Helicon (also transliterated Helikon) was a river attested in antiquity, which existed near the
Macedonian
Macedonian most often refers to someone or something from or related to Macedonia.
Macedonian(s) may refer to:
People Modern
* Macedonians (ethnic group), a nation and a South Slavic ethnic group primarily associated with North Macedonia
* Mac ...
city of
Dion in
Pieria.
[Jennifer Lynn Larson, ''Greek nymphs: myth, cult, lore'' (Oxford University Press US, 2001), 139.] Pausanias describes it as
vanishing underground and resurfacing under a different name, and relates an
Orphic
Orphism is the name given to a set of religious beliefs and practices originating in the ancient Greek and Hellenistic world, associated with literature ascribed to the mythical poet Orpheus, who descended into the Greek underworld and returned ...
tradition that the river sank after the
maenads
In Greek mythology, maenads (; ) were the female followers of Dionysus and the most significant members of his retinue, the ''thiasus''.
Their name, which comes from :wikt:μαίνομαι#Ancient Greek, μαίνομαι (''maínomai'', “to ...
who had killed Orpheus tried to cleanse themselves of blood (and the ritual pollution of murder) in its waters.
References
Bibliography
* Pausanias, ''Description of Greece with an English Translation'', trans. W.H.S. Jones, and H.A. Ormerod, (Cambridge: MA, Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1918).
Rivers of Greece
Former rivers
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