Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

HELENUS

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V13, Page 220 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

HELENUS , in See also:

Greek See also:legend, son of See also:Priam and See also:Hecuba, and twin-See also:brother of See also:Cassandra. He is said to have been originally called Scamandrius, and to have received the name of Helenus from a Thracian soothsayer who instructed him in the prophetic See also:art. In the Iliad he is described as the See also:prince of See also:augurs and a brave See also:warrior; in the Odyssey he is not mentioned at all. Various details concerning him are added by later writers. It is related that he and his See also:sister See also:fell asleep in the See also:temple of See also:Apollo Thymbraeus and that See also:snakes came and cleansed their ears, whereby they obtained the See also:gift of prophecy and were able to understand the See also:language of birds. After the See also:death of See also:Paris, Helenus and his brother Deiphobus became rivals for the See also:hand of See also:Helen. Deiphobus was preferred, and Helenus withdrew in indignation to See also:Mount See also:Ida, where he was captured by the Greeks, whom he advised to build the wooden See also:horse and carry off the See also:Palladium. According to other accounts, having been made prisoner by a stratagem of See also:Odysseus, he declared that See also:Philoctetes must be fetched from See also:Lemnos before See also:Troy could be taken; or he surrendered to See also:Diomedes and Odysseus in the temple of Apollo, whither he had fled in disgust at the sacrilegious See also:murder of See also:Achilles by Paris in the See also:sanctuary. After the See also:capture of Troy, he and his sister-in-See also:law See also:Andromache accompanied See also:Neoptolemus (See also:Pyrrhus) as captives to See also:Epirus, where Helenus persuaded him to See also:settle. After the death of Neoptolemus, Helenus married Andromache and became ruler of the See also:country. He was the reputed founder of See also:Buthrotum and Chaonia, named after a brother or See also:companion whom he had accidentally slain while See also:hunting. He was said to have been buried at See also:Argos, where his See also:tomb was shown.

When See also:

Aeneas, in the course of his wanderings, reached Epirus, he was hospitably received by Helenus, who predicted his future destiny. See also:Homer, Iliad, vi. 76, vii. 44, Xii. 94, xiii. 576; See also:Sophocles, Philoctetes, 604, who probably follows the Little Iliad of See also:Lesches; See also:Pausanias i. 11, H. 23; See also:Conon, Narrationes, 34; Dictys Cretensis iv. 18; See also:Virgil, Aeneid, iii. 294-490; Servius on Aeneid, ii. 166, iii. 334.

End of Article: HELENUS

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
HELENSBURGH 		[next]
HELGAUD, or HELGALDUS (d. c. 1048)

Site © 2006 - Net Industries