Hellen

Note: Not to be confused with Helen of Troy, or Helenus, son of King Priam of Troy.

Hellen (Ancient Greek: Ἕλλην; Katharevousa: ( [ˈelːin] (help·info)) was the mythological patriarch of the Hellenes (Greek: Έλληνες), the son of Deucalion (or sometimes Zeus) and Pyrrha, brother of Amphictyon and father of Aeolus, Xuthus, and Dorus. His name is also another name for Greek, meaning a person of Greek descent or pertaining to Greek culture, and the source of the adjective "Hellenic".

Each of his sons founded a primary tribe of Greece: Aeolus the Aeolians, Dorus the Dorians and Xuthus the Achaeans (from Xuthus's son Achaeus) and the Ionians (from Xuthus's probably illegitimate son Ionas). According to Hesiod's "Èoiæ" (Greek: Ηοίαι) or "Catalogue of Women",^[1] Hellen's sisters, Pandora and Thyia, were impregnated by Zeus in which the former gave birth to Graecus of the Graecians and the latter gave birth to Makednos of the Makedónes and Magnes of the Magnetes.

They conquered the Greek area of Phthia and subsequently spread their rule to other Greek cities. The people of those areas came to be called Hellenes, after the name of their ancestor. The ethnonym Hellenes, is dating back to the time of Homer. In the Iliad, "Hellas" (Greek: Eλλάς) and "Hellenes" were names of the tribe (also called "Myrmidones") settled in Phthia, led by Achilles.

References

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