Pliny (Naé. Iist., xxii. 29) distinguishes two kinds of ‘‘helio- tropium,” the éricoccum, and a somewhat taller plant, the helio- scopium; the former, it has been supposed, is Croton tinctcrium, L., and the latter the #Atotpémiov puxpdv of Dioscorides, or Heliotropium europeum. The helioscopium, according to Pliny, was variously employed in medicine; thus the juice of the leaves with salt served for the removal of warts, whence the term herba verrucaria applicd to the plant. What, from the perfume of its flowers, is sometimes called winter heliotrope, is the fragrant butterbur, or sweet-seented coltsfoot, Petasitcs (Tussilago) fragrans, Pres]., a perennial Compo- site plant. (For fig. see Maund, The Botanic Garden, i., pl. iv., fig. 4, 1878; and Gardener's Chron., Feb, 2, 1878, p. 147.)
See Ruiz and Pavon, FV. Peruv., ii, 2-4, pl. evii—cxi., 1799; P. Miller, Dict., ed. T. Martyn, i. pt. ii., 1807; Hist, Nat. de Plinie, ed, A. de Grandsagne, xiv. 158 seg., 1832; De Candolle, Prodr., x. 532, 1815; Bentham, Fl. Auséral., iv. 392, 1869; Bentham and Hooker, Gen. Plant., ii, 843, 1873-76; Hemsley, Mandb. of Hardy Trees and Shrubs, &c., p. 325, 1873: Proc, Americ. Acad. Arts and Sei., x. 49. Bost., 1875; Gardener's Chron., 1878, i. 21; and, for fig. of JI. Bes weer in and Hf, corymbosum, Curtis's Bot. Mag., No, 141, 1791, and No. 1609, 18it
HELIOTROPE, or Bloodstone, a cryptocrystalline variety of quartz, dark’green in colour, with small spots of red jasper, resembling drops of blood. The name, from the Greek 7Atos, sun, and zpére, to turn, is stated by Pliny (Vat. Hist., xxxvii. 60) to be due to its giving, when thrown into water, a red reflexion of the light of the sun. The modern heliotrope, however, is Pliny’s prastus (op. cit., xxxvi. 34); and what he terms heliotrope was apparently a leek-green prase or plasma, abundantly veined with blood- red jasper. Heliotropeis found in the Isle of Rum, and in Mull of Cantyre, Argyllshire, and in several foreign locali- ties. It is of comraun occurrence in the trap-rocks of the Deccan. Medicinal and other virtues were formerly ascribel to the stone. Itis used for signet rings and a variety of ornamental articles.
HELL. See Eschatology, vol. viii. p. 536.
HELLANICUS, the most important of the Greek logographers, was a native of Mytilenc. His father was named Andromenes or Aristomenes. His life, which, as Lucian tells, lasted eighty-five years, extends over the 5th century b.c., but the date of his birth is uncertain, and the circumstances of his career are unknown. If the quotatiun in the scholiast on Aristoph., tun., 706, can be trusted (fr. 80), Hellanicus in one of his works referred to the battle of Arginuss (406 b.c.). In that case (482–397 b.c.) the dates assigned by Miiller (Fragm. Mist. Gr., i. p. xxxiv.), following the author of the Vita Luripidis, must be approximately correct. On the other hand Thucydides (i. 93), who died in 403 b.c., criticizes the work in which this statement might be expected to occur, which leaves a very narrow interval for the work to appear and acquire reputation enough to be taken notice of by Thucydides; while the style of the reference certainly suggests at first sight that Hella- nicus was dead when Thucydides was writing. If on these grounds we disregard the scholiast, we may on the authority of Pamphila assign 496–411 as the limits of his life. Suidas says that he died at Perperene, a town on the Gulf of Adramyttium, and that he lived for some time at the Macedonian court along with Herodotus. If the latter fact be true, the time to which Suidas assigns it, viz., during the reign of Amyntas (553–504), is impossible.
The following list of his works gives the results of Miiller’s care- ful discussion of the extant fragments:—
(1.) Persica, probably in two books. This work, which was written before those on Greek history, gave (probably in bk. i.) an account of the Assyrians and the Medes, and (in bk. ii.) a history of the Persian empire. (2.) Phoronis, Argolic traditions from Phoroneus, ‘* father of mortal men,” the contemporary of Ogyges, down probably to the return of the Heraclide. It consisted chicfly of genealogies, with short notices of events interspersed. It was probably in two books; and the works quoted as L@otice and Argolica are probably only portions of it. (3.) Deuealionia, tracing Thes- salian traditions in a similar manner from Deucalion, who corrc- sponds to Phoroneus as the first man. It was in two books; and the Thessalica is probably only another name for it or the title of a part of it. Asopis was apparently an appendix giving the gencalogy of the dfacid race from Zeus and cEgina, daughter of Asopus, down to Miltiades. (4.) délantis, in two books, briefly enumerating the descendants of Atlas in general, but dwelling at much greater length on the offspring of Electra, and introducing in this part an account of Trojan history. Nence the work is often cited under the name of Zvvica. The works quoted as ep) "Apxadias and wep) Avdias are probably merely parts. (5.) Adthis, called by Thucydides (i. 97) 4 "Artic, cuyypadh, giving in four books the history of the eountry from Ogyges or Cecrops down at least to the beginning of the Peloponnesian War. Thucydides says that he enumerated the events between 480 and 431 b.c. very briefly, and with little regard to chronological sequence. These four works on Greck history (2-5) were probably published in one single work, and were divided by later grammarians into separate sections and books. (6.) Lesbiaca or olica, a civraypa émxdpiov in two books at least. (7.) ‘lepeiot THs “Has, a list of the priestesses of the Argive Hera, incorporating a synopsis both of what had been scattered through his other works and of history that had not come within the scope of these works. We may pre- sume that a list of priestesses was preserved in the temple with a slight account of contemporary events, particularly those relating to festivals and religious mattcrs, and that Hellanicus made this the basis of his work. Reference to this line of priestesses was one of the commonest methods of dating, and is used by Thucydides in important cases (ii. 2; iv. 133). This is probably the same work that is often referred to under the name of /istories. It was in three books ; the first came down to the apotheosis of Heracles and the voyage of Theseus to Crete, and the second probably to the Persian Wars. (8.) Caraconice, a list of the victors in the Carncan games of Apollo from their foundation, Ol. 26; along with the conquerors in the poctical and musieal contests, it probably contained notices of literary events. (9.) BapBapmrd vépima, quoted also with the titles wep) e@vav, Ke. As the history of the barbarian races was too little known to be arranged as Hellanicns had arranged the Greek history, the plan in this work was to enumerate the towns, and to describe the country, manners of the people, &e., like a geographer. The yyptiaea and the Iter ad Templum Ammonis, which were parts of this work, are counted by Miiler spurious insertions on Orphie theology by an Egy) tian writer; while Aids moAvtuxla is merely a part of this spurious insertion. Preller (De Hellan. Lesb. Histor.) considers this whole work to be spurious.
As an historian Hellanicus is greatly in advance of preceding logographers, He was not content to repeat the traditions that had gained general aceeptation through the pocts, but he tried to give the traditions as they were locally current, and he availed himsclf of the few national or priestly registers that presented something like contemporary registration. Thus, in the first place, he gave in many points accounts quite different from the usual beliefs: e.g., he recorded the local belief in the Troad that Trey had not been totally destroyed by the Greeks but had continued to exist to his own time; and in the -4éfhis, touching on Spartan affairs, he made no reference to Lycurgus, but attributed the Spartan constitution to Eurysthenes and Proeles. Now it is ccr- tain that the Spartan state registers could not have made any mention of Lycurgus on account of the plan on which they were framed (Miller, Zisé. Dor., i. p. 132). Secondly, Hellanicus laid the foundations of a scientific chronology, though his matcrials were insufficient and he often had recourse to the usual rough reckoning by generations. On account of his deviations from cominon tradition, Hellanicus is often called an untrustworthy writer by the ancients themselves; Lut probably few authors would have been more useful to a scientific student if his works had been preserved. Dionysius (Judic. de Thueyd.) ecnsures him for arrang- ing his history, not according to the natural connexion of events, but according to the locality or the nation he was describing ; and undoubtedly he never, like his contemporary Herodotus, rose to the conception of a single current of events wider than the loval distinction of race. His style, like that of the older logographers, was dry and bald; and there seems little foundation for the statement of Suidas that he wrote poetry, though perhaps some parts of the Holica were in verse.
