[1] See, among recent writers, on one side Kaerst, Gesch. des hellenist. Zeitalters, pp. 97 f., and on the other Beloch, Griech. Gesch., iii. [i.] 1-9; Kretschmer, Einleitung in die Gesch. d. griech. Sprache, p. 283 f.; O. Hoffmann, Die Makedonen, ihre Sprache u. ihr Volkstum (1906).
[2] “Ce sont les Tadjik de l’Afghanistan qui constituent les trente-deux corps de métier, qui tiennent boutique, expédient les marchandises, représentent, en un mot, la vie industrielle et commerciale de la nation. Ce sont aussi les Tadjik des villes qui forment la classe lettrée, et qui ont empêché les Afghans de retomber dans la barbarie.” (Reclus, Nouvelle Géograph. univ. ix. p. 71.)
HELLER, STEPHEN (1815-1888), Austrian pianist and composer, was born at Pest on the 15th of May 1815. (Fétis’s dictionary says 1814, but this is almost certainly wrong.) He was at first intended for a lawyer, but at nine years of age performed so successfully at a concert that he was sent to Vienna to study under Czerny. Halm was his principal master, and from the age of twelve he gave concerts in Vienna, and made a tour through Hungary, Poland and Germany. At Augsburg he had the good fortune to be befriended when ill by a wealthy family, who practically adopted him and gave him the opportunity to complete his musical education. In 1838 he went to Paris, and soon became intimate with Liszt, Chopin, Berlioz and their set, among whom was Hallé, throughout his life an indefatigable performer of Heller’s music. In 1849 he came to England and played a few times, and in 1862 he appeared with Hallé at the Crystal Palace. He outlived the great reputation he had enjoyed among cultivated amateurs for so many years, and was almost forgotten when he died at Paris on the 14th of January 1888. His pianoforte pieces, almost all of them published in sets and provided with fancy names, do not show very startling originality, but their grace and refinement could not but make them popular with players and listeners of all classes.
HELLESPONT (i.e. “Sea of Helle”; variously named in classical literature Ἑλλήσποντος, ὁ Ἕλλης πόντος, Hellespontum Pelagus, and Fretum Hellesponticum), the ancient name of the Dardanelles (q.v.). It was so-called from Helle, the daughter of Athamas (q.v.), who was drowned here. See [Argonauts].
HELLEVOETSLUIS, or Helvoetsluis, a fortified seaport in the province of South Holland, the kingdom of Holland, on the south side of the island of Voorne-and-Putten, on the sea-arm known as the Haringvliet, 5½ m. S. of Brielle. It has daily steamboat connexion with Rotterdam by the Voornsche canal. Pop. (1900), 4152. Hellevoetsluis is an important naval station, and possesses a naval arsenal, dry and wet docks, wharves and a naval college for engineers. Among the public buildings are the communal chambers, a Reformed church (1661), a Roman Catholic church and a synagogue.
HELLÍN, a town of south-eastern Spain, in the province of Albacete, on the Albacete-Murcia railway. Pop. (1900), 12,558. Hellín is built on the outskirts of the low hills which line the left bank of the river Mundo. It possesses the remains of an old Roman castle and a beautiful parish church, the masonry and marble pavement at the entrance of which are worthy of special notice. The surrounding country yields wine, oil and saffron in abundance; within the town there are manufactures of coarse cloth, leather and pottery. Sulphur is obtained from the celebrated mining district of Minas del Mundo, 12 m. S., at the junction between the Mundo and the Segura; and there are warm sulphurous springs in the neighbouring village of Azaraque. Hellín was known to the Romans who first exploited its sulphur as Illunum.