The Catalogue of Women (sixth century BC?)[2] is a fragmentary poem attributed to
Hesiod;[3] the work is structured around a large genealogy of mortals, Hellen's family being described in Book 1 of the poem. According to a
scholion on
Apollonius of Rhodes' Argonautica, Hellen, in the poem, is called the son of Pyrrha, by either Deucalion, or alternatively, by
Prometheus (who is called the father of Deucalion in the same passage).[4] The latter parentage, however, it seems was not a part of the Catalogue, but rather a mistake on the part of the scholion.[5] A scholion on the Odyssey similarly calls Hellen a son of Deucalion and Pyrrha, giving his siblings as
Amphictyon,
Protogeneia, and
Melanthea (
Melantho). The scholion, however, also states that "some say that Hellen was the son of Zeus by birth but was said to be the son of Deucalion",[6] leading
M. L. West to consider Hellen's real father in the Catalogue to in fact be Zeus, and Deucalion only, in West's words, his "nominal father".[7]
Plutarch, in his Moralia, quotes a passage from the Catalogue in which Hellen is the father of three sons,
Dorus,
Xuthus, and
Aeolus.[8] He does not, however, give the source of the passage;[9] it is instead the Byzantine poet
John Tzetzes who attributes it to the Catalogue.[10] Though no mother is specified in the passage, West suggests that she was one "Othryis", the nymph of
Mount Othrys, based upon the mothers given by
Apollodorus and a scholion on
Plato's Symposium (see below).[11]
A scholion on
Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War attributes to
Hecataeus (c. 550 BC – c. 476 BC) a very different genealogy of Hellen, in which he is not the son of Deucalion but rather the grandson, being the son of one "
Pronous", himself the son of Deucalion, alongside "
Orestheus" and "
Marathonius".[12] According to a scholion on
Plato's Symposium citing
Hellanicus (fl. late fifth century BC), Hellen "was born to Deukalion and Pyrrha, or according to some, to Zeus and Pyrrha", and was the father, by "Othreis", of Dorus, Xuthus, Aeolus, and in addition a daughter, named
Xenopatra.[13]
Conon (before 444 BC – after 394 BC), in his Narrations (as recounted by
Photius) similarly considers Hellen the son of Deucalion (though "some" says is the son of Zeus), and the father of Dorus, Xuthus, Aeolus.[14] A scholion on
Pindar, in contrast, makes Deucalion the brother of Hellen (rather than the father), and them both sons of Prometheus.[15]
Hyginus (c. 64 BC – AD 17), in his Fabulae, at one point calls Hellen the son of Zeus by Pyrrha,[18] while later, he is listed among the sons of
Poseidon, where he is called his son by
Antiope (the son of
Aeolus, who is usually Hellen's descendant), and the brother of
Boeotus.[19]
According to the mythographer
Apollodorus (first or second century AD), Hellen's parents are Deucalion and Pyrrha, and his siblings Amphictyon and Protogeneia, or according to "some", his parents are Zeus and Pyrrha.[20] Apollodorus, similarly to the Catalogue and other sources, calls him the father of Dorus, Xuthus and Aeolus; however, he specifies the nymph
Orseis (rather than Othreis) as their mother.[21]
According to the Byzantine chronicler
John Malalas (c. 491 – 578), Hellen was the son of "Picus Zeus",[22] and the father (rather than son) of Deucalion.[23] According to
Stephanus of Byzantium (fl. 6th century AD), the historian
Archinus had Hellen as the father of one "
Neonus", father of "
Dotus", the latter of which gave his name to Dotium in Thessaly.[24]
Progenitor and eponym of the Hellenes
Hellen was
Thessalian.[25]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.[26] Similarly, according to a scholion on Apollonius of Rhodes, Hecataeus and "Hesiod" considered Deucalion's descendants to be Thessalian.[27] According to
Thucydides,
Achaea Phthiotis, as the birthplace of Hellen,[28] 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".[29] 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.[30]
Melanippe Wise
Though primarily genealogical in importance,[31] 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),[32] 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",[33] and Hellen convinces Aeolus to burn the twins.[34] This story is depicted on an
Apulianvolute krater dating to the late 4th century BC, in which a shepherd shows the twins to Hellen, in the presence of Melanippe, Aeolus, and Aeolus' son
Cretheus.[35]
^According to West 1985, p. 136, "the composition of the Catalogue ... may be assigned to sometime between 580 and 520", and "the range may perhaps be narrowed to c. 540–520", while West 1999,
p. 380, says it was "certainly in the sixth century, and perhaps between 540 and 520". Fowler 1998,
p. 1 n. 4 dates it to "about 580", while Hirschberger, p. 49 gives the period of 630 to 590. Janko, p. 200, figure 4, in contrast, places it roughly around 675 and 690.
^For an extensive discussion of the Catalogue, see West 1985.
^West 1985, p. 51 says that "it seems hard to resist the conclusion that Deukalion, not Prometheus, was his father [in the Catalogue]", and that "Prometheus' name must have been accidentally repeated [by the scholion] from the line before". While, according to Gantz, p. 164 the scholion "has probably garbled something in transmission", and "it seems better to presume miscopying and emend the scholion". See also Caduff,
p. 86.
^Hunter, p. 283; Cardin and Pontani, p. 257 n. 57.
^Cardin and Pontani, p. 257 with nn. 54–7;
Tzetzes on
Lycophron, 286 (Cardin and Pontani, p. 257 n. 54; Scheer, p. 121) [= Scholia on
Lycophron's Alexandra, 286 (Cardin and Pontani, p. 257 n. 54; Leone, p. 58) =
Hesiod, Catalogue of Womenfr. 9 Most, pp. 48, 49]. Tzetzes takes the passage from a scholion on
Lycophron's Alexandra, and quotes it several times in different works: once in his own commentary on
Lycophron's Alexandra, and twice in his Exegesis of the Iliad (Papathomopoulos, pp. 94–5, 430). The scholion only attributes the passage to "Hesiod", whereas Tzetzes specifies the work.
^Bury, p. 226;
Thucydides,
1.3.2. Thucydides uses the mention of the Hellenes in the Iliad to support his argument here, as there they refer only to the group in Phthia (who Thucydides calls the "original Hellenes").
^Gantz, p. 167: "The immediate offspring of Deukalion and Pyrrha, including indeed several generations, are primarily eponymous ancestors or intermediate place-holders rather than actors in any real narratives".
^LIMC64 Hellen (S) 1,
image 1 of 1;
Michael C. Carlos Museum1994.001; Bing, p. 13; Oakley,
p. 619, figure 18. For an extensive discussion of the vase, see Bing, pp. 13–6; see also Gantz, pp. 734–5; Collard and Cropp,
p. 570. The only iconographic representation of Hellen, Bing, p. 14 describes him here as a "hooded, grizzled old man" and Gantz, p. 735 as "grim".
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