_Hell_, Dantê says, is a vast funnel divided into eight circles, with ledges more or less rugged. Each circle, of course, is narrower that the one above, and the last goes down to the very centre of the earth. Before the circles begin, there is a neutral land and a limbo. In the neutral land wander those not bad enough for hell nor good enough for heaven; in the limbo, those who knew no sin but were not baptized Christians. Coming then to hell proper, circle 1, he says, is compassed by the river Achĕron, and in this division of inferno dwell the spirits of the heathen philosophers. Circle 2 is presided over by Minos, and here are the spirits of those guilty of carnal and sinful love. Circle 3 is guarded by Cerbĕrus, and this is the region set apart for gluttons. Circle 4, presided over by Plutus, is the realm of the avaricious. Circle 5 contains the Stygian Lake, and here flounder in deep mud those who in life put no restraint on their anger. Circle 6 (in the city of Dis) is for those who did violence to man by force or fraud. Circle 7 (in the city of Dis) is for suicides. Circle 8 (also in the city of Dis) is for blasphemers and heretics. After the eight circles comes the ten pits or chasms of Malebolgê (_4 syl._), the last of which is the centre of the earth, and here he says is the frozen river of Cocy´tus. (See INFERNO.) =Hellespont.= Leander used to swim across the Hellespont to visit Hero, a priestess of Sestos. Lord Byron and Lieutenant Ekenhead repeated the feat and accomplished it in seventy minutes, the distance being four miles (allowing for drifting). He could perhaps have passed the Hellespont, As once (a feat on which ourselves we prided) Leander, Mr. Ekenhead, and I did. Byron, _Don Juan_, ii. 105 (1819). =Hellica´nus=, the able and honest minister of Per´iclês, to whom he left the charge of Tyre during his absence. Being offered the crown, Hellicānus nobly declined the offer, and remained faithful to the prince throughout.—Shakespeare, _Pericles, Prince of Tyre_ (1608). =Helmet of Invisibility.= The helmet of Perseus (_2 syl._) rendered the wearer invisible. This was in reality the “Helmet of Ha´dès,” and after Perseus had slain Medu´sa he restored it, together with the winged sandals and magic wallet. The “gorgon’s head” he presented to Minerva, who placed it in the middle of her ægis. (See INVISIBILITY.) ⁂ Mambrīno’s helmet had the same magical power, though Don Quixote, even in his midsummer madness, never thought himself invisible when he donned the barber’s basin. =Heloise.= _La Nouvelle Héloïse_, a romance by Jean Jacques Rousseau (1761). =He´mera=, sister of Prince Memnon, mentioned by Dictys Cretensis. Milton, in his _Il Penseroso_, speaks of “Prince Memnon’s sister” (1638).