Helĭcon
（
Ἑλικών).
1.
A famous mountain in Boeotia, near the Gulf of Corinth. It was sacred to Apollo and the
Muses, who were thence called Heliconiades. This mountain was famed for the purity of its
air, the abundance of its water, its fertile valleys, the density of its shades, and the
beauty of the venerable trees which clothed its sides. On the summit was the grove of the
Muses, where these divinities had their statues, and where also were statues of Apollo and
Hermes, of Bacchus by Lysippus, of Orpheus, and of famous poets and musicians (Pausan. ix.
30). A little below the grove was the fountain of Aganippé. The source
Hippocrené (q.v.) was about twenty stadia
above the grove. It is said to have burst forth when the horse Pegasus struck his hoof into
the ground (Pausan. ix. 31), whence its name,
ἵππου κρήνη.
These two springs supplied two small rivers named Olmius and Permessus, which, after uniting
their waters, flowed into the lake Copa ïs, near Haliartus. The modern name of
Helicon is Palaeovouni, and of Hippocrené, Kryopēgadi, or
“cold spring.”
2.
A river of Macedonia, near Dium, the same, according to Pausanias (ix. 30), with the
Baphyrus.
