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Suidas (s. v. 'EAAaw/cos). According to the confused account of Suidas, Hellanicus and Herodotus lived together at the court of Amyntas (b. c. 553— 504), and Hellanicus was still alive in the reign of Perdiccas, who succeeded to the throne in b. c. 461. This account, however, is irreconcilable with ,the further statement of Suidas, that Hellanicus .was a contemporary of Sophocles and Euripides. Lucian (Macrob. 22) states that Hellanicus died at the age of eighty-five, and the learned authoress Paraphila (ap. Gellium, xv. 23), who likewise makes him a contemporary of Herodotus, says that at the beginning of the Peloponnesian war (b. c. 431), Hellanicus was about sixty-five years old, so that he would have been born about b.c. 496, and died in b.c. 411. This account, which in itself is Tery probable, seems to be contradicted by a state-.ment of a scholiast (ad Aristoph. Ran* 706), from •which it would appear that after the battle of Arginusae, in b. c. 406, Hellanicus was still engaged in writing; but the vague and indefinite expression of that scholiast does not warrant such an inference, and it is moreover clear from Thucydides (i. 97), that in b.c. 404 or 403 Hellanicus was no longer alive. Another authority, an anonymous biographer of Euripides (p. 134 in Westermann's Vitamin Scriptores Grae-ci minores, Brunswick, 1845), states that Hellanicus was born on the day of the battle of Salamis, that is, on the 20th of Boedromion b.c. 481, and that he received his name from the victory of 'EAAas over the barbarians; but this account is too much like an invention of some grammarian to account for the name Hellanicus, and deserves no credit; and among the various contradictory statements we are inclined to adopt that of Pamphila. Respecting the life of Hellanicus we are altogether in the dark, and we only learn from Suidas that he died at Perperene, a town on the coast of Asia Minor opposite to Lesbos ; we may, however, presume that he visited at least some of the countries of whose history he treated.
Hellanicus was a very prolific writer, and if we were to look upon all the titles that have come down to us as titles of genuine productions and distinct works, their number would amount to nearly thirty ; but the recent investigations of Preller (De Hellanico Lesbio Historico, Dorpat, 1840, 4to.) have shown that several works bearing his name are spurious and of later date, and that many others which are referred to as separate works, are only chapters or sections of other works. We adopt Preller's arrangement, and first mention those works which were spurious. 1. AlyvrrrlaKa. The late origin of this production is obvious from the fragment quoted by Arrian (Dissert. Epictet. ii. 19) and Gellius (i. 2 ; comp. Athen. xi. p. 470, xv. pp. 679, 680.) 2. Eis'AMJLwvos dvdgacrts, which is mentioned by Athenaeus (xiv. p. 652), who, however, doubts its genuineness. 3. Bapgapi/ccfc v6-(jufia, which, even according to the opinions of the ancients, was a compilation made from the works of Herodotus and Damastes. (Euseb. Praep. Evang. ix. p. 466; comp. Suid. s.v. Za,uoA|ts ; Etymol. Mag. p. 407. 48.) 4. 'ILQvwv ovo^acriai, which seems to have been a similar compilation. (Athen. xi. p. 462 ; comp. Herod, iv. 190.) It may have been the same work as the one which we find referred to under the name of Ilepl t&v&v (Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod, iv. 322), Kri.aeis \Qvwv nal , or simply kt'kt^is. (Steph. Byz. s. v. Xapi-
377
parat; Athen. x. p. 447.) Stephanus of Byzantium refers to some other works under the name of Hellanicus, such as Kvirptand^ to irepl AvS/cw/, and 2«:i>0//ca, of which we cannot say whether they were parts of another work, perhaps the Hepo-tud (of which we shall speak presently). The &oivikiko. mentioned by Cedrenus (Synops. p. 11), and the hroplai (Athen. ix. p. 411, where iepetais must probably be read for tarropiais; Theodoret, de Aff. p. 1022), probably never existed at all, and are wrong titles. There is one work referred to by Fulgentius (Myth. i. 2), called Aios iroXwrvxia, the very title of which is a mystery, and is otherwise unknown.
Setting aside these works, which were spurious, or at least of very doubtful character, we proceed to enumerate the genuine productions of Hellanicus, according to the three divisions under which they are arranged lay Preller, viz. genealogical, choro-graphical, and chronological works.
I. Genealogical works. It is a very probable opinion of Preller, that Apollodorus, in writing his Biblio-theca, followed principally the genealogical works of Hellanicus, and he accordingly arranges the latter in the following order, agreeing with that in which Apollodorus treats of his subjects. 1. Aei//ca\t<y-pet'a, in two books, containing the Thessalian traditions about the origin of man, and about Deucalion and his descendants down to the time of the Argonauts. (Clem. Alex. Strom. vi. p. 629.) The ®6TToAtKa referred to by Harpocration (s. v. rerpap-Xia) were either the same work or a portion of it. 2. Oopwws, in two books, contained the Pelas-gian and Argive traditions from the time of Phoro-neus and Ogyges down to Heracles, perhaps even down to the return of the Heracleidae. (Dionys. i. 28.) The works Ilepl 'AptcaStas (Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. i. 162), 'ApyoXiitd (Schol. ad Horn. IL iii. 75), and boi«tikc£ (ibid. iii. 494) were either the same work as the Phoronis or portions of it. 3. 'AT\avncis, in two books, containing the stories about Atlas and his descendants. (Harpo-crat. s.v. 'OjiojpiSai; Schol. ad Horn. II. xviii. 486.) 4. Tpuiitd, in two books, beginning with the time of Dardanus. (Harpocrat. s. v. Kptflwnj; Schol. ad Horn. IL </>. 242.) The 'AtrwTris was only a portion of the Troica. (Marcellin. Fit. Thuc. § 4.)
II. Chorographical works. 1. *Ar0/s, or a history of Attica, consisting of at least four books. The first contained the history of the mythical period ; the second was principally occupied with the history and antiquities of the Attic demi; the contents of the third and fourth are little known, but we know that Hellanicus treated of the Attic colonies established in Ionia, and of the subsequent events down to his own time. (Preller, I.e. p. 22, &c.; comp. Thuc. i. 97.) 2. AioAi/cc£, or the history of the Aeolians in Asia Minor and the islands of the Aegean. The Lesbiaca and Ilept Xiov /ctictcws seem to have formed sections of the Aeolica. (Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 1374 ; Schol. ad Find. Nem. xi. 43, ad Horn, Od. viii. 294.) 3. Ileptr/Ka, in two books, contained the history of Persia, Media, and Assyria from the time of Ninus to that of Hellanicus himself, as we may gather from the fragments still extant, and as is expressly stated by Cephalion in Syncellus (p. 315, ed. Dindorf).
III. Chronological works. 1. 'lepeicu T^wHpas, in three books, contained a chronological list of the priestesses of Hera at Argos. There existed undoubtedly at Argos in the temple of Hera records
