Helĭcé
（Ἑλίκη).
1.
Another name for the Ursa Maior, or “Greater Bear.” (See Arctos.)
2.
One of the chief cities of Achaia, situated on the shore of the Sinus Corinthiacus, near Bura (Herod.i. 146). It was celebrated for the temple and worship of Poseidon, thence called Heliconius. Here, also, the general meeting of the Ionians was convened, while yet in the possession of Aegialus, and the festival which then took place is supposed to have resembled that of the Panionia, which they instituted afterwards in Asia Minor (Pausan. vii. 24). A tremendous influx of the sea, caused by a violent earthquake, overwhelmed and completely destroyed Helicé two years before the battle of Leuctra, B.C. 373. The details of this catastrophe will be found in Pausanias (vii. 24) and Aelian (Hist. Anim. xi. 19). Eratosthenes, as Strabo reports, beheld the site of this ancient city, and he was assured by sailors that the bronze statue of Poseidon was still visible beneath the waters, holding an hippocampus, or sea-horse, in his hand, and that it formed a dangerous shoal for their vessels. Two thousand workmen were afterwards sent by the Achaeans to recover the dead bodies, but without success.