The generally accepted derivation of Heligoland (or Helgoland) from Heiligeland, i.e. “Holy Land,” seems doubtful. According to northern mythology, Forseti, a son of Balder and Nanna, the god of justice, had a temple on the island, which was subsequently destroyed by St Ludger. This legend may have given rise to the derivation “Holy Land.” The more probable etymology, however, is that of Hallaglun, or Halligland, i.e. “land of banks, which cover and uncover.” Here Hertha, according to tradition, had her great temple, and hither came from the mainland the Angles to worship at her shrine. Here also lived King Radbod, a pagan, and on this isle St Willibrord in the 7th century first preached Christianity; and for its ownership, before and after that date, many sea-rovers have fought. Finally it became a fief of the dukes of Schleswig-Holstein, though often hypothecated for loans advanced to these princes by the free city of Hamburg. The island was a Danish possession in 1807, when the English seized and held it until it was formally ceded to them in 1814. In the picturesque old church there are still traces of a painted Dannebrog.
In 1890 the island was ceded to Germany, and in 1892 it was incorporated with Prussia, when it was provided that natives born before the year 1880 should be allowed to elect either for British or German nationality, and until 1901 no additional import duties were imposed.
Bibliography.—Von der Decken, Philosophisch-historisch-geographische Untersuchungen über die Insel Helgoland, oder Heiligeland, und ihre Bewohner (Hanover, 1826); Wiebel, Die Insel Helgoland, Untersuchungen über deren Grösse in Vorzeit und Gegenwart vom Standpunkte der Geschichte und Geologie (Hamburg, 1848); J. M. Lappenberg, Über den ehemaligen Umfang und die alte Geschichte Helgolands (Hamburg, 1831); F. Otker, Helgoland. Schilderungen und Erörterungen (Berlin, 1855); E. Hallier, Helgoland, Nordseestudien (Hamburg, 1893); A. W. F. Möller, Rechtsgeschichte der Insel Helgoland (Weimar, 1904); W. G. Black, Heligoland and the Islands of the North Sea (Glasgow, 1888); E. Lindermann, Die Nordseeinsel Helgoland in topographischer, geschichtlicher, sanitärer Beziehung (Berlin, 1889); and Tittel, Die natürlichen Veränderungen Helgolands (Leipzig, 1894).
HELIOCENTRIC, i.e. referred to the centre of the sun (ἥλιος)
as an origin, a term designating especially co-ordinates or heavenly
bodies referred to that origin.
HELIODORUS, of Emesa in Syria, Greek writer of romance.
According to his own statement his father’s name was Theodosius,
and he belonged to a family of priests of the sun. He was the
author of the Aethiopica, the oldest and best of the Greek
romances that have come down to us. It was first brought to
light in modern times in a MS. from the library of Matthias
Corvinus, found at the sack of Buda (Ofen) in 1526, and printed
at Basel in 1534. Other codices have since been discovered.
The title is taken from the fact that the action of the beginning
and end of the story takes place in Aethiopia. The daughter of
Persine, wife of Hydaspes, king of Aethiopia, was born white
through the effect of the sight of a marble statue upon the queen
during pregnancy. Fearing an accusation of adultery, the mother
gives the babe to the care of Sisimithras, a gymnosophist, who
carries her to Egypt and places her in charge of Charicles, a
Pythian priest. The child is taken to Delphi, and made a priestess
of Apollo under the name of Chariclea. Theagenes, a noble
Thessalian, comes to Delphi and the two fall in love with each
other. He carries off the priestess with the help of Calasiris, an
Egyptian, employed by Persine to seek for her daughter. Then
follow many perils from sea-rovers and others, but the chief
personages ultimately meet at Meroë at the very moment when
Chariclea is about to be sacrificed to the gods by her own father.
Her birth is made known, and the lovers are happily married.
The rapid succession of events, the variety of the characters,
the graphic descriptions of manners and of natural scenery, the
simplicity and elegance of the style, give the Aethiopica great
charm. As a whole it offends less against good taste and morality
than others of the same class. Homer and Euripides were the
favourite authors of Heliodorus, who in his turn was imitated
by French, Italian and Spanish writers. The early life of Clorinda
in Tasso’s Jerusalem Delivered (canto xii. 21 sqq.) is almost identical
with that of Chariclea; Racine meditated a drama on the same
subject; and it formed the model of the Persiles y Sigismunda of
Cervantes. According to the ecclesiastical historian Socrates
(Hist. eccles. v. 22), the author of the Aethiopica was a
certain Heliodorus, bishop of Tricca in Thessaly. It is supposed
that the work was written in his early years before he became
a Christian, and that, when confronted with the alternative of
disowning it or resigning his bishopric, he preferred resignation.
But it is now generally agreed that the real author was a sophist
of the 3rd century A.D.
The best editions are: A. Coraës (1804), G. A. Hirschig (1856); see also M. Oeftering, H. und seine Bedeutung für die Literatur, with full bibliographies (1901); J. C. Dunlop, History of Prose Fiction (1888); and especially E. Rohde, Der griechische Roman (1900). There are translations in almost all European languages: in English, in Bohn’s Classical Library and the “Tudor” series (v., 1895, containing the old translation by T. Underdowne, 1587, with introduction by C. Whibley); in French by Amyot and Zevort.
HELIOGABALUS (ELAGABALUS), Roman emperor (A.D.
218–222), was born at Emesa about 205. His real name was
Varius Avitus. On the murder of Caracalla (217), Julia Maesa,
Varius’s grandmother and Caracalla’s aunt, left Rome and
retired to Emesa, accompanied by her grandsons (Varius and
Alexander Severus). Varius, though still only a boy, was appointed
high priest of the Syrian sun-god Elagabalus, one of
the chief seats of whose worship was Emesa (Homs). His beauty,
and the splendid ceremonials at which he presided, made him
a great favourite with the troops stationed in that part of Syria,
and Maesa increased his popularity by spreading reports that he
was in reality the illegitimate son of Caracalla. Macrinus,
the successor and instigator of the murder of Caracalla, was
very unpopular with the army; an insurrection was easily set
on foot, and on the 16th of May 218 Varius was proclaimed
emperor as Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. The troops sent to
quell the revolt went over to him, and Macrinus was defeated
near Antioch on the 8th of June. Heliogabalus was at once
recognized by the senate as emperor. After spending the winter
in Nicomedia, he proceeded in 219 to Rome, where he made it
his business to exalt the deity whose priest he was and whose
name he assumed. The Syrian god was proclaimed the chief deity
in Rome, and all other gods his servants; splendid ceremonies
in his honour were celebrated, at which Heliogabalus danced in
public, and it was believed that secret rites accompanied by
human sacrifice were performed in his honour. In addition to
these affronts upon the state religion, he insulted the intelligence
of the community by horseplay of the wildest description
and by childish practical joking. The shameless profligacy
of the emperor’s life was such as to shock even a Roman
public. His popularity with the army declined, and Maesa,
perceiving that the soldiers were in favour of Alexander Severus,
persuaded Heliogabalus to raise his cousin to the dignity of
Caesar (221), a step of which he soon repented. An attempt
to murder Alexander was frustrated by the watchful Maesa.
Another attempt in 222 produced a mutiny among the praetorians,
in which Heliogabalus and his mother Soemias (Soaemias) were
slain (probably in the first half of March).
Authorities.—Life by Aelius Lampridius in Scriptores historiae Augustae; Herodian v. 3-8; Dio Cassius lxxviii. 30 sqq., lxxix. 1-21; monograph by G. Duviquet, Héliogabale (1903), containing a translation of the various accounts of Heliogabalus in Greek and Latin authors, notes, bibliography and illustrations; O. F. Butler, Studies in the Life of Heliogabalus (New York, 1908); Gibbon, Decline and Fall, ch. 6; H. Schiller, Geschichte der römischen Kaiserzeit, i. pt. ii. (1883), p. 759 ff. On the Syrian god see F. Cumont in Pauly-Wissowa’s Realencyclopädie, v. pt. ii. (1905).
HELIOGRAPH (from Gr. ἥλιος, sun, and γράφειν to write),
an instrument for reflecting the rays of the sun (or the light
obtained from any other source) over a considerable distance.
Its main application is in military signalling (see Signal). A
similar instrument is the heliotrope, used principally for defining
distant points in geodetic surveys, such as in the triangulation
of India, and in the verification of the African arc of the meridian.
It is necessary to distinguish the method of signalling termed
heliography from the photographic process of the same name
(see Photography).
