HE´LENA
HE´LENA (
Ἑλένη: Eth.
Ἑλεναῖος, Eth.
Ἑλενίτης, Eth.
Ἑλένειος:
Makronísi), a long narrow island, extending along the eastern coast of Attica from Thoricus to Sunium, and distant from two to four miles from the shore.
It was also called
MACRIS (
Μάκρις), from its length. (
Steph. B. sub voce Ἑλένη.) Strabo (
ix. p.399) describes it as 60 stadia in length; but its real length is seven geographical miles.
It was uninhabited in antiquity, as it is at the present day; and it was probably only used then, as it is now, for the pasture of cattle. Both Strabo and Pausanias derive its name from Helena, the wife of Menelaus: the latter writer supposes that it was so called because Helena landed here after the capture of Troy; but Strabo identifies it with the Homeric Cranae, to which Paris fled with Helena (
Il. 3.445), and supposes that its name was hence changed. into Helena.
There cannot, however, be any doubt that the Homeric Cranaë was opposite Gythium in Laconia. [
CRANAE] (
Strab. ix. p.399, x. p. 485;
Paus. 1.35.1,
8.14.12;
Steph. B. sub voce Mela, 2.7;
Plin. Nat. 4.12. s. 20; Leake,
Demi of Attica, p. 66; Bröndsted,
Voyage, vol. i. p. 77; Ross,
Reisen auf den Griech. Inseln, vol. ii. p. 8.)
