HELIODORUS men and pilots, and leave nearly all domestic and agricultural labor to the women. The trading part of the population are chiefly emigrants from the mainland of Germany. The chief products are haddocks and excel- lent lobsters, which are exported to Germany. The islanders own 100 small fishing vessels and several larger ones, which make voyages to England and the Baltic ports. The soil is very rich, and grain and vegetables are raised, though most of the land is devoted to the sustenance of flocks of sheep, which are fed on fish in winter. There are a few trees and two or three springs on the island, but most of the people depend on rain for their supply of water. Of late the inhabitants have be- gun to turn their attention to building houses for rent to summer visitors, with whom it is a favorite bathing place. The government con- sists of a governor appointed by the crown, aided by an executive council ; a form of gov- ernment established by the queen in 1868. See " Heligoland, an Historical and Geographi- cal Description of that Island, its Ancient For- tunes and 1 Present Opportunities as a British Colony," by William Bell (London, 1856). HELIODOIUS, a Greek romance writer, born in Emesa, Syria, flourished at the close of the 4th century A. D. In his latter days he be- came a Christian, and bishop of Tricca in Thes- saly, where he introduced the regulation that every priest should be deposed who did not re- pudiate his wife. His jEthiopica, written in early life, treats of the loves and adventures of ^heagenes and Chariclea. Its style is simple and elegant. Translations of it now exist in all the European languages, but before the 16th century its very existence was unknown to Eu- rope. The best edition of the Greek text is that of Paris, 2 vols. 8vo, 1804. HELIOGABALIS. See ELAGABALUS. HELIOMETER (Gr. ijhiog, the sun, and utrpov, measure), an instrument to measure the diame- ter of the sun, or other small arc in the heavens. Several instruments receive this name, but it is now usually applied to a telescope whose object glass is divided into two parts, capable of sliding by each other, so that they may be directed to opposite edges of the sun. Two images of it are thus formed, tangent to each other, and the displacement of the parts of the object glass measures the diameter of the sun. HELIOPOLIS (Gr., city of the sun ; called in old Egyptian On or An and Ha-Ra, in Hebrew Bethshemesh, and by the modern inhabitants MatariyeK), one of the most ancient cities of Egypt, below the S. E. point of the delta, on the E. side of the Pelusiac arm of the Nile, near the canal which connected that river with the Red sea, about 8 m. N. E. of the site of modern Cairo. From the remotest epoch it was renowned for its temples and priesthood. It was the chief seat of the Egyptian worship of the sun, and also of the sacred bull Mnevis ; and the legends of the wonderful bird phosnix centred about it. Its priests were the most HELIOS 619 learned in the land, and so important that they sent one third of all the deputies to the great council which assisted the Pharaohs in the ad- ministration of justice. Those belonging to each temple were organized among themselves with great exactness, and the office of the high priest, who was one of the first persons of the state, was hereditary. The Hebrew Joseph married Asenath, the daughter of one of these high priests. To the Heliopolite priests re- sorted foreigners who wished to learn the wis- dom of the Egyptians. Solon, Thales, Eudoxus, and Plato all studied under them ; and when Strabo visited the place (24 B. C.) he was shown the halls which Plato was said to have occupied for 13 years. After being for ages a sort of university city, Heliopolis had much declined as early as the invasion of Cambyses (525 B. C.), and was a city of ruins when visit- ed by Strabo. Abdallatif, an Arab physician of the 12th century, described among its ruins colossal figures in stone, standing or sitting, .and more than 30 cubits high. An obelisk of red granite, inscribed with the name of Osor- tasen I., whose date is fixed at about 3000 B. C., still remains, and is regarded as the most ancient known specimen of Egyptian sculp- ture ; there are also some fragments of sphinxes and of a colossal statue which adorned the ancient temple of the sun. Near the hamlet of Matariyeh, which occupies a part of the site of Heliopolis, Kleber gained a victory over Turkish troops, March 20, 1800. (For Heli- opolis in Syria, see BAALBEK.) HELIOS (the Sol of the Romans), in Greek mythology, the god of the sun, the son of Hy- perion and Thea, and the brother of Selene (Luna) and Eos (Aurora). Helios gave light both to gods and to men. He rose in the east from Oceanus, ascended to the highest point in the heavens, and then descending arrived in the evening at the west, and returned to Oceanus. He had two magnificent palaces, one in the east, the other in the west, where he sat enthroned surrounded by ministering Hora3. The horses that drew the chariot in which he made his daily journey were pastured in the islands of the blessed, and the golden boat in which he voyaged nightly from the west to the east was the work of Hephaestus (Vul- can). Helios saw everything. The island of Sicily was sacred to him, and he there had flocks of sheep and herds of oxen, which never in- creased or diminished in number, and which were tended by his daughters, Phaetusa and Lampetia. In later times Helios was frequent- ly confounded with Apollo, though originally they were quite distinct. Among the Greeks this identification was never fully carried out ; for no Hellenic poet ever made Apollo to ride in the chariot of Helios, and the representation of Apollo with rays around his head belongs to the time of the Roman empire. Temples of Helios existed in Greece at a very early period, and subsequently his worship was established in Corinth, Argos, the island of Rhodes, and vari-
