Hélicon mount

See also: Hélicon

The mount Hélicon (in Greek old Ἑλικὼν / Helikồn , literally “the tortuous mountain”, of ἕλιξ / hélix , “spiral, zigzag”) is the largest mountain of Béotie, in Greece. It culminates with 1.748 meters.

Celebrated like one of the two retirements of the Muses with the Mount Parnassus, it comprised an old sanctuary, Muséion, on the north-eastern slope of the mount, not far from the quoted of Thespies. It was plundered by Constantin I {{er}}, and its statues were removed and placed at Constantinople.

On its slopes was the village of Ascra, hearth of the poet Hésiode, who tells how it met the Muses whereas it kept his sheep on the mountainsides. They inspired to him, says it, its Théogonie , which opens by this invocation:

“To start, let us sing the Muses héliconiennes, queens of Hélicon, the large one and divine mountain. Often, around the source with dark water and of the furnace bridge of the very powerful son of Cronos, they dance their delicate feet. Often also, after having washed their tender body with the water of the Permesse or the Hippocrène or the divine Olmée, they have, at the top of Hélicon, formed of the beautiful and charming choruses, where their step flew. ”
(transl. Paul Mazon)

The Old ones believed indeed that the fountains Aganippe and Hippocrène (that PEGASE had made emerge on the mountain), which fed the rivers Olmeios and Permessos, inspired those which were refreshed there.

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