HISTORY OF HELLESPONT | +90 286 212 44 33 |
The name Dardanalles comes from Dardanus, mythical ancestor of nearby Troy. It was also called the Hellespont in ancient times. According to ancient writers, in mythology ,the name derives from Hele who fell from the back of the golden-fleeced ram while passing through the strait on the way to Colchis in the Black Sea. Despite unpredictable weather and swift surface currents, the Dardanelles has been a strategic water route and an object of conguest throughout history. Unlike the Bosphorus in Ýstanbul, there is no bridge today on the Dardanelles. In the 5 BC the Persian king Xerxes built a pantoon bridge which streched from Abydos to Sestos on his war against the Greeks.
Hero and Leander
In mythology Hero and Leander were lovers. Hero, a priestess of Aphrodite, lived in Sestos, leander lived in abydos, on the other side of the Hellespont (Dardanelles). Every night, guided by a lamp placed by Hero, Leander swam across the strait to be with her. One night a tempest arose, the lamp was extinguished and Leander drawned; when Hero saw her dead lover she commited suicide.
The story is the subject of Christopher Marrow’s unfinished poem “Hero and Leander” and Lord Byron’s “The Bride of Abydos”.
- The winds are high on Helle’s wave
As on that night of stormy weather
When love, who sent, forgot to save
The young the beautiful the brave
The lonely hope of Sestos’ daughter
