Mnemosyne — Classical Greek Myth Library

Hellen was the son of Deucalion and Pyrrha—or, in an alternate genealogy, of Zeus and Pyrrha—and the eponym of the Hellenes. Apollodorus places him after the flood: from Deucalion’s line comes the name by which Greeks call themselves. Hellen ruled in Phthia (or held power in Thessaly); he married a nymph Orseis (or similar) and fathered Dorus, Xuthus, and Aeolus—the three stems from which the major Greek tribal names are derived. Thucydides, in his archaeologia, treats Hellen and his sons as the figure through whom “Hellenic” speech and alliance spread: first in Phthiotis, then by invitation and war, until the name prevailed. Mythographic handbook and historical prologue thus agree that Hellen is not a labors-hero but a name-father: the pivot from flood survivors to the ethnic map of Greece. His personal deeds are few; his importance is genealogical and onomastic.