’s house, with her brother, to avoid the cruel oppression of her mother-in-law Ino. According to some accounts she was carried through the air on a golden ram, which her mother had received from Neptune, and in her passage she became giddy, and fell from her seat into that part of the sea which from her received the name of Hellespont. Others say that she was carried on a cloud, or rather upon a ship, from which she fell into the sea and was drowned. Phryxus, after he had given his sister a burial on the neighbouring coasts, pursued his journey and arrived safe in Colchus. See: [Phryxus]. Ovid, Heroides, poem 13, &c. Metamorphoses, bk. 4, fable 14.—Pindar, bk. 4, Pythian.—Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 34.
Hellen, son of Deucalion and Pyrrha, reigned in Phthiotis about 1495 years before the christian era, and gave the name of Hellenians to his subjects. He had by his wife Orseis three sons, Æolus, Dorus, and Xuthus, who gave their names to the three different nations known under the name of Æolians, Dorians, and Ionians. These last derive their name from Ion son of Xuthus, and from the difference either of expression or pronunciation in their respective languages, arose the different dialects well known in the Greek language. Pausanias, bk. 3, ch. 20; bk. 7, ch. 1.—Diodorus, bk. 5.
Hellēnes, the inhabitants of Greece. See: [Hellen].
Hellespontias, a wind blowing from the north-east. Pliny, bk. 2, ch. 47.
Hellespontus, now the Dardanelles, a narrow strait between Asia and Europe, near the Propontis, which received its name from Helle, who was drowned there in her voyage to Colchis. See: [Helle]. It is about 60 miles long, and in the broadest parts, the Asiatic coast is about three miles distant from the European, and only half a mile in the narrowest, according to modern investigation; so that people can converse one with the other from the opposite shores. It was celebrated for the love and death of Leander [See: [Hero]], and for the bridge of boats which Xerxes built over it when he invaded Greece. The folly of this great prince is well known in beating and fettering the waves of the sea, whose impetuosity destroyed his ships, and rendered all his labours ineffectual. Strabo, bk. 13.—Pliny, bk. 8, ch. 32.—Herodotus, bk. 7, ch. 34.—Polybius.—Mela, bk. 1, ch. 1.—Ptolemy, bk. 5, ch. 2.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 13, li. 407.—Livy, bk. 31, ch. 15; bk. 33, ch. 33.——The country along the Hellespont on the Asiatic coast bears the same name. Cicero, Against Verres, bk. 1, ch. 24; Letters to his Friends, bk. 13, ltr. 53.—Strabo, bk. 12.—Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 30.
Hellopia, a small country of Eubœa. The people were called Hellopes. The whole island bore the same name, according to Strabo, bk. 10.—Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 12.
Hellōtia, two festivals, one of which was observed in Crete, in honour of Europa, whose bones were then carried in solemn procession, with a myrtle garland no less than 20 cubits in circumference, called ἑλλωτις. The other festival was celebrated at Corinth with games and races, where young men entered the lists and generally ran with burning torches in their hands. It was instituted in honour of Minerva, surnamed Hellotis, ἀπο του ἑλους, from a certain pond of Marathon, where one of her statues was erected, or ἀπο του ἑλειν τον ἱππον τον Πεγασον, because by her assistance Bellerophon took and managed the horse Pegasus, which was the original cause of the institution of the festival. Others derive the name from Hellotis, a Corinthian woman, from the following circumstance: When the Dorians and the Heraclidæ invaded Peloponnesus, they took and burnt Corinth; the inhabitants, and particularly the women, escaped by flight, except Hellotis and her sister Eurytione, who took shelter in Minerva’s temple, relying for safety upon the sanctity of the place. When this was known, the Dorians set fire to the temple, and the two sisters perished in the flames. This wanton cruelty was followed by a dreadful plague; and the Dorians, to alleviate the misfortunes which they suffered, were directed by the oracle to appease the manes of the two sisters, and therefore they raised a new temple to the goddess Minerva, and established the festivals which bore the name of one of the unfortunate women.
Helnes, an ancient king of Arcadia, &c. Polyænus, bk. 1.
Helōris, a general of the people of Rhegium, sent to besiege Messana, which Dionysius the tyrant defended. He fell in battle, and his troops were defeated. Diodorus, bk. 14.