Hellotia

Hellotia was an epithet of Athena at Corinth. Hellotia also refers to the goddess Europa, known as Hellotis in Crete, where she was honoured with the Hellotia festival.

According to the scholiast on Pindar (Ol. xiii. 56), the name was derived from the fertile marsh (helos) near Marathon, where Athena had a sanctuary ; or from Hellotia, one of the daughters of Timander, who fled into the temple of Athena when Corinth was burnt down by the Dorians, and was destroyed in the temple with her sister Eurytione. Soon after, a plague broke out at Corinth, and the oracle declared that it should not cease until the souls of the maidens were propitiated, and a sanctuary should be erected to Athena Hellotis.

Hellotis was also a surname of Europe in Crete, where the Cretan Hellotia festival was celebrated in honour of the Phoenician princess, and goddess, Hellotis being another name for Europa, and for whom Europe is named.

References

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Missing or empty |title= (help)

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