Helĕnus
（
Ἕλενος). A famous soothsayer, son of Priam and Hecuba,
and the only one of their sons who survived the siege of Troy. He was so chagrined, according
to some, at having failed to obtain Helen in marriage after the death of Paris that he retired
to Mount Ida, and was there, by the advice of Calchas, surprised and carried away to the
Grecian camp by Odysseus. Among other predictions, Helenus declared that Troy could not be
taken unless
Philoctetes (q.v.) could be
prevailed to quit his retreat and repair to the siege. After the destruction of Troy, he,
together with Andromaché, fell to the share of Pyrrhus, whose favour he conciliated
by deterring him from sailing with the rest of the Greeks, who (as he foretold) would be
exposed to a severe tempest on leaving the Trojan shore. Pyrrhus not only manifested his
gratitude by giving him Andromaché in marriage, but nominated him as his successor
in the kingdom of Epirus, to the exclusion of his own son Molossus, who did not ascend the
throne until after the death of Helenus. A son named Cestrinus was the offspring of the union
of Helenus with Andromaché (
Verg. Aen. iii.
294 foll.).
