[1] The term _Volkssanger_, commonly used in German discussions of
this question, is misleading; the audience for heroic poetry was not
"the people" in the modern sense, but the nobles.
HELICON, a mountain range, of Boeotia in ancient Greece, celebrated in
classical literature as the favourite haunt of the Muses, is situated
between Lake Copais and the Gulf of Corinth. On the fertile eastern
slopes stood a temple and grove sacred to the Muses, and adorned with
beautiful statues, which, taken by Constantine the Great to beautify his
new city, were consumed there by a fire in A.D. 404. Hard by were the
famous fountains, Aganippe and Hippocrene, the latter fabled to have
gushed from the earth at the tread of the winged horse Pegasus, whose
favourite browsing place was there. At the neighbouring Ascra dwelt the
poet Hesiod, a fact which probably enhanced the poetic fame of the
region. Pausanias, who describes Helicon in his ninth book, asserts that
it was the most fertile mountain in Greece, and that neither poisonous
plant nor serpent was to be found on it, while many of its herbs
possessed a miraculous healing virtue. The highest summit, the present
Palaeovouni (old hill), rises to the height of about 5000 ft. Modern
travellers, aided by ancient remains and inscriptions, and guided by the
local descriptions of Pausanias, have succeeded in identifying many of
the ancient classical spots, and the French excavators have discovered
the temple of the Muses and a theatre.
See also Clarke, _Travels in Various Countries_ (vol. vii., 1818);
Dodwell, _Classical and Topographical Tour through Greece_ (1818); W.
M. Leake, _Travels in Northern Greece_ (vol. ii., 1835); J. G.
Frazer's edition of _Pausanias_, v. 150.
HELICON (Fr. _helicon, bombardon circulaire_; Ger. _Helikon_), the
circular form of the B[flat] contrabass tuba used in military bands,
worn round the body, with the enormous bell resting on the left shoulder
and towering above the head of the performer. The pitch of the helicon
is an octave below that of the euphonium. The idea of winding the long
tube of the contrabass tuba and of wearing it round the shoulders was
suggested by the ancient Roman buccina and cornu, represented in mosaics
and on the sculptured reliefs surrounding Trajan's Column. The buccina
and cornu[1] differed in the diameter of their respective bores, the
former having the narrow, almost cylindrical bore and harmonic series of
the trumpet and trombone, whereas the cornu, having a bore in the form
of a wide cone, was the prototype of the bugle and tubas.