HELLEBORE HELM. 



from her father's house with her brother, to avoid the 

 cruel oppression of her mother-in-law, Ino. Accord- 

 ing to some accounts, she was carried through the 

 air on a golden ram, which her mother luui received 

 from Neptune, and, in her passage, she became giddy, 

 and fell irom her seat into that part of the sea, which, 

 from her, received the name of Hellespont. Others 

 say that she was carried on a cloud, or rather upon a 

 ship, from which she fell into the sea, and was drown- 

 ed. Phryxus, after he had given his sister a burial 

 on the neighbouring coasts, pursued his journey, and 

 arrived safe in Colchis. See Phryxus. 



HELLEBORE (helleborus) a genus of plants al- 

 lied to and resembling the ranunculus, but the large 

 green, whitish, or purplish flowers of the different spe- 

 cies give them a different aspect. Ten species are 

 known, all natives of the northern parts of the east- 

 ern continent. These plants have a bitter and some- 

 what acrid taste, and a nauseous, disagreeable odour. 

 The root of one of them has been employed as a pur- 

 gative from remote antiquity, and was a very cele- 

 brated remedy with the Greeks and Romans, parti- 

 cularly in mania. So far was this superstition carried, 

 tliat the most celebrated philosophers drank hellebore 

 to keep their brain clear before undertaking intel- 

 lectual labour ; and it was pretended that certain 

 precautions were necessary in collecting this plant. 

 It is still sometimes employed as a purgative, but is 

 apt to act violently if an overdose be taken. 



HELLENES. See Hellas. 



HELLENISTS ; scholars learned in Grecian anti- 

 quities, particularly in the Greek language and liter- 

 ature. 



HELLENISTS, EGYPTIAN; the Jewish colon- 

 ists, who settled in Egypt, after the destruction of the 

 kingdom of Juclah, about 600 B. C. Their number 

 was increased by the many' colonies of Jews planted 

 by Alexander the Great, 336 B.C., and later by 

 Ptolemy Lagus. Under the reign of the emperor 

 Augustus, they amounted to nearly 1,000,000. The 

 mixture of the Jewish and Egyptian national characters, 

 and the influence of the Greek language and philoso- 

 phy, which were adopted by these Jews, laid the foun- 

 dation of a new epoch of Greco-Jewish literature, 

 which, from its prevailing character, received the 

 name of the Hellenistic. The systems of Pythagoras 

 and Plato were strangely combined with those Orien- 

 tal phantasies, which had been reduced to a system 

 in Egypt, and with which the mystical doctrines of 

 the Gnostics were imbued. The most noted of the 

 Jewish Hellenistic philosophers was Philo of Alex- 

 andria, and the chief of the learned labours of the 

 Alexandrian Jews was the Greek translation of the 

 Old Testament. See Septuagint. 



HELLESPONT ; the straits between Europe and 

 Asia, now called the Dardanelles. (For the mytho- 

 logical origin of the name, see Helle.) Its shores 

 were lined with pleasant hills, towns, and villages. 

 Here were, in ancient times, Lampsacus, with its 

 beautiful vineyards ; the mouth of the JEgos Potamos, 

 immortalized by the victory of Lysander over the 

 Athenian fleet ; the cities of Sestos in Europe, and 

 Abydos in Asia, rendered famous through the poem 

 of Musasus on the loves of Hero and Leauder. The 

 strait is here but seven stadia wide, or about seven- 

 eighths of a mile. In this place Xerxes passed from 

 Asia to Europe over a double bridge. Lord Byron 

 swam across the Hellespont, in 1810, in one hour and 

 five minutes, in company with lieutenant Ekenhead. 

 The rapidity of the current is such that no boat can 

 row directly across, and lord Byron calculated that 

 the whole distance, from his place of starting to his 

 landing, on the Asiatic side, was more than four 

 miles, although the strait is but a mile and a half 

 wide at the broadest part., and half a mile at the nar- , 



rawest. Cocks are heard crowing irom the opposite 

 shores. The length of the strait is about, thirty -three 

 miles. The passage is defended by two opposite forts, 

 called the Castles of Asia. 



HELM ; a long and flat piece of timber, or an as- 

 semblage of several pieces, suspended down the hind 

 part of a ship's stern-post, where it turns upon a kind 

 of hinges to the right or left, serving to direct the 

 course of a vessel, as the tail of a fish guides the 

 body. The helm is usually composed of three parts, 

 viz. the rudder, the tiller, and the wheel, except in 

 small vessels, where the wheel is unnecessary. The 

 rudder becomes gradually broader in proportion to 

 its distance from the top, or its depth under water. 

 The back or inner part of it, which joins the ster 

 post, is diminished into the form of a wedge throug 

 out its whole length, so that it may be more easily 

 turned from one side to the other, when it makes an 

 obtuse angle with the keel. The length and thick- 

 ness of the rudder is nearly equal to that of the stern- 

 post. The tiller is a long bar of timber, fixed hori- 

 zontally in the upper end of the rudder, within the 

 vessel. The movements of the tiller to the right and 

 left accordingly direct the efforts of the rudder to the 

 government of the ship's course, as she advances, 

 which is called steering. The operations of the tiller 

 are guided and assisted by a sort of tackle, commu- 

 nicating with the ihip's side, called the tiller-rope, 

 which is usually composed of untarred rope-yams, tor 

 the purpose of traversing more readily through the 

 blocks or pulleys. In order to facilitate the manage- 

 ment of the helm, the tiller-rope, in all large vessels, 

 is wound about a wheel, which acts upon it with the 

 powers of a windlass. The rope employed in this 

 service, being conveyed from the fore end of the 

 tiller to a single block on each side of the ship, forms 

 a communication with the wheel, by means of two 

 blocks fixed near the mizzen-mast, and two holes im- 

 mediately above, leading up to the wheel, which is 

 fixed upon an axis on the quarter-deck, almost per- 

 pendicularly over the fore end of the tiller. Fi ve 

 turns of the rope are usually wound about the barrel 

 of the wheel, and when the helm is a-midship, the 

 middle turn is nailed to the top of the barrel with a 

 mark, by which the helmsman readily discovers the 

 situation of the helm. The spokes of the wheel ge- 

 nerally reach about eight inches beyond the rim or 

 circumference, serving as handles to the person who 

 steers the vessel. As the effect of a lever increases 

 in proportion to the length of its arm, it is evident 

 that the power of the helmsman to turn the wheel 

 will be increased according to the length of the spokes 

 beyond the circumference of the barrel, so that if the 

 helmsman employs a force of thirty pounds, it will 

 produce an effect of from 90 to 120 pounds upon the 

 tiller (the barrel being one-fourth or one-fifth of the 

 radius of the spokes), which again forming the long 

 end of a lever 10 or 15 times the length of its shorter 

 arm, the force of the rudder will, by consequence, 

 be from 10 times 90 to 15 times 120, or from 900 to 

 1800 pounds. When the helm operates by itself, the 

 centre of rotation of the ship and her movements are 

 determined by estimating the force of the rudder by 

 the square of the ship's velocity. When the helm, 

 instead of lying in a right line with the keel, is turned 

 to one side or the other, it receives an immediate 

 shock from the water, which glides along the ship's 

 bottom in running aft, on the side towards which the 

 helm is turned, and pushes it towards the opposite 

 side, whilst it is retained in this position, so that the 

 stern, to which the rudder is confined, receives the 

 same impression, and accordingly turns in one direc 

 tion, whilst the head of the ship moves in the oppo- 

 site. The more the velocity of a ship increases, the 

 more powerful will be the effect of the rudder be- 



