HELLEBORE, a genus of plants belonging to the pentandria clas, and in the natural method ranking under the 26th order, Multifiliæ. Helleborus. See BOTANY Index.

HELEN, the son of Deucalion, is said to have given the name of Hellenites to the people before called Greek, 1521 B.C. See GREECE.

HELENISM, in matters of language, a phrase in the idiom, genius, or construction of the Greek tongue.

This word is only used when speaking of the authors who, writing in a different language, express themselves in a phraseology peculiar to the Greek.

HELENISTIC LANGUAGE, that used by the Grecian Jews who lived in Egypt and other parts where the Greek tongue prevailed. In this language it is said the Septuagint was written, and also the books of the New Testament; and that it was thus denominated to show that it was Greek filled with Hebraisms and Syriacisms.

HELENISTS (Helleniæ), a term occurring in the Greek text of the New Testament, and which in the English version is rendered Grecians.

The critics are divided as to the signification of the word. Occumenius, in his Scholia on Acts vi. 1, observes, that it is not to be understood as signifying those of the religion of the Greeks, but those who spoke Greek, τους Ἑλληνιστας φιλοζηλους. The authors of the Vulgate version, indeed, render it like ours, Greci; but Messieurs Du Port Royal more accurately, Juifs Grecs, Greek or Grecian Jews; it being the Jews who spoke Greek that are here treated of, and who are hereby distinguished from the Jews called Hebrews, that is, who spoke the Hebrew tongue of that time.

The Hellenists, or Grecian Jews, were those who lived in Egypt and other parts where the Greek tongue prevailed. It is to them we owe the Greek version of the Old Testament, commonly called the Septuagint, or that of the seventy.

Salmasius and Vossius are of a different sentiment with regard to the Hellenists. The latter will only have them to be those who adhered to the Grecian interests.

Scaliger is represented, in the Scaligerana, as asserting the Hellenists to be the Jews who lived in Greece and other places, and who read the Greek Bible in their synagogue, and used the Greek language in facris: and thus they were opposed to the Hebrew Jews, who performed their public worship in the Hebrew tongue; and in this sense St Paul speaks of himself as a Hebrew of the Hebrews, Phil. iii. 5, i.e. a Hebrew both by nation and language. The Hellenists are thus properly distinguished from the Hellenes or Greeks, mentioned John xii. 20, who were Greeks by birth and nation, and yet proselytes to the Jewish religion.

HELLENODICÆ, Ἑλληνοδίκαι, in antiquity, the directors of the Olympian games. At first there was only one, afterwards the number increased to two and to three, and at length to nine. They assembled in a place called Ελληνοδικεῖον, in the Elean forum, where they were obliged to reside ten months before the celebration of the games, to take care that such as offered themselves to contend, performed their προπαιδεύσεις, or preparatory exercises, and to be instructed in all the laws of games by certain men called νομοφυλακίς, i.e. "keepers of the laws." And the better to prevent all unjust practices, they were farther obliged to take an oath. oath, that they would act impartially, would take no bribes, nor discover the reason for which they disliked or approved of any of the contenders. At the solemnity they sat naked, having before them the victorious crown till the exercises were finished, and then it was presented to whomsoever they adjudged it. Nevertheless, there lay an appeal from the hellenodice to the Olympian senate.