Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 2.djvu/297

 1038 HELIOPOLIS. first materials that came to hand. Thaj are from ten to twelve feet in hri^bt, with large square towers at certain intervals. The gate on the north side alone exhibits any beautj or ma^ifioence, or indeed any remote antiquity. The other ratranees to the city are as rude as the general textnre of the walls. The latter are, indeed, a rough congeries of shape- less stones, mingled with broken columns, capitals, and reversed Greek inscriptions. One feature in Heliopoiitan nuis<Miry is remarkable — the enonnons bulk of some of the stones employed in the eon- struction of the temples. Twenty of these stones have especially attracted the wonder of travellers. (See Pucucke, Wood and Dawkins, &c.) They are from 34 to 37 feet in length and 9 iieet thick, and theaM form the second layer of the basement uf the great Temple. At the NW. angle of this bnikling, and about 20 feet from the ground, there are three stones which alone occupy 182 feet 9 inches in length, and these are about 12 feet thick : two are 60 feet, and a third 62 feet 9 inches, in length. The Arabs, with some pretext for their belief, point to them as the work of the Jin. The materials from which the stmctures of Heliopulb were built were obtained from the hills cloM at hand. They consist principally of white granite. The more ornamental portions of the buildings were carved out of a coane white marble obtained from more distant quarries westward of the city. The buildings of ileliopolis have suffered greatly from violence. They have served as a stone- quarry to the Turks ; and as the columns of the temples were cramped together with iron, the Pashas of Damascus have overthrown many of these pillars merely for the sake of the metallic axles contained in them. The progress of this devastation may in some measure be traced in the accounts of the travellers wheat different periods have visited Heliopolis. Thus, in 1550, Thevet (^CotmographU UniwndU^ liv. 6. ch. 14) saw 27 columns in the great Temple. Pococke, Wood, &c mention only nine; and, in 1785, Volney says that only six were standing. The Turks have also contributed to the work of ruin by con- verting the temples of Heliopolis into Mohammedan buildings. In 174&, they had turned the PropyUea into a fortress called, according to Maundrell, '* The Castle;" and ou the road to Damascus there is a Mohanunedan sepulchre of octagonal form, supported by granite c(4umns, brought apparently from the great Temple. The circular temple, mentioned above, is now a Greek church called St. Barbe, Volney {Voy<tge en 5yr«e, voL ii. p. 215) de- scribes the fine groves of walnut trees which screen the upproaches to Heliopolis from the west. But although the soil of the plain of Bokak would un- doubtedly well repay cultivation, a littlo cotton and maize, with a few leguminous plants, are all its pro- duce under its Mohammedan governors. The popu- lation also has rapidly declined within a century. In 1751 the number of inhabitants amounted to about 5000; in 1785 Volney estimates them at about 1200; and in 1834 they had been still further reduced. An earthquake in 1759, an oppressive government, the absence of all trade and manu- factures, and frequent wars between the Turks and the mountain tribes of the region of Libanus, have each in turn contributed to the decay of the City of the Sun. (Volney, Voyage en Sjfrie et Egypte, tom. ii. pp. 2 1 5 — 230 ; Maundrell, Journey from A leppo to Jerusalem, pp. 134, 139; Pococke, Deecription qfthe East, vol. ii. pp. 106—113.) [W. a D.] aftke HELLESPONTUSb HELISSON ('EXunriSr, Pans.; "EXMrnSt, VioL a town of Arcadia m the district Haenalin, sitnatsd on Mt. Maenalus near the territory of Msiiliiwi. The town was taken by the Lacedaemomiawt in mm of their wars with the Areadiaiia, Bu c 352; hnft most of its inhabitants had been pic v kma ly iMsw e d to Megalopolis upon the foondatioD of the Isttcr dty in 371. Near it rose the rivw Hdisaoii, vUc^ ifewed through Maenalia into the Alpheiii&. Jim site of Helisaon is donbtfnl. Leake places it at the village AlomstenOj from which the river takes its moflern name, and near which it risea; Vat as there are no ancient remuns at this villa^e^ Robs oonjec- tures that its site is reprsMnted by the J^hokagtnm near the village A'aaa, lower down the maaauaa. (Pans. viii. 3. §3, 27. §f 3. 7, Sa § 1; Died. zri. 39; Leake, Morea, vd. li. p. 54; Boss, Jieassa >■ PehpoimeM, vol. L p. 117.) The Elisphasii ncB- tioned by Polybius (xi. 11. § 6) are oonjectored bf scnne modem writers to be a corrupt farm of Udn- sontii. For details, aee Mahtinela. HELISSON. 1 . A river m Aitadia, and a tary of the Alphelns. [See above.] 2. A river near Sicvon. [Sicton.] UEXIUM aSTIUM. [MosA.] HELLAS, HELLENES. [Grakcia.] HELLENCyPOLlS CEXAiys^iroXit), a the coast of the Propontis, on the sooth sm] Sinus Ataoenus, and near the little riv«r Draeot ha original name, which it bore until the time of the emperor Constantino, was Drepanum or DicpHH (Ap^vovor, Aprrdyii ; Steph. B. s. 9» Aficsi^; Etym. M. s. V. ; Amro. Marc. zxvi. 8), and it was probably a place of Httle note; bat, as it was the birthplace of Helena, the mother of Conetantiae, he changed its name into Hellenopolis, and enlai^ged the place by inducing many people of the neighhu mrim fl d to settle in it. (Hierod. p. 691; Miceph. Calliit. vii. 49 ; Socrat. HisL Ecchs. L 4, 16; Philadaig. Hist, Ecdes, ii. 18.) Afterwards the emparor Jui- tiiuan also did mnch to increase the prosperity of the town (Prooop. de Aed, v. 2); bat it became, nevertheless, so reduced that it was called in mock- eiy Afffivov it6Kis (Glyc. Ann, p. 327). In its vicinity there existed mineral springs, in eonsaqveaoa of which Constantino often resided there during the latter years of his reign. (Soeom. Hist Eeeks. IL 34; Eoseb. Fit. Const, iv. 61.) The nuxlem piwa called Hersek probably oocupics the same site as the ancient Hellenopolis, and the ancient minenl springs seem to be those of Jalaikabad. (Leakey Asia Minor ^ pp. 9, foil.) [L. S.] HELLESPONTUS (h 'ZKK'hawoms, Horn. IL iL 845, Odyss. xxiv. 82; 6 *EAAtys v^vrot, -8^ 'Vo^fUs, Aesch. Pers. 722 ; Hellespontas, Footos Helles, Hellespontum Pdagus, Fretom HeUespoati- cum : Eth, 'EAAiyov^rrtof, 'EAAiHnrorrids, *EAAir- airovTis, Steph. B.: The DardaneUes; Goi/o di GalippoU; Stamhtd Dengki» the strait which di* vides Europe from Asia and nnites the PropentiB with the Aegaean sea. The Greeks explained the origin of the name b* the well-known legend of Phryxus and Belle, and i the kter poets (Ovid, Her, zriiL 117, 137; ¥to i. 20. 19; Lucan, v. 56; Avion. 692) freqiMnt al- lusion is made to this tradition. The "broad Hellespont" of the Homeric poer (//. vii. 86) — for the interpretation of Mr. Walpol^ and Dr. Clarke {Trav, ffA. iii. p. 91) of wA^rv> ''E.KX'iHntovros by ** salt Hellespont " is too nnpie- toresque to be adopted — was probably conceiTed to