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Hellespont

American  
[hel-uh-spont] / ˈhɛl əˌspɒnt /

noun

  1. ancient name of the Dardanelles.


Hellespont British  
/ ˈhɛlɪˌspɒnt /

noun

  1. the ancient name for the Dardanelles

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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He discovered, upon crossing the Hellespont, that his huge armies exceeded the carrying capacity of the Greek countryside, that the topography favored the defender, that late-summer storms were battering his fleet in the Aegean Sea.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 16, 2018

He was a man of letters but also, like his hero Byron, a man of action — a war hero and a restless adventurer, who even swam the Hellespont when he was 69.

From New York Times ● Dec. 1, 2017

The strait on its southern shore is the Dardanelles—or, to use the old romantic term, the Hellespont, as it was called when Byron swam across it, in 1810.

From The New Yorker ● Apr. 25, 2015

In his teens he walked from the Hook of Holland to Constantinople, while in his sixties he swam the Hellespont, in homage to Lord Byron who swam it in 1810.

From BBC ● Apr. 18, 2014

She was drowned; and the strait was named for her: the Sea of Helle, the Hellespont.

From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton

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