Hellen

Hellen, in Greek mythology, was the person from whom all Hellenes (Greeks) were descended. He was the son of Deucalion and Pyrrha, and his brother was Amphictyon. He had three sons, from whom the Greek tribes originated: Aeolus was the progenitor of the Aeolians, Dorus of the Dorians, and Xuthus, through his own sons Achaeus and Ion, of the Achaeans and the Ionians respectively.

Parents and Family

Hesiod, in his Catalogue of Women, made Hellen the son of Deucalion and Pyrrha, and Deucalion the son of Prometheus (Hesiod, Catalogue of Women, fragment 1, quoted by the scholiast on Apollonius, Argonautica 3.1086). In Apollodorus, Deucalion ruled around Phthia and married Pyrrha, daughter of Epimetheus and Pandora. When Zeus sent a flood to destroy the men of the Bronze Age, they survived it in a chest, landed on Parnassus, and re-peopled the earth by throwing stones over their heads, which became men and women. Their children were Hellen, whose father some said was Zeus, Amphictyon, who reigned over Attica after Cranaus, and a daughter, Protogeneia, mother of Aethlius by Zeus (Apollodorus, Library 1.7.2).

Hellen’s Wife and Sons

Hellen married the nymph Orseis and had three sons, Dorus, Xuthus and Aeolus (Apollodorus, Library 1.7.3). Hesiod gives the same three: “from Hellen the war-loving king sprang Dorus and Xuthus and Aeolus delighting in horses” (Catalogue of Women, fragment 4). Hellen divided the country among his sons, and the ancient writers connect each of them to one of the main branches of the Greeks.

• Aeolus ruled the regions around Thessaly and called the people Aeolians. By his wife Enarete he had seven sons, including Cretheus, Sisyphus, Athamas and Salmoneus, and five daughters (Apollodorus, Library 1.7.3).
• Dorus took the land across from the Peloponnese and called the settlers Dorians (Library 1.7.3). Herodotus says the Dorians lived in the time of Dorus, son of Hellen, in the country called Histiaeotis, under Ossa and Olympus, and later moved on to Pindus, Dryopia and the Peloponnese (Herodotus 1.56.3). Strabo says that Dorus united the Dorians around Parnassus into one state and left them his name (Geography 8.7.1).
• Xuthus received the Peloponnese in Apollodorus and, by Creusa, the daughter of Erechtheus, was the father of Achaeus and Ion, from whom the Achaeans and Ionians take their names (Library 1.7.3). Pausanias tells that, after Hellen’s death, Xuthus was driven out of Thessaly by his brothers, fled to Athens and married Erechtheus’ daughter there (Pausanias 7.1.2).

How the Greeks Became Hellenes

According to Apollodorus, Hellen named those who had been called Greeks after himself (Library 1.7.3). Thucydides observes that before the time of Hellen, son of Deucalion, there was no common name for the people at all; the tribes were known by their own names, and it was only when Hellen and his sons grew strong in Phthiotis, and were invited to other cities for help, that these communities came to be called Hellenes (Thucydides 1.3.2). Strabo likewise describes Hellen as lord of the land between the Peneius and the Asopus in Phthia, who left his rule to his eldest son and sent the others away to find homes elsewhere (Geography 8.7.1).

Hellen and Amphictyon

Pausanias reports that some believed the assembly of the Greeks that meets at Delphi, the Amphictyonic council, was founded by Amphictyon, the son of Deucalion, and that its delegates were named Amphictyons after him; he also notes that Androtion explained the name as meaning “neighbors” (Pausanias 10.8.1). Apollodorus says that Amphictyon reigned over Attica after Cranaus (Library 1.7.2). In Pausanias he deposed Cranaus, who was his father-in-law, and was himself later banished by Erichthonius (Pausanias 1.2.6).

Hellen Sources

Hesiod, Catalogue of Women, fragments 1 and 4; Apollodorus, Library 1.7.2–3; Thucydides 1.3.2; Herodotus 1.56.3; Strabo 8.7.1; Pausanias 1.2.6, 7.1.2, 10.8.1.

See Also: Deucalion, Pyrrha, Amphictyon, Aeolus, Dorus, Xuthus, Achaeus, Ion, Orseis