to trace the steps by which the antique pre-Greek goddess was gradually transformed into the charming heroine round whom the action of the Iliad revolves. The data for reconstructing the history of this figure are more than usually full, and are so clear that writers of the most opposite schools (as Welcker, Gerhard, Mannhardt, Maury, Roscher) have recognized in Helena the ancient goddess.
HELENA, Saint, a woman of humble origin, said to have been the daughter of an innkeeper, was the wife of Constantius Chlorus. Of her nationality nothing certain is known. She had one son, Constantine the Great. In 292 a.d. Chlorus was raised to the purple by the emperors Diocletian and Maximian, and forced to divorce Helena to make room for a more noble wife. After her son became emperor she was treated with great respect and styled Augusta, and cities in Bithynia and Lysia were after her named Helenopolis. She became a Christian when her son was converted, and during a pilgrimage to Jerusalem she discovered the holy sepulchre and the true cross. Her zealous patronage of their religion made her a favourite with the Christian writers, and finally procured her the honour of canonization; but pagan historians, such as Zosimus, regard her with dislike, and even question, though without ground, the legality of her marriage. Many coins occur with the name of Helena, but it is difficult or impossible in many cases to determine whether they belong to Saint Helena or to others of the family of Constantine bearing the same name.
HELENSBURGH, a town and favourite watering-place of Dumbartonshire, Scotland, is situated at the mouth of the Gareloch, a branch of the Firth of Clyde, opposite Greenock, which is about 4 miles distant. It is 24 miles N.W. of Glasgow by railway. In 1776 the site of the town was advertised for feuing, and in 1802 Helensburgh, named after Lady Helen, wife of Sir James Colquhoun, the superior of the soil, was erected into a burgh of barony, under a provost and council. The boundaries have since been enlarged. The town is pleasantly situated on a gentle slope, the streets mostly intersecting each other at right angles, while many of the houses are surrounded by gardens,—peculiarities that produce an agreeable regularity and openness. A handsome burgh hall was erected in 1879. Near the town is a hospital, and within its boundaries a public park. Convenient as headquarters for visiting the whole district of the Clyde, and connected with Glasgow by both rail and steamer, Helensburgh is much frequented in summer. The population in 1871 was 6231; it is now (1880) estimated at fully 10,000.
HÊLIAND (i.e., Heiland) is an Old Saxon poem of the 9th century. According to some critics it is a fragment of a larger work which dealt with the entire historical material of the Old and New Testaments. The part which we now possess sets forth the life of Christ as told by the four evangelists, whose various narratives the author seeks to harmonize. The poem is said to have been composed by a Saxon writer at the request of the emperor Louis the Pious; but who the author was, except that he was a Saxon, we have no means of knowing. The general opinion is that he lived in Westphalia, but even this is uncertain. Like all the most ancient remains of Teutonic poetry, Hêliand is written in alliterative verse, of which the writer had a perfect mastery. It is almost the only remnant of the Old Saxon dialect, and has therefore a high philological value, but it is still more interesting from a literary point of view. The poet does not merely repeat his authorities; while true to the main facts of the original story, he allows his imagination to play upon them in a free and poetic spirit. He realized with intense force the incidents in the career of the Founder of Christianity, and gives vitality and definiteness to the received conception of His character. The diction is simple and popular, but marked by an elevation of sentiment adapted to the theme and to its epic treatment; and by a happy phrase the author often succeeds in imparting to his style colour, variety, and animation. The 9th century is remarkable in the history of Old English and of Old Norse poetry; the Hêliand affords proof that the impulse which revealed itself in these two literatures was also experienced to the full by the higher minds of Germany. The historical aspects of this great work are hardly less important than those which claim the attention of the purely literary student. Of all the German tribes the Saxons were the last to submit to the influence of Christianity. They regarded baptism as the symbol of Frankish supremacy, and clung as long as they could to the ancient Teutonic faith. Not until Charlemagne, after more than thirty years of warfare, forced upon them Frankish institutions did they generally accept the new creed, and even then, while they talked of Christ and the saints, they thought of Wodan and Thor, and took delight in the heathen poetry which had been handed down from remote periods. Louis the Pious was of a gentle and conciliatory nature, and by treating the Saxons with kindness obliterated to a large extent the recollection of his father’s severity. Hêliand was one of the works with which he and the clergy endeavoured to replace pagan literature, so that we may regard it as the monument of a struggle between two civilizations. The author is dominated by the ideals and the sympathies of the Catholic Church, but occasional touches remind us of the order of life that was passing away, and these have been found suggestive by writers on German archæology.
Hêliand received its name from A. Schmeller, who edited it (Munich, 1830–40) from the two existing manuscripts, one of which is in the British Museum, the other in Munich (formerly in Bamberg). More recent editions have been issued by Köne (Münster, 1855, accompanied by a modern rendering), Heyne (2d ed. Paderborn, 1873), and Rückert (4th volume of Deutsche Dichtungen des Mittelalters, Leipsic, 1876). There are renderings into modern German by Kannegiesser (Berlin, 1847), Grein (Rinteln, 1854; improved edition, Cassel, 1869), Rapp (Stuttgart, 1856), and Simrock (2d ed. Elberfeld, 1866). See also Vilmar, Deutsche Alterthümer im Hêliand (2d ed., Marburg, 1862); Windisch, Der Hêliand und seine Quellen (Leipsic, 1868); Grein, Die Quellen des Hêliands (Cassel, 1869); and Sievers Der Hêliand und die angelsächsische Genesis (Halle, 1875).
HELICON, a mountain, or more strictly a mountain range, of Bœotia in ancient Greece, celebrated in classical literature as the favourite haunt of the muses, is situated between Lake Copais and the Gulf of Corinth. On the fertile eastern slopes stood a temple and grove sacred to the Muses, and adorned with beautiful statues, which, taken by Constantine the Great to beautify his new city, were consumed there by a fire in 404 a.d. Hard by sparkled the famous fountains of poetic inspiration, Aganippe and Hippocrene, the latter fabled to have gushed from the earth at the tread of the winged horse Pegasus, whose favourite browsing place was there. At the neighbouring Ascra dwelt the ancient Hesiod, a fact which probably enhanced the poetic fame of the region. Pausanias, who describes Helicon in his ninth book, asserts that it was the most fertile mountain in Greece, and that neither poisonous plant nor serpent was to be found on it, while many of its herbs possessed a miraculous healing virtue. The highest summit, the present Paleovuni (old hill), rises to the height of about 5000 feet. Modern travellers, aided by ancient remains and inscriptions, and guided by the local descriptions of Pausanias, have succeeded in identifying many of the ancient classical spots. For details of modern research see Clarke’s Travels in Various Countries (vol. vii., 1818), Dodwell’s Classical and Topographical Tour through Greece (1818), and Leake’s Travels in Northern Greece (vol. ii, 1835).
