in Ancient Geography, a celebrated mountain range in Boeotia, lying between the Lake Copais and the Corinthian Gulf. It was the fabled abode and favourite haunt of the muses, thence called Heliconides and Heliconiades. On the hill-side was a grove sacred to these deities, not far from which was the celebrated fountain of Aganippe. About twenty stadia from this same grove was the still more famous fountain Hippocrene (horse's well), said to have been made by the foot of the winged horse Pegasus. The mountain is nearly equal to Parnassus in circumference, but not much more than half as high. Its highest peak, Paleozeni, is rather less than 5000 feet in height, while Parnassus is more than 8000. The eastern slopes of Helicon are well-watered and fertile, and produce a great variety of trees and fruits. Those on the western side are less productive.

Helicon owes its celebrity chiefly to its poetical associations; and it became famous in Greek poetry, from its neighbourhood to Ascra, the birth-place of Hesiod, the first and greatest poet of his class, who was born in Greece Proper.