Editing Hellen (section)

== ''Melanippe Wise'' ==

Though primarily genealogical in importance,<ref>Gantz, p. 167: "The immediate offspring of Deukalion and Pyrrha, including indeed several generations, are primarily eponymous ancestors or intermediate place-holders rather than actors in any real narratives".</ref> Hellen does feature briefly in [[Euripides]]' lost play ''Melanippe Wise'' (c. 420 BC). In the play, [[Melanippe]], the daughter of [[Aeolus (son of Hellen)|Aeolus]] (and thus the granddaughter of Hellen),<ref>Gantz, p. 734; [[Euripides]] [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL504.579.xml fr. 481 Collard and Cropp, pp. 578, 579] [= [https://archive.org/details/tragicorumgraeco00naucuoft/page/510/mode/2up?view=theater fr. 481 Nauck, p. 511] = ''Melanippe Wise'' 1&ndash;2 ([https://www.loebclassics.com/view/select_papyri_poetry_tragedy_5th_4th_centuries_bc/1941/pb_LCL360.119.xml Page pp. 118, 119])]; ''Melanippe Wise'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL504.573.xml test. 1 Collard and Cropp, pp. 572, 573]; cf. [[Euripides]] [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.523.xml fr. 929b Collard and Cropp, pp. 522, 523] [= [https://archive.org/details/tragicorumgraeco00naucuoft/page/366/mode/2up?view=theater fr. 14 Nauck, p. 366]].</ref> becomes by [[Poseidon]] the mother of twins, [[Aeolus (son of Poseidon)|Aeolus]] and [[Boeotus (son of Poseidon)|Boeotus]]. They are placed in a cowshed, leading Aeolus to think they are the "unnatural offspring of a cow",<ref>Collard and Cropp, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL504.569.xml pp. 568&ndash;9].</ref> and Hellen convinces Aeolus to burn the twins.<ref>Gantz, p. 734.</ref> This story is depicted on an [[Apulian]] [[volute krater]] dating to the late 4th century BC, in which a shepherd shows the twins to Hellen, in the presence of Melanippe, Aeolus, and Aeolus' son [[Cretheus]].<ref>''[[Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae|LIMC]]'' [http://ark.dasch.swiss/ark:/72163/080e-73a4c5f9243d7-1 64 Hellen (S) 1], [https://www.iconiclimc.ch/limc/imageview.php?image=b4f84d6ae2c148108b5791436b49c723&total=1&term=%22Hellen+%28S%29%22 image 1 of 1]; [[Michael C. Carlos Museum]] [https://collections.carlos.emory.edu/objects/14741 1994.001]; Bing, p. 13; Oakley, [https://www.ajaonline.org/sites/default/files/1134_Oakley.pdf#page=21 p. 619, figure 18]. For an extensive discussion of the vase, see Bing, pp. 13&ndash;6; see also Gantz, pp. 734&ndash;5; Collard and Cropp, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL504.571.xml p. 570]. The only iconographic representation of Hellen, Bing, p. 14 describes him here as a "hooded, grizzled old man" and Gantz, p. 735 as "grim".</ref>