If we turn to the religious ceremonies and the genuine popular tales, we find traces of a more archaic Helen. At Rhamnus in Attica she was connected with the worship of Nemesis, whose daughter she was considered to be. In Argos she was counted mother of Iphigenia, and was said to have founded a temple of Eileithyia, the goddess of birth. 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 Τheocr., xviii.); and in Rhodes sl:e was worshipped by maidens with the epithet δevδpcrιs, 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 regard ίλίνη as an epithet of the moon, which has gradually been severed from it and raised to an independent existence (c∕. the account given of Gorgophone under Gorgon). Beauty is a specially common attribute of the moon and of moon-goddesses, such as Hera. This makes it most probable that the word, like σtK∙i,ν∙η, ⅛ connected with the root svαr, 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 connected 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. Probably a similar reason has contributed to mould the tale which has formt d itself round the undoubtedly historical fact of the destruction of Troy by a Greek tribe or army. The worship cf Aphrodite, 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 from whose egg she is born is the bird of Aphrodite. By the author of the Cypria and in Attic tradition Helen is made the daughter of Nemesis; but Nemesis as a goddess of fate is clearly a dawn-goddess (see Kuhn, Zft., 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 impossibility of dividing them by any broad line (see Hebe, Hera). It would be at once a most instructive and a most interesting task to trace the steps by which the antique pre-G reek 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 Weicker, 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 Constantins Chlorus. Of her nationality nothing certain is known. She had one son, Constantine the Great. In 292 A.D. Chlorue 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 citieβ in Bithynia and Lysiι 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.