HEINSIUS, Nikolaes, an illegitimate son of the subject of last article, was born in 1655 at the Hague. At the aze of twenty he wrote Zhe Delightful Adventures and Wonderful Life of Mirander, a work of extraordinary humour and genius, the sole original romance produced in Hollind during the 17th century. Dr Ten Brink has pointed out that Mirander preceded Gil Blas, which it curi- ously resembles, by at least forty years. The author, how- ever, added nothing else to literature. He was disowned by his father, driven from the house, and in 1677 had to flee the country on account of a murder which he committed at night in the streets of the Hague. He lived a precarious life as an outlaw in Paris, Rome, and elsewhere, and died in ubscurity.
HEIR. See Inheritance.
HELDER, or The Helder, a township of the Netherlands at the northern extremity of the province of North Holland, directly opposite the island of Texel. Since 1819 it has been the terminus of the North Holland Canal, and it is now connested (since 1865) by railway with Alkmaar and Hairlen. Its fortifications and its dykes are both con- structed on an extensive scale, the former comprising four batteries and five forts, and the latter being the most strik- ing on the whole coast. A garrison of 7000 to 9000 men is necessary for the defence of the place, and 30,000 men could be accommodated within the lines. The harbour, called the Nieuwe Diep, is one of the best in Europe. Its area is 6560 feet long by 330 to 490 broad, and it has depth enough for the largest vessels, which are admitted to the North Holland Canal by the Koopvaarders sluice. The Government arsenal comprises an extensive wet dock, a dry dock, an auxiliary establishments. Besides eight churches and a synagogue Helder possesses a palace for the board of marine, a royal institute for the education of naval cadets, a marine hospital, an orphan asylum, a town-house erected in 1835, and a meteorological observatory. The industries of the place are those usual in a flourishing seaport. Previous to 1819 the population was not much more than 2000, bat since then it has rapidly increased. In 1870 the suburbs of Willemsoord, Nieuwe Diep, Nieuwstad, and the Canal Road being included, the total amounted to 15,205. As a commune it numbered 18,366 in 1870 and 20,104 in 1874.
Helder was originally an offshoot of the now decayed town of Huisduinen. The first church was built in 1624, and though the herbour became a favourite resort of the whale fishers, it was not till the construction of the Nieuwe Diep between 1770 and 1780, and its adoption in 1781 asa war harbour, that the prosperity of the place was secured. Under the Batavian republic the fortifications were extended and strengthened, and Napoleon still further improved them. In 1799 the English, under Abercromby, assisted by the Russians, drove out the French and secured the capitulation of the Dutch fleet in the Zuyder Zce.
HELENA, daughter of Zeus and of Leda the wife cf Tyndareus king of Sparta, was sister of Castor, Pollux, and Clytemnestra, and was married to Menelaus. According to Homer she was obliged by Aphrodite to flee with Paris to Troy; and after the Trojan War she returned with Menelaus and lived with him as queen in Sparta. She had only one child, a daughter named Hermione, who was married to Neoptolemus. In the Homeric poems her character is drawn with marvellous skill; forced by the gods to do what she regrets, she seems to be separated from the wrong that she does, and remains always an cbject of interest and respect.[1] Goethe (/aust, part ii.) introduces Helena apparently to symbolize the Greek spirit acting on the modern mind. Among later poets the tales of Helen are much more complicated. She was carricd off by Theseus to Attica in her childhood, but was recovered hy her brothers. Her character often suffers much in the tales followed by lyric and tragic poets. Stesichorus and Euri- pides (//elena), however, relate that Paris on his homeward voyage was driven by stress of wind to Egypt. Proteus, king of Egypt, learning the facts, detained the real Helen in Egypt, while a shadowy Helen was taken to Troy and fought for. Menelaus on his way home from Troy was also driven to Egypt, and there found his true wife. After the death of Paris she is also said to have been married tu his brother Deiphobus.
If we turn to the religious ceremonies and the genuine popular tales, we find traces of a more archaic Helen. At Rhamuus in Attica she was connected with the worship of Nemesis, whose daughter she was considered to be. In Argos she was eounted mother of Iphigenia, and was said to have founded a temple of Fileithyia, the goddess of lirth. At Sparta she was honoured as presiding over the care of children, and festivals were celebrated in her honour by the maidens. A tree appears to have been connected with her worship there (see Theocr., xviii.); and in Rhedes she was worshipped by maidens with the epithet devdpirvis, a relic of the very oldest kind of worship, where a sacred tree was worshi] ped as the embodiment of the god. In most of these cults connexion with a moon-goddess, the most important of whose functions was the care over child-birth, is apparent; and we are led to 1egard éAévy as an epithet of the moon, which has gradually been severed from it and raised to an independent existence (cf. the account given of Gorgophone under Gorcon). Beauty is a specially common attribute of the moon and of n:oon-geddcsses, such as Hera. This makes it most probable that the word, like ceAdvn, is eonnected with the root svar, to shine. The tales connecting Helena with Achilles, who is clearly a sun-god originally, which are known already to the writer of the Cypria, are also very instructive. Over the Black Sea coasts Achilles and Helena were worshipped as united in the Elysian fields. With this we must compare the story of Cadmus and Harmonia (see Harmonia), and of Hades and Persephone; and we must remember that these colonies of Miletus were closely cennected with Attica. We may then look on it as probable that the rape of Helena by Theseus is merely a device of harmonizing skill to connect the Helena cf Spartan religion with the Helena worshipped in Attica. Prcbably a similar reason has contributcd to mould the tale which has formed itself round the undoubtedly historical fact of the destruction cf Troy by a Greek tribe or army. The worship cf Aphrocite, the goddess whose influence in the story of Paris and Helena is so great, was common to Troy and Cythera. Many facts also point to a close connexion between Aphrodite and Helena. The swan frem whose egg she is born is the bird of Aphrodite. Py the author of the Cypria and in Attic tradition Helen is made the daughter cf Nemesis; but Nemesis as a goddess of fate is clearly a dawn-god- dess (see Kuhn, Z7t., iii. 449), and therefore may be identified in origin with Aphrodite. We have here another instance of the intimate relation of the moon and dawn goddesses, and the im- possibility of dividing them by any broad line (see Hebe, Hera). It would be at once a most instructive and a most interesting task
- ↑ Most appreciative and sympathctie analyses may be found in Gladstone’s omeric Studies and Mure’s History of Greek Literature.
