Hippocrene

Hippocrene (Greek Ἱπποκρήνη, Ἵππου κρήνη " Ross source " ) is for sealing inspiring, the Apollo and the Muses sacred spring. It is located below the east summit of Helicon, west of the chapel of Agios Elias. According to legend, it was created by a hoof of Pegasus ridden by Bellerophon. A grove surrounding the source, and the path to it was adorned with statues and monuments. Even today, it is provided with an ancient enclosure.

The Hippocrene literally stands at the beginning of Greek mythology, as it appears in the opening verses of Hesiod's Theogony:

Let me begin my song of heliconic Muses, They live on the helicon Höhn, the sublime, sacred, And to the bluish swelling with gentle hingleitendem foot Loops the dance at the altar of Zeus, the mighty ruler. And after they bathed in the soft body Permessos Or in holy tide of Olmeios or Ross source, Order it now to the highest summit on the Helikon to dance Beautiful and lovely and set the step slightly floating foot.

Swell

  • Hesiod Theogony 1 ff
  • Ovid Fasti 5.7 f; Metamorphoses 5.255 ff
  • Pausanias 9,31,3 f
  • Propertius Elegiae 3,3,1 ff
  • Strabo, 8,6,21; 9,2,25
Mount Helicon Fasti (poem) Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae
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