The Hellespont: Site of Mythological Adventure
by Anita
The Hellespont is a narrow body of water which runs northeast to southwest, connecting the north Aegean Sea with the south end of the Propontis. At the north end of the Propontis is the Bosporus channel, which connects to the Euxine Sea. The Hellespont separates the land area of the Thracian Chersonese from Asia Minor. In modern times many of the names have changed. The Hellespont is now called the Dardanelles, the Propontis is called the Sea of Marmora, and the Euxine Sea is the Black Sea. The land on both sides of the Hellespont is now called Turkey; the northwest side is in Europe and the southeast side in Asia Minor. The city of Istanbul in Turkey is divided by the Bosporus channel, and again, half is in Europe and half in Asia Minor. This part of the world has a fairly temperate climate, with mild temperatures in the winter and hot summers.
Historically, the Hellespont has been the crossroads from Asia to Europe and has been a natural barrier for invading armies over many hundreds of years. The Greeks occupied this area from 1200-546 BC and again from 334-196 BC. The cities of Troy, Sestos and Abydos have enjoyed a thriving business in international trade for centuries, and when trade was slow, fishing was also a source of income.
Although the area of the Hellespont has played a part in many well-known stories in mythology, one of the most famous is the one from which the Hellespont takes its name. Athamas was the king of Thebes and he had two children by Nephele, the goddess of the clouds – Phryxus and Helle. Athamas cast aside Nephele and married a second wife, Ino, who hated her stepchildren and plotted against them. Ino secretly scorched the grain intended for seeds so it would not grow, which resulted in a famine in Thebes. Athamas sent messengers to Delphi to inquire how they could be saved from this catastrophe, but Ino bribed the messenger to falsify the oracle and tell Athamas that the only way to stop the famine was if his son Phryxus was sacrificed to Zeus (Perseus website). Nephele, the cloud goddess, learned of the danger, swooped down and saved both her children, and put them on the ram with the golden fleece, which she had received from Hermes. This gilded ram, which had magical powers, was said to be the offspring of Poseidon and Theophane. The children flew off, traveling over Greece, and started for Colchis, on the far eastern end of the Black Sea. Phryxus kept a tight hold on the wool of the flying sheep, but poor Helle was frightened; she fell off and was drowned in the water below. This body of water was named the Hellespont in her honor (Prada website). Some authors claim that Helle became the maritime goddess of the Hellespont when Poseidon transformed her into a sea-goddess, and she now watches over ships that pass on her waters (Theoi website). Phryxus flew on and reached Colchis, where he sacrificed the ram to Ares and gave the golden fleece to Aeetes, king of Colchis. Aeetes nailed the fleece to an oak in the holy meadow of Ares, where it was guarded by a sleepless dragon. This same golden fleece went on to play an important part in the saga of Jason and the Argonauts.
Another myth that centers around the Hellespont is the story of Hero and Leander, one of the most tender and sad love stories to come down to us over the ages. Leander was a young man of Abydus, a town on the Asia Minor side of the Hellespont. This area of the strait is the narrowest point and across the water on the Turkey side was the town of Sestus. In a high tower next to the water lived the lovely maiden Hero, who was a priestess of Aphrodite. Hero and Leander met at a festival and fell in love, but because of her parents’ strict rules and her role as a virgin priestess, they could not meet openly. Every night Hero would light a signal torch in the tower and Leander would use this light as a beacon as he swam across the Hellespont to be with his love. In the morning, he would swim back to the other side of the water and count the hours until he could return to Hero. They continued on, blissfully happy, until one night, as Leander was swimming across the Hellespont, a fierce storm came in and blew out the torch in the tower. Without the signal light to guide him, Leander was hopelessly lost and he drowned. In the morning, Hero found his body washed up on the shore and in her despair, she threw herself from the tower down to the rocks below, and she too died (Bulfinch website). To this day, many classical poets such as A.E. Housman, Keats and Lord Byron reference the tragic love story of Hero and Leander in their works. In 1810 Lord Byron swam the Hellespont himself just to prove that it could be done.
The famous city of Troy is situated at the mouth of the Hellespont where it leads into the Aegean Sea, and is the site of many well-known figures from mythology and history. When the three goddesses – Hera, Athena and Aphrodite – quarrel over a golden apple that is inscribed "for the fairest", Zeus throws the apple down off Mount Olympus and it lands in a field outside Troy (Harris, Platzner 316). Paris, the son of the king of Troy, picks up the apple, makes a deal with Aphrodite for the apple, and she promises him the love of the most beautiful woman in the world. Thus Paris seduces Helen while her husband Menelaus is away from home, and takes her back to Troy with him. This incident leads to an alliance of all the Greek princes to recover Helen and the beginning of the Trojan War. The war raged on for ten years and it was only the clever ploy of using the Trojan Horse that brought the war to an end. With Athena’s help, a huge wooden horse was made, large enough to hold a number of men. The Greeks tricked the Trojans into bringing the horse inside their fortress and after a fierce fight, the Greeks took Troy and burnt it, killing most of the men and taking the women away as slaves (Barber, 264-265). The city of Troy remains today a popular tourist spot, a city of many famous landmarks and monuments.
Works Cited
Barber, Richard. Companion to World Mythology. New York: Delacorte Press, 1979.
Harris, Stephen L., and Platzner, Gloria. Classical Mythology. 3rd ed. Mountain View: Mayfield Publishing Co., 2001
http://www.bulfinch.org/fables/bull13.html