Mount Helicon, Sacred mountain in Boeotia, Greece

Mount Helicon is a mountain in Boeotia, central Greece, rising to 1,749 metres about 10 kilometres from the north coast of the Gulf of Corinth. Its upper slopes are bare grey and brown rock with loose stone and low ridges, crossed by a thin winding track; lower slopes are often wrapped in cloud, and the mountain drops toward a wide expanse of water under an overcast sky.

Ancient Greeks linked the mountain to the nine Muses and built sanctuaries there that wandering poets would visit. This religious role made the site an important center for artistic and spiritual exchange in antiquity.

Hesiod, who pastured sheep on Helicon's slopes, describes the Muses giving him a laurel staff of poetic authority, and his Theogony opens with an invocation to them. In the Valley of the Muses near Thespiai, Pausanias saw a sacred grove by the Aganippe spring, images of Eupheme and the poet Linus in a worked rock cave, and statues of Apollo, Dionysus and poets.

The terrain is best explored on foot, but trails can be steep and rocky in places. It is wise to bring sturdy footwear and plenty of water, as the mountain offers little shade.

The sacrificial tripod Hesiod won at a contest in Chalcis, in Euboea, was still on view on Helicon when Pausanias visited in the second century CE. He also saw a small rock worked into the manner of a cave, holding an image of the legendary poet Linus.