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Ἑλεπόλεις · city-destroyers, helepoleis (ε 799) · Suda

Letters

Α Β Γ Δ Ε Ζ Η Θ Ι Κ Λ Μ Ν Ξ Ο Π Ρ Σ Τ Υ Φ Χ Ψ Ω

Near ε799

ε795Pity's altar
ε796to have been thinned
ε797Eleon, Heleon
ε798I pity you
ε799city-destroyers, helepoleis
ε800evil works
ε801to choose
ε802takeable
ε803nanny-goats [are] free of ploughs

Suda/Ε epsilon/ε799

← Previous entry,ε798 Next entry,ε800 →

Ἑλεπόλεις

city-destroyers, helepoleis

Translated by David Whitehead1 Nov 2000Vetting: high4 revisions

biography
definition
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5 words

Translation

[Meaning] machines [for] sacking cities.

Greek original · Adler’s text

Ἑλεπόλεις· μηχανήματα πόλεις πορθοῦντα.

Betacode

*(elepo/leis: mhxanh/mata po/leis porqou=nta.

Notes

Likewise or similarly in other lexica.
The helepolis was a large mobile siege-tower, originating in the late C4 BCE, with the engineers and designers serving King Demetrius Poliorcetes ("The Besieger"). Marsden 84-5 suggests that the name was suggested by the application of the adjective e(le/ptolis in tragedy to Helen (Aeschylus, Agamemnon 689) and Iphigeneia (Euripides, Iphigeneia in Aulis 1476, 1511).

References

E.W. Marsden, Greek and Roman Artillery: Technical Treatises (Oxford 1971, reissued 1999)

Neighbouring entries

ε797ἘλεώνEleon, Heleon ε798Ἐλεῶ σεI pity you ε799Ἑλεπόλειςcity-destroyers, helepoleis ε800Ἔλλερα ἔργαevil works ε801Ἑλέσθαιto choose

Revision history4 revisions · last 16 Dec 2015

16 Dec 2015Revised — David Whitehead
29 Jul 2011more keywords; tweaks — David Whitehead
1 Dec 2002augmented note; added keyword; cosmetics — David Whitehead
9 Sep 2002added keyword — Catharine Roth
1 Nov 2000Translated — David Whitehead

Cite this entry

Suda On Line, s.v. Ἑλεπόλεις (Adler number epsilon 799), trans. David Whitehead, 1 Nov 2000. https://www.cs.uky.edu/~raphael/sol/sol-entries/epsilon/799

Translation by David Whitehead for Suda On Line, revised by David Whitehead, Catharine Roth, licensed CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Shown unchanged, under the same licence, non-commercially. Original on SOL ↗