Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/385

Rh HELENA. In some degree compensated for her suffering, for she was treated during the remainder of her career •with the most marked distinction, received the title of Augusta, and after her deatli, at an ad- vanced age, about a. d. 328, her memory was kept alive by the names of Helenopolis and Helenopon- tus, bestowed respectively upon a city of Syria, a city of Bithynia, and a district bordering on the Euxine. The virtues of this holy lady, her attach- ment to the Christian faith, which she appears to liave embraced at the instance of Constantine, her pilgrimage to Jerusalem, where she was believed to have discovered the sepulchre of our Lord, to- gether with the wood of the true cross, and her zealous patronage of the faithful, have afforded a copious theme to Eusebius, Sozomenus, Theodore- tus, and ecclesiastical historians, and, at a later period, procured for her the glory of canonisation. (Gruter, C.I. cclxxxiv. 1 ; Eutrop. x. 2 ; Aurel. Vict. Epit. 39, 40 ; Zosira. ii. 8 ; Oros. vii. 25 ; Euseb. Vit. Const, iii. 46, 47 ; Sozomen. ii. 1 ; Theodoret. i. 18. On the legitimacy of St. He- lena's marriage, see Tillemont, Histoire des Empe- reurs^ vol. iv., Notes sur PEmpereur Constantin^ not. i., and on the period of her death, not. Ivii.) 2, Daughter of Constantine the Great and Fausta, was given in marriage by her brother Constantius to her cousin Julian the Apostate, when the latter was nominated Caesar, towards the end of A. D. 355. She survived the union for five years only, until A. D. 360, having borne one child, a boy, which died immediately after its birth. Her sterility, as well as the fate of this solitary infant, were ascribed, as we learn from Ammianus Marcellinus, to the guilty arts of her sister-in-law, the empress Eusebia. (Amm. Marc. xv. 8. $ 18, xvi. 10. § 18, xxi. 1. §5.) The medals belonging to this epoch which bear the name of Helena are peculiarly embarrassing, since, in most cases, it is very difficult, if not im- possible, to decide which belong to Helena the wife of Chlorus, which to Helena the wife of Julian, and which to Helena the wife of Crispus. The designation appears upon the obverses under four forms: 1. Fl. Jul. Helenae. Aug.; 2. Flavia or Fl. Helena. Augusta ; 3. He- lena. N. F. {Nobilis Femina) ; 4. Helena Fl. Max. {Helena Flavia Mannma). HELENUS. 371 COIN OF HELENA, WIFE OP CONSTANTIUS CHLORUS. rOIN OF HELENA, WIFE OF CRISPUS OR JULI/NUS. The dissertation of Eckhel, vol. viii. p. 143, gives within a short compass the substance of the different theories which have been broached from time to time by writers upon these topics. [ W. R.] HE'LENA ('EAenj), the daughter of Timon of Egypt, painted the battle of Issus about the time of its occurrence (b. c. 333). In the reign of Ves- pasian this picture was placed in the Temple of Peace at Rome. (Ptol. Hephaest. ap. Phot. cod. 190, p. 149, b. 30, ed. Bekker.) It is supposed by some scholars that the well-known mosaic found at Pompeii is a copy of this picture, while others believe it to represent the battle at the Granicus, others that at Arbela, All that can be safely said is, that the mosaic represents one of Alexander's battles, and that in all probability the person in the chariot is Dareius. (Miiller, Arch'dol. d. Kunst, § 163. n. 1, 6.) [P. S.] HE'LENUS (EAevos), a son of Priam and Hecabe, was a skilful observer of auguries, and knew the counsel of the gods (Hom. II. vi. 76, vii. 44 ; Apollod. iii. 12. § 5) ; but he was at the same time a warrior, and with Deiphobus he led the third host of the Trojans against the camp of the Greeks. (//. xii. 94.) He fought against Menelaus, but was wounded by him (xiii. 580, &c.). This is in outline all that the Homeric poems tell us of Helenus, but in other traditions we find the following additions. Once, when yet children, Helenus and Cassandra were left by their parents in the temple of the Thymbraean Apollo ; and, as they fell asleep, snakes came and cleaned their ears, whereby they acquired the gift of prophecy. (Eustath. ad Hom. p. 663.) Another tradition was, that his original name was Scamandrius, and that he received the name of Helenus from a Thracian soothsayer, who also instructed him in the prophetic art. (Eustath. ad Hom. p. 626.) Respecting his deserting his countrymen and join- ing the Greeks, there are different accounts ; ac- cording to some it was the act of his free will, and, according to others, he was ensnared by Odysseus, who wanted to have his prophecy respecting the fall of Troy. (Tzetz. ad Lycuph. 905 ; Soph. Phi- loct. 605, 1338 ; Ov. Met. xiii. 99, 723.) Others again relate that Chryses announced to the Greeks that Helenus was staying with him in the temple of Apollo. When therefore Diomedes and Odysseus were sent to fetch him, Helenus surrendered to them, requesting them to assign to him a place where he might live away from his own friends and relatives. He then informed them that he had not left his country and friends from fear of death, but on ac- count of the sacrilege which Paris had committed, in murdering Achilles in the temple, and told them of the time and the circumstances under which Troy should foil. (Diet. Cret. iv. 18.) Others, lastly, relate that, on the death of Paris, Helenus and Deiphobus disputed about the possession of Helena, and that Helenus being conquered, fled to Mount Ida, where he was taken prisoner by the Greeks. (Conon, A^arr. 34 ; Serv. at^ Jg«. ii. 166.) In the Philoctetes of Sophocles, Helenus foretells to Pyrrhus, the son of Achilles, that Troy shall fall only through Pyrrhus and Philoctetes ; and after the destruction of the city, he reveals to Pyrrhus the sufferings which awaited the Greeks who returned home by sea, and prevails upon him to return by land, and settle in Epeirus. (Serv. ad Aen. ii. 166.) -fter the death of Pyrrhus he received a portion B B 2