It is mentioned by Homer (Il. 2.845, 12.30).
Grave of Memnon at, Pausanias at, sea-fights at, its length and breadth, despots of places by it with Darius' Scythian expedition, Darius' passage of it in his return, Hellespontian towns subdued by Ionian rebels, reconquered by Darius, Hellespont scourged by Xerxes for the destruction of his bridge, bridged again, Xerxes' passage, Hellespontians in his fleet, Persian governors of towns there, Greek decision not to sail to the Hellespont after Salamis, bridges there found broken, named after Helle, Herakles drives some of the kine of Geryon to the.
Total results on 23/7/2001: 637 for Hellespont, 5 for Hellespontus.
(Hellespontos). Now the Dardanelles, the long narrow strait which joins the Propontis (Sea of Marmora) with the Aegean Sea. Its length is some fifty miles, and its width varies from six at the upper end to one or less. The narrowest part is between the ancient cities of Sestus and Abydus, where Leander is said to have swum across to visit Hero. Here, also, Xerxes crossed on his bridge of boats. The name Hellespontos (Sea of Helle) was derived from the myth of Helle.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Hellespontus (ho Hellespontos, Horn. Il. ii. 845, Odyss. xxiv. 82;
Helles pontos, -hudor, -porthuos, Aesch. Pers. 722; Hellespontus, Pontus Helles,
Hellespontum Pelagus, Fretum Hellesponticum: Eth. Hellespontios, Hellespontias,
Hellespontis, Steph. B.: The Dardanelles; Golfo di Galippoli; Stambul Denghiz),
the strait which divides Europe from Asia and unites the Propontis with the Aegaean
sea.
The Greeks explained the origin of the name by the well-known legend
of Phryxus and Helle, and in the later poets (Ovid, Her. xviii. 117, 137; Prop.
i. 20. 19; Lucan v.56; Avien. 692) frequent allusion is made to this tradition.
The broad Hellespont of the Homeric poems (Il. vii. 86) - for the
interpretation of Mr. Walpole and Dr. Clarke (Trav. vol. iii. p. 91) of platus
Hellespontos by salt Hellespont is too unpicturesque to be adopted - was probably
conceived to be a wide river, flowing through thickly wooded banks into the sea.
(Comp. Herod. vii. 35; Walpole, Turkey and Greece, vol. i. p. 101; Schlichthorst,
Geogr. Homer. p. 127.)
Herodotus (iv. 85), Strabo (xiii. p. 591), and Pliny (iv. 12, vi.
1) give 7 stadia as the breadth of the Hellespont in its narrowest part. Tournefort
(vol. ii. lett. iv.) and Hobhouse (Albania, vol. ii. p. 805) allow about a mile.
Some modern French admeasurements give the distance as much greater. The Due de
Raguse (Voyage en Turquie, vol. ii. p. 164) nearly coincides with Herodotus.
The bridge, or rather two separate bridges, which Xerxes threw across
the Hellespont, stretched from the neighbourhood of Abydos, on the Asiatic coast,
to the coast between Sestus and Madytus, on the European side; and consisted of
360 vessels in the bridge higher up the stream, and 314 in the lower one. If the
breadth be estimated at a mile or 5280 feet, 360 vessels, at an average of 14
2/3 feet each, would exactly fill up the space. (Grote, Hist. of Greece, vol.
v. p. 26; comp. Rennell, Geog. of Herod. vol. i. p. 158; Kruse, Uber die Schiffbrucken
der Perser, Breslau, 1820; Choiseul-Gouffier, Voyage Pittoresque, vol. ii. p.
449; Bahr, ad Herod. vii. 36.) The length of the strait was estimated by Herodotus
(iv. 85) at 400 stadia. This admeasurement of course depends upon the point assigned
by the ancients to the extremity of the Hellespont, a point which is discussed
by Hoblouse (Albania, vol. ii. p. 791). In the later years of the Peloponnesian
War the Hellespont was the scene of the memorable battles of Cynossema and Aegospotami.
In B.C. 334 the Hellespont was crossed by Alexander, with an army
of about 35,000 men. (Arrian, Anab. i. 11; Diod. Sic. xvii. 1.)
The Hellespont issues from the Propontis near Gallipoli, the road
of which is the anchorage for the Ottoman fleet. A little lower, on the Asiatic
side, is Lampsaki, close to which the current sweeps as before, nearly SW. to
the bay of Sestos, a distance of about 20 miles, with an ordinary width of from
2 1/2 to 3 miles. At Sestos the stream becomes narrower, and takes a SSE. direction
as it passes Abydos, and proceeds to the town of Charnak Kal'eh-S&;acute; from
the last point it flows SW. for 3 miles to Point Berber, and from thence onward
in the same direction, but rather increasing in width, for a distance of 9 3/4
miles to the Aegaean sea.
About 1 1/2 miles below the W. point of the bay of Madytus are the
famous castles of the Dardanelles, which give their name to the straits; or the
castles of Anatoli and Rum-ili: Tchannak-Ka'leh-Si, on the Asiatic side, and Kilidu-l-Bahr,
on the European. (Chesney, Exped. Euphrat. vol. i. p. 318.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
d.c. 81, feastday: September 6
Rhyndacus (Rhundakos), an important river in the province of Hellespontus, which has its sources at the foot of Mount Olympus in Phrygia Epictetus, near the town of Azani. (Scylax, p. 35; Plin. v. 40; Pomp. Mela, i. 19; Strab. xii. p. 576.) According to Pliny, it was at one time called Lycus, and had its origin in the lake of Miletopolis ; but this notion is incorrect. The river flows at first in a north-western direction, forming the boundary between Mysia and Bithynia, through the lake of Apollonia, and in the neighbourhood of Miletopolis receives the river Megistus, and discharges itself into the Propontis opposite the island of Besbicus. The Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius (i. 1165) states that in later times the Rhyndacus, after receiving the waters of the Megistus, was itself called Megistus; but Eustathius (ad Horn. Il. xiii. 771) assures us that in his time it still bore the name of Rhyndacus. According to Valerius Flaccus (iii. 35) its yellow waters were discernible in the sea at a great distance from its mouth. In B.C. 73 Lucullus gained a victory over Mitlhridates on the banks of this river. (Plut. Luc. 11; comp. Polyb. v. 17; Ptol. v. 1. § § 4, 8; Steph. B. s. v.) The Rhyndacus is now called Lupad, and after its union with the Megistus (Susughirli) it bears the name of Mohalidsh or Micalitza. (See Hamilton's Researches, i. p. 83, &c.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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