HELLEBORE (helleborus), a genus of plants of the nat. ord. Ranunculaceæ, all of which possess very active purgative qualities. (See BOTANY.) The black hellebore was a famous remedy among the ancient Greeks and Romans, especially in mania: and so prevalent was the belief in its efficacy in imparting clearness to the mental faculties, that the most celebrated philosophers used to prepare themselves for intellectual labour by drinking an infusion of the leaves of this plant. The best grew in the island of Anticyra in the Ægean Sea, and the gathering of it was accompanied with superstitious observances.
HELLENISMS are idioms transferred from the vernacular into the Greek by the writers of the New Testament.