- This article is about the son of Deucalion. For the Queen of Sparta and Princess of Troy, see Helene.
Hellen (Ancient Greek: Ἕλλην) is the eponymous progenitor of the Hellenes. He is the child of Deucalion (or Zeus) and Pyrrha, and the father of three sons, Dorus, Xuthus, and Aeolus, by whom he is the ancestor of the Greek peoples.
Mythology[]
Progenitor and eponym of the Hellenes[]
Hellen was Thessalian. Homer, in the part of the Iliad known as the Catalogue of Ships, mentions the Hellenes (Ἕλληνες) as a small tribe in Thessalic Phthia, among those commanded by Achilles. Similarly, according to a scholion on Apollonius of Rhodes, Hecataeus and "Hesiod" considered Deucalion's descendants to be Thessalian. According to Thucydides, Achaea Phthiotis, as the birthplace of Hellen, was the home of the Hellenes; he says that before Hellen the name "Hellas" (Ἑλλάς) didn't exist, but rather there were various tribes which went under different names, particularly "Pelasgian". It was only when Hellen and his sons "grew strong in Phthiotis" that they allied with various cities in war and these cities, one by one, through their association with Hellen and his sons, came to be called "Hellenes", though it was a long time before the name came to be applied to all.
"Hellen" illustration by Joachim von Sandrart (1675)
Melanippe Wise[]
Though primarily genealogical in importance, Hellen does feature briefly in Euripides' lost play Melanippe Wise (c. 420 BC). In the play, Melanippe, the daughter of Aeolus (and thus the granddaughter of Hellen), becomes by Poseidon the mother of twins, Aeolus and Boeotus. They are placed in a cowshed, leading Aeolus to think they are the "unnatural offspring of a cow", and Hellen convinces Aeolus to burn the twins. This story is depicted on an Apulian volute krater dating to the late 4th century BC, in which a shepherd named Boter shows the twins to Hellen, in the presence of Melanippe, Aeolus, and Aeolus' son Cretheus.[1]
Boter showing the twins to Hellen from the Apulian volute krater dating to the late 4th century BC
Family[]
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