Hellanicus of Lesbos

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Hellanicus
Born490 BC
Mytilene, Achaemenid Empire
Diedc. 405 BC (aged c. 85)
Perperene, Achaemenid Empire
Notable workPhoronis

Hellanicus (or Hellanikos) of Lesbos (

history. His influence on the historiography of Athens was considerable, lasting until the time of Eratosthenes
(3rd century BC).

He transcended the narrow local limits of the older logographers, and was not content to merely repeat the traditions that had gained general acceptance through the poets. He tried to record the traditions as they were locally current, and availed himself of the few national or priestly registers that presented something like contemporary registration.[1]

He endeavoured to lay the foundations of a scientific chronology, based primarily on the list of the Argive priestesses of Hera, and secondarily on genealogies, lists of magistrates (e.g. the archons at Athens), and Oriental dates, in place of the old reckoning by generations. But his materials were insufficient and he often had to seek recourse to the older methods.[1]

Some thirty works are attributed to him, chronological, historical and episodical. They include:[1]

  • The Priestesses of Hera at Argon: a chronological compilation, arranged according to the order of succession of these functionaries
  • Carneonikae: a list of the victors in the Carnean games (the chief Spartan musical festival), including notices of literary events.
  • Atthis, giving the history of Attica from 683 BC to the end of the Peloponnesian War (404 BC), which is mentioned by Thucydides (i. 97), who says that he treated the events of the years 480 BC to 431 BC briefly and superficially, and with little regard to chronological sequence.
  • Phoronis: chiefly genealogical, with short notices of events from the times of Phoroneus, primordial king in Peloponnesus.
  • Troica and Persica: histories of Troy and Persia.[1]
  • Atlantis (or Atlantias), about the daughter of the Titan Atlas.[4] Some of his text may have come from an epic poem which Carl Robert called Atlantis,[5] a fragment of which may be Oxyrhynchus Papyri 11, 1359.[6]

His work includes the first mention of the legendary founding of

Etruscans. The latter idea, from Phoronis, influenced Dionysius of Halicarnassus, who cites him [I.28] as a source.[8]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Hellanicus". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 13 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 234–235.
  2. ^ Suda ε 739
  3. ^ José J. Caerols, Helanico de Lesbos (1991).
  4. ^ Three short fragments of that work have been assembled by Robert Louis Fowler (2000), Early Greek Mythography, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 161-162.
  5. ^ "The following papyrus, 1359, which Grenfell and Hunt identified as also from the Catalogue, is regarded by C. Robert as part of a separate epic, which he calls Atlantis'." Bell, H. Idris "Bibliography: Graeco-Roman Egypt A. Papyri (1915-1919)", The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Vol. 6, No. 2 (Apr., 1920), pp. 119-146.
  6. ^ P.Oxy. 1359. See Carl Robert (1917): "Eine epische Atlantias", Hermes, Vol. 52, No. 3 (Jul., 1917), pp. 477-79.
  7. ^ José J. Caerols, Helanico de Lesbos (1991), fragment 84.
  8. ^ José J. Caerols, Helanico de Lesbos (1991), fragment 4.

Further reading

External links

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