Helen

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For more information on Helen, visit Britannica.com.

Helen (Helena, Ellen) (c.250–330), empress. She was born at Drepanum (later Helenopolis) in Bithynia, possibly an innkeeper's daughter; c.270 she married the Roman general Constantius Chlorus. When he became emperor in 292 he divorced her. But her son, later the Emperor Constantine, greatly honoured and respected her. In about 312, aged over sixty, she became a Christian, but was so devout that contemporaries thought she had been so since childhood. She dressed quietly, gave generously to churches, to the poor, and prisoners, and made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, where she died. Coins were minted in her honour (330); she was buried at Rome.

Geoffrey of Monmouth (d. 1154) claimed she was of British origin and the daughter of Coel, legendary king of Colchester; this was widely believed in England, but Trier also was claimed as her birthplace. She won renown as the mother of the first Christian emperor, but also because of her share, claimed by Ambrose, in the Finding of the True Cross with its attendant miracles (see Cross). This story is the subject of Cynewulf's finest poem, Elene (9th century).

Helen's feast was kept in several southern English monasteries, but dedications to her, 135 in all, were more frequent in the north-east, possibly because of Constantine's connection with York. Various place-names such as St. Helens (Lancs.) and St. Helens (I.W.) reflect the development of a town around her churches. But the Atlantic island of St. Helena was so called because it was discovered by Spanish sailors on her feast.

In art she is depicted in the many representations of the Finding of the Cross; at Ashton-under-Lyne (Lancs.) there survives a series of eighteen stained-glass panels which depict her life. The abbey of Hautvillers claimed her relics.

Feast: in the East (with Constantine), 21 May; in the West, 18 August.

Bibliography
Click here for a list of abbreviations used in this bibliography.

• AA.SS. Aug. III (1737), 548–654; P. Grosjean, ‘Codicis Gothani Appendix’, Anal. Boll., lviii (1940), 199–203; C.S.P.; F. Nau, ‘Les Constructions palestiniennes dues à Sainte Hélène’, Revue de l'Orient Chrétien, x (1905), 162–88. E. D. Hunt, Holy Land Pilgrimage in the Later Roman Empire (1982); J. W. Drijvers, Helena Augusta: the mother of Constantine…and the Legend of her Finding the True Cross (1992)

In classical mythology, the most beautiful woman in the world, a daughter of Zeus by Leda. Her abduction by Paris led to the Trojan War. Helen's was “the face that launched a thousand ships”: the entire Greek army sailed to Troy to get her back. (See Judgment of Paris.)

• Mythological and Folkloric Beings - Helen: Greek queen whose abduction instigated the Trojan War

Look up Helen or helen in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Helen may refer to:

• Helen of Troy, from Greek mythology
• Helen (given name)
• Helen (play), a play by Euripides
• Helen (Inheritance), a fictional supporting character in Christopher Paolini's Inheritance trilogy
• Helen (film), a 2009 drama starring Ashley Judd and directed by Sandra Nettelbeck
• Helen, Sweetheart of the Internet, a webcomic
• Helen (unit), a humorous unit of measuring beauty
• Helen (album), a Grammy-nominated album by Helen Humes
• Helen, Georgia, United States, a small city
• Helen, Maryland, United States, an unincorporated place
• Helen Falls, a waterfall in Lady Evelyn-Smoothwater Provincial Park, Temagami, Ontario, Canada
• Helen Jairag Richardson, known as Helen, a Bollywood actress and dancer

See also

• Elena (name)
• Eleni (disambiguation)
• Helena (disambiguation)
• Helene (disambiguation)
• Hélène (disambiguation)
• Ellen (disambiguation)
• Hellen, son of Deucalion and Pyrrha, the ancestor of the Greeks
• Helenus, son of King Priam of Troy
• Saint Helena (disambiguation), people and places called Saint Helena
• Julia (daughter of Drusus the Younger), nicknamed "Helen" in Robert Graves' Claudius novels

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