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Hellespont (Turkish
Turkish language

Turkish is a language spoken by over 63 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Cyprus, with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania and other parts of Eastern Europe....
 , Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
 ; i.e. "Sea of Helle", variously named in classical literature Hellespontium Pelagus, Rectum Hellesponticum, and Fretum Hellesponticum) was the ancient name of the narrow strait
Strait

A strait or straits is a narrow, navigable channel of water that connects two larger navigable bodies of water. It most commonly refers to a channel of water that lies between two land masses, but it may also refer to a navigable channel through a body of water that is otherwise not navigable, for example because it is too shallow, or...
, now known by the modern European term 'the Dardanelles
Dardanelles

.The Dardanelles , formerly known as the Hellespont, is a narrow strait in northwestern Turkey connecting the Aegean Sea to the Sea of Marmara....
'. It was so called from Helle
Helle (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Helle figured prominently in the story of Jason and the Argonauts. Phrixus, son of Athamus and Nephele, along with his twin sister, Helle, were hated by their stepmother, Ino....
, the daughter of Athamas
Athamas

The king of Orchomenus in Greek mythology, Athamas , was married first to the goddess Nephele with whom he had the twins Phrixus and Helle . He later divorced Nephele and married Ino , daughter of Cadmus....
, who was drowned here in the mythology
Mythology

The word mythology refers to a body of folklore/myths/legends that a particular culture believes to be true and that often use the supernatural to interpret natural events and to explain the nature of the universe and humanity....
 of the Golden Fleece
Golden Fleece

In Greek mythology, the Golden Fleece is the fleece of the winged ram Chrysomallos . It figures in the tale of Jason and his band of Argonauts, who set out on a quest for the fleece in order to place Jason rightfully on the throne of Iolcus in Thessaly....
.






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Dardanelles Map2
Hellespont (Turkish
Turkish language

Turkish is a language spoken by over 63 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Cyprus, with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania and other parts of Eastern Europe....
 , Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
 ; i.e. "Sea of Helle", variously named in classical literature Hellespontium Pelagus, Rectum Hellesponticum, and Fretum Hellesponticum) was the ancient name of the narrow strait
Strait

A strait or straits is a narrow, navigable channel of water that connects two larger navigable bodies of water. It most commonly refers to a channel of water that lies between two land masses, but it may also refer to a navigable channel through a body of water that is otherwise not navigable, for example because it is too shallow, or...
, now known by the modern European term 'the Dardanelles
Dardanelles

.The Dardanelles , formerly known as the Hellespont, is a narrow strait in northwestern Turkey connecting the Aegean Sea to the Sea of Marmara....
'. It was so called from Helle
Helle (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Helle figured prominently in the story of Jason and the Argonauts. Phrixus, son of Athamus and Nephele, along with his twin sister, Helle, were hated by their stepmother, Ino....
, the daughter of Athamas
Athamas

The king of Orchomenus in Greek mythology, Athamas , was married first to the goddess Nephele with whom he had the twins Phrixus and Helle . He later divorced Nephele and married Ino , daughter of Cadmus....
, who was drowned here in the mythology
Mythology

The word mythology refers to a body of folklore/myths/legends that a particular culture believes to be true and that often use the supernatural to interpret natural events and to explain the nature of the universe and humanity....
 of the Golden Fleece
Golden Fleece

In Greek mythology, the Golden Fleece is the fleece of the winged ram Chrysomallos . It figures in the tale of Jason and his band of Argonauts, who set out on a quest for the fleece in order to place Jason rightfully on the throne of Iolcus in Thessaly....
. The Hellespont, is thus one of the Turkish Straits
Turkish Straits

The term Turkish Straits in northwestern Turkey refers to the two narrow straits that connect the Sea of Marmara with the Aegean Sea arm of the Mediterranean Sea on the one side and the Black Sea on the other....
 along with the Bosporus
Bosporus

The Bosporus or Bosphorus , also known as the Istanbul Strait , is a strait that forms the boundary between the European part of Turkey and its Asian part ....
 that separate Anatolia
Anatolia

Anatolia or Asia Minor is a region of Western Asia, comprising most of the modern Republic of Turkey. It is a geographic region bounded by the Black Sea to the north, the Caucasus to the northeast, the Aegean Sea to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and the Iranian plateau to the east and southeast....
 from continent of Europe.

Herodotus
Herodotus

Herodotus of Halicarnassus was a Greeks historian who lived in the 5th century BC and is regarded as the "Father of History" in Western culture....
 tells us that c. 482 BC the king Xerxes
Xerxes I of Persia

Xerxes the Great, also known as Xerxes I of Persia, was a Persian Empire of the Achaemenid Empire. X?rxes is the Greek language form of the Old Persian throne name X?ayar?a, meaning "Ruler of heroes"....
 I of Persia and son of Darius had two bridges built across the width of the Hellespont at Abydos
Abydos, Hellespont

Abydos , an ancient city of Mysia, in Asia Minor, situated at Nara Burnu or Nagara Point on the best harbor on the Asiatic shore of the Hellespont....
 in order that his huge army, ostensibly made of 5 million men (most historians put the actual number of this army at closer to 250,000 men, though a second school of thought lends the accounts of Herodotus more credence, bringing the number closer to 400,000), could cross from Persia into Greece
Ancient Greece

The term Ancient Greece refers to the period of History of Greece lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca. 1100 BC and the Dorian invasion, to 146 BC and the Roman Republic conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth ....
. This crossing was named by Aeschylus
Aeschylus

Aeschylus was an Ancient Greece playwright. He is often recognized as the father or the founder of tragedy, and is the earliest of the three Greek tragedy whose Play survive extant, the others being Sophocles and Euripides....
 in his tragedy The Persians
The Persians

The Persians is an Classical Athens tragedy by the Classical Greece playwright Aeschylus. First produced in 472 BCE, it is the oldest surviving play in the history of theatre....
 as the cause of divine intervention against Xerxes.

The Hellespont was also the body of water which Leander
Hero and Leander

Hero and Leander is a Greek mythology, relating the story of Hero , a priestess of Aphrodite who dwelt in a tower in Sestos, at the edge of the Hellespont, and Leander , a young man from Abydos, Hellespont on the other side of the strait....
 would cross in order to tryst with his beloved, the priestess Hero
Hero and Leander

Hero and Leander is a Greek mythology, relating the story of Hero , a priestess of Aphrodite who dwelt in a tower in Sestos, at the edge of the Hellespont, and Leander , a young man from Abydos, Hellespont on the other side of the strait....
. Lord Byron famously swam the Hellespont as a feat of his athletic prowess.

Xerxes' Crossing

Xerxes Lash Sea
According to Herodotus
Herodotus

Herodotus of Halicarnassus was a Greeks historian who lived in the 5th century BC and is regarded as the "Father of History" in Western culture....
 (vv.34), both bridges were destroyed by a storm and Xerxes had those responsible for building the bridges beheaded and the strait itself whipped. The Histories of Herodotus vii.33-37 and vii.54-58 give details of Xerxes' building and crossing of the bridges. Xerxes is then said to have thrown fetters
Fetters

Fetters, shackles, footcuffs or leg irons are a kind of physical restraint used on the foot or ankles to allow walking but prevent running and kicking....
 into the strait, given it three hundred lashes and branded it with red-hot irons as the soldiers shouted at the water.

Herodotus commented that this was a "highly presumptuous way to address the Hellespont" but in no way atypical of Xerxes. (vii.35)

Harpalus the Macedonian eventually helped the invading armies to cross by lashing the ships together with their bows facing the current and two additional anchors.

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