H E L 
S24 
Of ail the valuable monuments which remain relating 
to the heliafiac, the mod interefling is their oath on en¬ 
tering into office :—“ I fwear that I will judge accord¬ 
ing to the laws and decrees of the people of Athens, and 
of the fenate of five hundred. I will never give my vote 
for the eflablifiiment of a tyrant, nor of an oligarchy. 
Nor will I ever give my approbation to an opinion pre¬ 
judicial to the liberty or to the union of the people of 
Athens. I will not fecond thofe perfons who may pro- 
pofe a reduction of private debts, or a distribution of 
the lands or houfes of the Athenians. I will not recal 
exiles, nor endeavour to procure a pardon for thofe who 
fnall be condemned to die. Nor will I force thofe to re¬ 
tire whom the laws and the Suffrages of the people Shall 
permit to remain in their country. I will not give my 
vote to any candidate for a public function who gives 
not an account of his conduft in the office which he has 
previoufly filled; nor will I prefume to Solicit any trull 
from the-commonwealth without fubjefting myfelf to 
this condition, which I mean as obligatory to the nine 
archons, to the chief of religious matters, to thofe who 
are ballottedon the fame day with the nine archons, to 
the herald, the ambaffiador, and the other officers of their 
court. I will not fuffer the fame man to hold the fame 
office twice, or to hold two offices in the fame year. I 
will not accept any prefent, either myfelf or by another, 
either directly or indirectly, as a member of the helialtic 
affembly. 1 Solemnly declare that I am thirty years old. 
1 will be equally attentive and Impartial to the accufer 
and the accufed ; I will give my Sentence rigoroully 
according to evidence. Thus I fwear, by Jupiter, by 
Neptune, and by Ceres, to aft. And if I violate any 
of my engagements, I imprecate from thefe deities ruin 
on myfelf and my family and I requefl them to grant me 
every kind of profperity, if I am faithful to my oath.” 
HEL'ICAL, adj. \_helice, Fr. from £ ?u|, Gr.] Spiral; 
with many circumvolutions.—The Screw is a kind of 
wedge, multiplied or continued by a helical revolution 
about a cylinder, receiving its motion not from any Hroke, 
but from a veftis at one end of it. Wilkins. 
HEL'ICE, in ancient geography, a town of Achaia, 
on the bay of Corinth, overwhelmed by the inundation 
of the fea. Pliny. 
HEL'ICE Major and Minor ; in allronomy, the 
fame as Urfa Major and Minor. 
• HEL'ICOID PARAB'OLA, or the Parabolic Spiral, 
is a curve ariling from the fuppofition that the common 
or Apolloniau parabola is bent or twilled, till the axis 
come into the periphery of a circle, the ordinates Hill 
retaining,their places and perpendicular pofitions with 
refpeft to the circle, all thefe lines fiill remaining in the 
fame plane. 
HELICOM'ETRY, f. [from Gr. a fpiral, and 
p.sTgsv, a meafure.J That part of geometry which teaches 
the menfuration of fpiral lines. 
HEL’ICON, in ancient geography, a mountain in the 
neighbourhood of Parnalfus and Cytheron, Sacred to 
Apollo and the Mufes, who are thence called Heliconides. 
It is Situated in Livadia, and now called Zagara Vouni. 
Helicon was one of the molt fertile and woody moun¬ 
tains in Greece. On it the fruit of the adrachnus, a 
fpecies of the arbutus or fhawberry-tree, was uncom¬ 
monly fw’e,t; and the inhabitants affirmed, that the 
plants and roots were all friendly to man, and that even 
the Serpents had their poifon weakened by the innoxious 
qualities of their food. It approached ParnaUbs on the 
north, where it touched on Phocis; and refembled that 
mountain in loftiriefs, extent, and magnitude. Here was 
the lhady g ove of the mufes, and their images; with 
ftatues of Apollo and Bacchus, of Linus and Orpheus, 
and the illultriohs poets who had recited their verfes to 
the harp. Among the tripods, in the fecond century, 
was that coniecr.ited by Hefiod. On the left-hand going 
to tne grove was the fountain Aganippe; and about 
twenty lladia, or two miles and a half, higher up, the 
H E L 
violet-coloured Hippocrene. Round the grove were 
houfes. A feflival was celebrated there by the Thef- 
pieans, with games called Mufea. The valleys of Helicon 
are deferibed by Wheler as green and flowery in the 
Spring; and enlivened by pleafing cafcades and llreams, 
and by fountains and wells of clearwater. The Boeotian 
cities in general, two or three excepted, were reduced 
to inconfiderable villages in the time of Strabo. The 
grove of the mufes was plundered under the aufpices of 
Conflantine the Great. The Heliconian goddeffes were 
afterwards confumed in a fire at Conflantinople, to which 
city they had been removed. Their ancient feats on the 
mountain, Aganippe and Hippocrene, are unascertained. 
HELICO'NIA, f. [EAi*^ is a mufical llringed inflru- 
ment; alio the name of a mountain in Boeotia. The 
Mufes were called EJuv.onc^s,-, from one of thefe.] In 
botany, a genus of the clafs pentandria, order monogy- 
nia, natural order of feitamineae, (muffe, JuJf.) The 
generic charafters are—Calyx : fpathes common and 
partial alternate, dillinft, with hermaphrodite flowers; 
perianthium none. Corolla: petals three, oblong, chan¬ 
nelled, ere,ft; acute, equal; neftary two-leaved, one 
leaflet nearly equal to the petals, the other very ffiort, 
channelled, hooked, oppofite. Stamina: filaments five, 
(or fix, Adanfon,) filiform; anthene long, ereft. Piflil- 
lum : germ inferior, oblong; flyle Ihorter than the Ha- 
mens ; lligma long, (lender, curved, with a terminating 
head. Pericarpium : capfule oblong, truncate, three. 
Sided, three-celled. Seeds: Solitary, oblong.—This ge¬ 
nus is dillinft from Mufa by a tricoccous capfule; but 
it is Hill doubtful whether it ffiould not be transferred 
to the clafs hexandria.— EJfential CkaraBer. Perianthium 
none; corolla three-petalled, (irregular, Sw.) neftary 
two-leaved; pericarpium tricoccous; feeds Solitary; 
(capfule flelhy, three-celled, Sw.) 
Species, i. Heliconia bihai, or baflard or wild plan¬ 
tain : leaves and fpadix radical ; fpathes diflich, cor¬ 
date; neftary ventricofe, bifid at the tip. This is a 
very large herbaceous plant, from ten to twelve feet in 
height. Leaves oblong, narrower at both ends, entire, 
marked with parallel lines, dreft, thick, and very 
fmqoth. Spadix fimple, upright. Common fpathes 
eight to ten, rigid, cordate, embracing, from ereft 
Spreading, acuminate, diflich, yellowilh brown. Flow¬ 
ers in bundles concealed within each fpatfie; partial 
fpathes membranaceous, whitilh, the length of the flow¬ 
ers, which are dillinft, fubfeffile, pale or greenilh yel¬ 
low. This beautiful plant grows wild in mod of the 
cooler mountains of Jamaica, and thrives very luxuri¬ 
antly in every rich and well-lhaded gulley among the 
woods. The younger Linnaeus, in the Supplementum 
Plantarum, has confounded three plants under the 
name of Heliconia bihai; namely this, Strelitzia reginae, 
to which the Specific difference and defeription there 
given belong, and Heliconia, or rather Strelitzia, alba. 
2. Heliconia plittacorum : leaves on the Item rounded 
at the bafe; fpadix terminating, flexuofe; fpathes lance¬ 
olate ; neftary lanceolate, concave, entire. This plant 
bears a great refernblance to Canna, .and grows to the 
height of eight feet, with a fimple fmooth Hein. Spathes 
four to fix, alternate, difiich, Somewhat remote, divari¬ 
cated, two inches long, Iheathing at. the bafe, acute, 
coloured blood-red, many-flowered. Native of Jamaica, 
in wet parts of the woods, on the highefi mountains; 
and in Several pans of South America. 
3. Heliconia hirfuta : leaves rounded at the bafe, lim¬ 
ply nerved,-very fmooth ; inflorefcence hirfute; fpadix 
flexuofe; neftary lanceolate, adnate. In fiature and 
leaves this refembles the other fpecies: the pericar¬ 
pium is the fame with tliat of H. pfittaeprum, only 
hifpid. Found in South America by Mutis. See Stre. 
litzi a. 
HELICO'NIAN, adj. Belonging to mount Helicon; 
belonging to the famous fountain at the foot of mount 
Helicon. 
HELICON I'ADES, 
