HELLANICUS OF LESBOS

flourished 5th century BC Greek historian whose work marks an advance in the development of historiography. He lived for some time at the court of one of the kings of Macedonia and died at Perperene, in Asia Minor. Some 30 works (of which fragments survive) are attributed to him, including Hiereiai tes Heras en Argei ("Priestesses of Hera at Argos"). Hellanicus was not content to repeat the traditions that had gained general acceptance through the poets but tried to render them as they were locally remembered and told. By using a few national or priestly lists, he attempted to lay the foundations of a scientific chronology, based primarily on a list of the Argive priestesses of Hera and secondarily on genealogies, lists of magistrates (e.g., the archons at Athens), and Oriental dates, in place of the old reckoning by generations. But his materials were insufficient, and he often fell back on the older methods. Because he deviated so much from common tradition, he was thought untrustworthy by the ancients themselves. Hellanicus appears to have made no systematic use of inscriptions and, unlike his contemporary Herodotus, never developed a conception of a single current of events wider than local and ethnic distinctions.