Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 2.djvu/294

 HELICE. ih% botch wM all carried away: In VotUtza 65 per8<H» lost their Htm, and two thirds of the baild- in^s were entirely mined. Five villages in the plain wera destroyed." (Leake, Morea, vol. iii. p. 402.) HELIGE or IL[GA ('EAimf), a town in Moesia, in the corner fonned by moonta Scomius and Haemus, is identified with the modem IkUman or ItcMman. CItm, AnL 136 ; Senec. Here. Oet, 1539 ; Itm. Bier. 567.) [L.S.] HE'LICE, an E*Umg or sea -lake, mentioned by Avienas (Or. Marit v. 588) at the outlet of the Attagus, which is the Atax (/i«de), the river of iVor- bomte, D'Anville assumes the Helioe to be the E'tang de Veiuiree, The name Helioe suggested to Walcke- naer that this may show where the Helisyd of Herodotus (vii. 165) came from, who are mentioned ynlh Ligyes, and Sardonii and Cymii. Uecataeus, also (Steph. B. s. v. 'EXiViMnu), mentions the Elisyd or Heliayci (for the aspirate may be doubtful) as a Ligurian tribe. As Uiere is no place for these Helisyci within the limits of Italy, we may with some probability fix them on the Gallic shore of the Alediterranean. Niebnhr's notion that they were Vohid is very absurd. [G. L.] HEXICON ('EAucvr), a mountain in Boeotia lying between lake Copais and the Corinthian gulf, and which may be regarded as a continuation of the range of Parnassus. It is celebrated as the favourite haunt of the Muses, to whom the epithet of Heli- conian is frequently given by both the Greek and Boman poets (cJ *Eiic(dytat irop^cvot, Find. i. 7. 57 ; ai 'EAiirwvidESff, Hes. Theog. 1 ; Sq>h. Oed, Tyr, 1008; Heliooniades, Lucret. iii. 1050; Heliconides, l*ers. prooem. 4). Its poetical celebrity is owing to the fact of its having been the seat of the earliest school of poe.tiy in Greece Proper; for at its foot was situated Ascra, the residence of Hesiod, the most eminent poet of this school Helicon is a range of mountains with several summits, of which the loftiest b a round mountain now called Paleovuni. Helicon is described by Strabo as equal to Parnassus, both in height and circumference (ix. p. 409); but this is a mistake as £sr as height is concerned, since the loftiest summit ef Helicon is barely 5000 feet high, while that of Pamassos is upwaids of 8000 feet. Pausanias says that of all the mountains in Greece Helicon is the roost fertile, and produces the greatest number of trees and shrabs, though none of a poisonous cha- racter, while several of them are useful in counter- acting the bites of venomous serpents. (Pans. ix. 28.) There is, however, a considerable difierence between the eastern and western sides of the moun- tain; for while the eastern slopes abounded in springs, groves, and fertile valleys, the western side was more rugged and less susceptible of cultivation. It was the eastern or Boeotian side of Helicon which was especially sacred to the Muses, and contained many (Ejects connected with their worship, of which ^ Pausanias has left us an account. On Helicon was A, sacred grove of the Muses, to which Pausanias ascended from Ascra. On the left of the road, before I reaching the grove of the Muses, was the celebrated f<}untain of Aganippe (*A7av(inn7), which was be- lieved to inspire those who drank of it, and from ^bich the Muses were called Aganippides. (Pans. Imx. ^. § 5; Catull. Ixi. 26; Virg. £cL x. 12.) that Aganippe is the fountain which issues from the left bank of the torrent, flowing midway between JPcUeo-panaghia and PyrgakL Aroond this foun- HELIOPOLIS. 103S tain Leake observed numerous squared blocks, and in the neighbouring fields stones and ntmains or habitations. The pc aition of the Grove of the Muses is fixed at Si. Nichoku by an inscription which Leake discovered there relating to the Museia, of games of the Muses, which were celebrated there under the presidency of the Thesp'ans. (Pans. ix. 31. § 3.) St. NichoUu is a chnroh and small con- vent beautifully situated in a tlieatre-sliaped hollow at the foot of Mt. MaranddU, which is one of the summits of Helicon In the time of Pausanias the grove of the Muses contained a larger number of statues than any other place in Boeotia; and this writer has given an account of many of them. The statues of the Muses were removed by Constantinefrom tliis place to bis new capital, where they were de- stroyed by fire in a.d.404. (Euseb. VU. Const. iiL54; Sozom. ii. 5; Zosim. ii. 21, v. 24, quoted by Leake.) Twenty stadia above the Grove of the Muses was the fountain HirpocRRNE ('IwirvK/W^n}), which was said to have been produced by the horee Pegasuay|j/9/.?^7^ striking the ground with his feet. (Pans. ix. 3l7j^ ^0.4^. §3; Strab^isr-p. 410.) Hlppocrene was probably y ^ at MakartmUtOy which is noted fur a fine spring of / ' Aganippe and Hippocre&e supplied the streams callecl' ^ ^W>^,, Oimelus and Pennessus, which, after uniting their^^^ v^ waters, flowed by Haliartus into the lake Copais.^ ^^kf^ (Hes, Theog. 5, seq.: sec Boeotia, p. 413, a.) ' <^^^*^.i/.Vj Another part of Helicon, also sacred to the Muses^*^ *i ^, bore tlie name of Mount Leibethrium (Aei^^tfpcov). ^ ' '' It is described by Pausanias (ix. 34^ § 4) as distant 4(HM.i«V ' V, stadia from Corooeia, and is therefore probably the /^ mountain of Zagard, which is completely separated ' from the great heights of Helic(n by an elevated valley, in which are two villages named Zagard, and above them, on the rugged mountain, a monastery. This is Leake's opinion; but Dodwell and Gell iden* tify it with GrdnitsOf which is, however, more pro- bably Laphystium. [Boeotia, p. 412, b.] On Mount Leibethrium there were statues of the Muses and of the Leibethrian nymphs, and two fonntsins called Leibethrias and Petra. resembling the breasts of a woman, and pouring forth water like milk. (Pans. ix. 34. § 4.) There was a grotto of the Leibethrian nymphs. (Strab. ix. p. 410, x. p. 471; Serv. ad Virg. Ed. vii. 21.) (See Leake, Northern Greece, vol. ii. pp. 141, 205, 489^500, 526.) HELICYSI. [Hkliob.] HELIO'POLIS AEGYPTI ('H^wAroAir, Steph. B. t. v. Ptol. iv. 5. § 54: Herod, ii. 3, 7, 59; Strab. xvii. p. 805; Diod. i. 84, v. 57; Arrian, Exp. Alex. iii. 1; Aelian, if. A. vi. 58, xii. 7 ; Plut. Solon, 26, Te. et Otir. 33 ; Diog. Laert. xviii. 8. § 6; Joseph. AnL Jvd. xiii. 3, C. Apion, i. 26 ; Cic. Nat Dear iii. 21; Plin. v. 9. § 11 ; Tac AntK vi. 28; Mela, iii. 8 : Eth. 'HKiovnoMriis : the Semitic names Bbth-Schemksch and On, Gen, xli. 45, Ezech. XXX. 17., as well as the Arabic Ainshenu or Fountain of Light, corresponded with the Greek ap- pellation in signifying the City of the Sun). Helio- polis was a city of Lower Egypt, 12 miles from tJie Egyptian Babylon (It. Anton, p. 169), on the verge f <rf the eastern desert, and at the S£. point of t lie ' Delta, a little NE. of its apex at Cercasorum, lut. 30° N. It stood on the esHtem side of the Pelusiac ',■ arm of tlie Nile, and near the right bank of the Great i Canal, which, passing through the Bitter Lakes, con- nected the river with the Bed Sea. In Boman times it ■ i
 * ^ Placing Ascra at Pyrg&ki, there is little doubt