HELENA, Mr-62-4. a. The most beautiful woman of her age, was sprung from one of the eggs brought forth by Leda (q. v.); but, according to some, she was the daughter of Jupiter and Nemesis, and nursed by Leda. She was so early celebrated for her beauty that she was carried off before ten years old by Theseus, assisted by Piritheus (q. v.), and con cealed at Apludnx, with his mother .1Ethra ; but she was brought back in safety to Sparta by her brothers Castor and Pollux. This abduction increased her fame, and her hand was sought by all the young princes of Greece ; and among the most celebrated of her suitors were Ulysses, AntiRichus, Sthenelus, Diomedes, Amphilechus (son of Cteatus), Meges, Agapenor, Thalpius, Mnestheus, Schedius, Polyxenus, Amphilechus (son of Amphiaraus), Ascal6phus, Ialmus, Oilcan Ajax, Eumelus, Polypcetes, Elphenor, Podalirlus, Machaon, Leonteus, Philoctetes, Protesilfius, Eurypilus, Telamonian Ajax, Tenor, Patroclus, Menelaus, Thoas, Idomeneus, Merlon, &c. Her father Tyndarus, who was alarmed at their number, was relieved from his perplexity by Ulysses, who, having been promised Tyndanis's niece Penelope in marriage, advised the king to bind all the suitors by an oath to accept the choice of Helen, and defend her person against all attempts to take her from her husband. Helen then married Menelaus, to whom she bore Hermione. Three years after, King Priam's son Paris came from Troy to Sparta on pretence of sacrificing to Apollo, and was hospitably entertained by Menelaus, in whose absence in Crete he corrupted Helen, who eloped with him to Troy, 1198 E.C. Menelaus on his return assembled all Helen's suitors, in accordance with the oath imposed on them by Tyndarus, and, the deputies to Troy having been refused the restoration of Helen, they sailed against the- Trojans, Agamemnon being chosen commander-in-chief (see Helen is by some represented during the war as being devoted to Priam, by others as secretly favouring her husband's cause and revealing the Trojan plans. When Paris was
killed in the ninth year of the siege, she volun tarily married his brother Deiphobus, whom she betrayed when the city was taken. She was forgiven by Menelaus, and returned to Sparta; but on his death she was expelled from Peloponnesus by his illegitimate sons, Megapenthes and Nicostratus, and took refuge in Rhodes with the queen, Polyxo, an Argive, whose husband, Tlepolemus, had been killed in the Trojan war, and who, to avenge herself, dressed her attendants as the Furies, and sent them to murder Helen when bathing. They tied her to a tree and strangled her, and the Rhodians expiated the crime by raising a temple to Helena Dendritis ("of a tree "). Ac cording to another tradition, Helen never was in Troy, but was detained by King Proteus in Egypt, where Paris had been shipwrecked ; but the Greeks refused to believe Priam, and besieged Troy, and Menelaus having visited Egypt on his voyage home, recovered her. According to one tradition, she was placed in Leuce after death, and married Achilles. Helen was deified, and had a temple built by the Spartans at 1 herapne, and a festival, Helen 2. A Spartan virgin, was carried away by an eagle when about to be sacrificed ; whence human victims were abolished. 3. FLAVIA JULIA, j72'-Dr-air4.1t-a, the mother of the emperor Constantine, died 328, aged 80. 4. A daughter of the emperor Constantine, married Julian. 5. Formerly Cran'aic a rocky islet off South Attica.