101-577: Flavia Julia Helena ( / ˈ h ɛ l ə n ə / ; ‹See Tfd› Greek : Ἑλένη , Helénē ; c. AD 246/248–330), also known as Helena of Constantinople and in Christianity as Saint Helena , was an Augusta of the Roman Empire and mother of Emperor Constantine the Great . She was born in the lower classes traditionally in the city of Drepanon, Bithynia , in Asia Minor , which
202-577: A Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the world's oldest recorded living language . Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now-extinct Anatolian languages . The Greek language is conventionally divided into the following periods: In the modern era, the Greek language entered
303-405: A common-law marriage , a cohabitation recognized in fact but not in law. Others, like Timothy Barnes, assert that Constantius and Helena were joined in an official marriage, on the grounds that the sources claiming an official marriage are more reliable. Helena gave birth to the future emperor Constantine I on 27 February of an uncertain year soon after 270 (probably around 272). At the time, she
404-449: A stabularia , a term translated as "stable-maid" or "inn-keeper". He makes this comment a virtue, calling Helena a bona stabularia , a "good stable-maid", probably to contrast her with the general suggestion of sexual laxness considered typical of that group. Other sources, especially those written after Constantine's proclamation as emperor, gloss over or ignore her background. Both Geoffrey of Monmouth and Henry of Huntingdon promoted
505-577: A basis for coinages: anthropology , photography , telephony , isomer , biomechanics , cinematography , etc. Together with Latin words , they form the foundation of international scientific and technical vocabulary ; for example, all words ending in -logy ('discourse'). There are many English words of Greek origin . Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European language family. The ancient language most closely related to it may be ancient Macedonian , which, by most accounts,
606-619: A claim outright. Much of it is based on the Historia Britonum , a 9th-century Welsh-Latin historical compilation, Bede 's Ecclesiastical History of the English People , and Gildas 's 6th-century polemic De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae , expanded with material from bardic oral tradition and genealogical tracts, and embellished by Geoffrey's own imagination. In an exchange of manuscript material for their own histories, Robert of Torigny gave Henry of Huntingdon
707-482: A copy of History , which both Robert and Henry used uncritically as authentic history and subsequently used in their own works, by which means Geoffrey's fictions became embedded in popular history. The History of the Kings of Britain is now usually considered a literary forgery containing little reliable history. This has since led many modern scholars to agree with William of Newburgh , who wrote around 1190 that "it
808-508: A faster, more convenient cursive writing style with the use of ink and quill . The Greek alphabet consists of 24 letters, each with an uppercase ( majuscule ) and lowercase ( minuscule ) form. The letter sigma has an additional lowercase form (ς) used in the final position of a word: In addition to the letters, the Greek alphabet features a number of diacritical signs : three different accent marks ( acute , grave , and circumflex ), originally denoting different shapes of pitch accent on
909-590: A lesser extent, in the Western Mediterranean in and around colonies such as Massalia , Monoikos , and Mainake . It was also used as the official language of government and religion in the Christian Nubian kingdoms , for most of their history. Greek, in its modern form, is the official language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population. It is also the official language of Cyprus (nominally alongside Turkish ) and
1010-400: A limited but productive system of compounding and a rich inflectional system. Although its morphological categories have been fairly stable over time, morphological changes are present throughout, particularly in the nominal and verbal systems. The major change in the nominal morphology since the classical stage was the disuse of the dative case (its functions being largely taken over by
1111-650: A lytell crosse made of the holy crosse ... " In an ecumenical gesture, these relics visited the Orthodox Church of Greece and were displayed in the church of Agia Varvara (Saint Barbara) in Athens from 14 May to 15 June 2017. In Great Britain, later legend, mentioned by Henry of Huntingdon but made popular by Geoffrey of Monmouth , claimed that Helena was a daughter of the King of Britain , Cole of Colchester , who allied with Constantius to avoid more war between
SECTION 10
#17327833015421212-459: A mixed syllable structure, permitting complex syllabic onsets but very restricted codas. It has only oral vowels and a fairly stable set of consonantal contrasts . The main phonological changes occurred during the Hellenistic and Roman period (see Koine Greek phonology for details): In all its stages, the morphology of Greek shows an extensive set of productive derivational affixes ,
1313-634: A popular tradition that Helena was a British princess and the daughter of " Old King Cole " from the area of Colchester . This led to the later dedication of 135 churches in England to her, many in around the area of Yorkshire , and revived as a suggestion in the 20th century in the novel by Evelyn Waugh . It is unknown where she first met Constantius . The historian Timothy Barnes has suggested that Constantius , while serving under Emperor Aurelian , could have met her while stationed in Asia Minor for
1414-562: A priest at Westminster 10 days before. According to Lewis Thorpe , "There is no evidence that he ever visited his see, and indeed the wars of Owain Gwynedd make this most unlikely." He appears to have died between 25 December 1154 and 24 December 1155 according to Welsh chronicles, when his successor took office. Geoffrey's structuring and shaping of the Merlin and Arthur myths engendered their vast popularity which continues today, and he
1515-617: A significant afterlife in a variety of forms, including translations and adaptations such as Wace 's Old Norman-French Roman de Brut , Layamon 's Middle English Brut , and several anonymous Middle Welsh versions known as Brut y Brenhinedd (" Brut of the Kings "). where it was generally accepted as a true account. In 2017, Miles Russell published the initial results of the Lost Voices of Celtic Britain Project established at Bournemouth University . The main conclusion of
1616-568: A spot which has been accounted holy from the beginning in God's judgment, but which now appears holier still, since it has brought to light a clear assurance of our Saviour's passion. Sozomen and Theodoret claim that Helena also found the nails of the crucifixion . To use their miraculous power to aid her son, Helena allegedly had one placed in Constantine's helmet, and another in the bridle of his horse. According to one tradition, Helena acquired
1717-460: A state of diglossia : the coexistence of vernacular and archaizing written forms of the language. What came to be known as the Greek language question was a polarization between two competing varieties of Modern Greek: Dimotiki , the vernacular form of Modern Greek proper, and Katharevousa , meaning 'purified', a compromise between Dimotiki and Ancient Greek developed in the early 19th century that
1818-466: A test. Possibly through Bishop Macarius of Jerusalem , she had a woman who was near death brought from the city. When the woman touched the first and second crosses, her condition did not change, but when she touched the third and final cross she suddenly recovered, and Helena declared the cross with which the woman had been touched to be the True Cross . On the site of discovery, Constantine ordered
1919-797: Is also commemorated every Bright Wednesday along with the saints from Mount Sinai , by the Russian Orthodox Church and the Orthodox Church in America . Her alleged skull is displayed in the east crypt of the Cathedral of Trier , in Germany . Portions of her relics are found at the basilica of Santa Maria in Ara Coeli in Rome , the Église Saint-Leu-Saint-Gilles in Paris , and at
2020-484: Is also held by the Filipino community of Jersey City, New Jersey . In medieval legend and chivalric romance , Helena appears as a persecuted heroine, in the vein of such women as Emaré and Constance ; separated from her husband, she lives a quiet life, supporting herself on her embroidery, until such time as her son's charm and grace wins her husband's attention and so the revelation of their identities. Helena
2121-415: Is also unknown. The sources are equivocal on the point, sometimes calling Helena Constantius' "wife", and sometimes, following the dismissive propaganda of Constantine's rival Maxentius , calling her his " concubine ". Jerome , perhaps confused by the vague terminology of his own sources, manages to do both. Some scholars, such as the historian Jan Drijvers, assert that Constantius and Helena were joined in
SECTION 20
#17327833015422222-749: Is considered by the Eastern Orthodox , Oriental Orthodox , Eastern and Roman Catholic churches, as well as by the Anglican Communion and Lutheran Churches , as a saint. She is sometimes known as Helen of Constantinople to distinguish her from others with similar names . Her feast day as a saint of the Eastern Orthodox Church is celebrated with her son on 21 May, the "Feast of the Holy Great Sovereigns Constantine and Helena, Equal to
2323-584: Is generally viewed by scholars as the major establisher of the Arthurian canon. The History' s effect on the legend of King Arthur was so vast that Arthurian works have been categorised as "pre-Galfridian" and "post-Galfridian", depending on whether or not they were influenced by him. Geoffrey wrote several works in Latin, the language of learning and literature in Europe during the medieval period. His major work
2424-520: Is no evidence that he was of either Welsh or Cambro-Norman descent. He may have come from the same French-speaking elite of the Welsh border country as Gerald of Wales , Walter Map , and Robert, Earl of Gloucester , to whom Geoffrey dedicated versions of his History . Frank Merry Stenton and others have suggested that Geoffrey's parents may have been among the many Bretons who took part in William
2525-401: Is quite clear that everything this man wrote about Arthur and his successors, or indeed about his predecessors from Vortigern onwards, was made up, partly by himself and partly by others." Other contemporaries were similarly unconvinced by Geoffrey's History . For example, Giraldus Cambrensis recounts the experience of a man possessed by demons: "If the evil spirits oppressed him too much,
2626-987: Is sometimes called aljamiado , as when Romance languages are written in the Arabic alphabet. Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Greek: Transcription of the example text into Latin alphabet : Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English: Proto-Greek Mycenaean Ancient Koine Medieval Modern Geoffrey of Monmouth Geoffrey of Monmouth ( Latin : Galfridus Monemutensis, Galfridus Arturus ; Welsh : Gruffudd ap Arthur, Sieffre o Fynwy ; c. 1095 – c. 1155 )
2727-763: Is still used internationally for the writing of Ancient Greek . In Greek, the question mark is written as the English semicolon, while the functions of the colon and semicolon are performed by a raised point (•), known as the ano teleia ( άνω τελεία ). In Greek the comma also functions as a silent letter in a handful of Greek words, principally distinguishing ό,τι ( ó,ti , 'whatever') from ότι ( óti , 'that'). Ancient Greek texts often used scriptio continua ('continuous writing'), which means that ancient authors and scribes would write word after word with no spaces or punctuation between words to differentiate or mark boundaries. Boustrophedon , or bi-directional text,
2828-425: Is the protagonist of Evelyn Waugh 's 1950 novel Helena . She is also the main character of Priestess of Avalon (2000), a fantasy novel by Marion Zimmer Bradley and Diana L. Paxson . She is given the name Eilan and depicted as a trained priestess of Avalon . Helena is also the protagonist of Louis de Wohl 's novel The Living Wood (1947) in which she is again the daughter of King Coel of Colchester. In
2929-632: Is to modern spoken English ". Greek is spoken today by at least 13 million people, principally in Greece and Cyprus along with a sizable Greek-speaking minority in Albania near the Greek-Albanian border. A significant percentage of Albania's population has knowledge of the Greek language due in part to the Albanian wave of immigration to Greece in the 1980s and '90s and the Greek community in
3030-577: The Abbaye Saint-Pierre d'Hautvillers . The church of Sant'Elena in Venice claims to have the complete body of the saint enshrined under the main altar. In 1517, the English priest, Richard Torkington, having seen the relics during a visit to Venice described them as follows: " She lith in a ffayr place of religion, of white monks, ye may see her face perfythly, her body ys covered with a cloth of whith sylke ... Also there lyes upon her breast
3131-562: The British Overseas Territory of Akrotiri and Dhekelia (alongside English ). Because of the membership of Greece and Cyprus in the European Union, Greek is one of the organization's 24 official languages . Greek is recognized as a minority language in Albania, and used co-officially in some of its municipalities, in the districts of Gjirokastër and Sarandë . It is also an official minority language in
Helena, mother of Constantine I - Misplaced Pages Continue
3232-657: The European canon . Greek is also the language in which many of the foundational texts in science and philosophy were originally composed. The New Testament of the Christian Bible was also originally written in Greek. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world , the Greek texts and Greek societies of antiquity constitute the objects of study of the discipline of Classics . During antiquity , Greek
3333-713: The Gospel of St John was placed on his bosom, when, like birds, they immediately vanished; but when the book was removed, and the History of the Britons by 'Geoffrey Arthur' [as Geoffrey named himself] was substituted in its place, they instantly reappeared in greater numbers, and remained a longer time than usual on his body and on the book." Geoffrey's major work was nevertheless widely disseminated throughout medieval Western Europe; Acton Griscom listed 186 extant manuscripts in 1929, and others have been identified since. It enjoyed
3434-659: The Holy Tunic on her trip to Jerusalem and sent it to Trier . Several relics purportedly discovered by Helena are now in Cyprus , where she spent some time. Among them are items believed to be part of Jesus Christ's tunic, pieces of the holy cross, and pieces of the rope with which Jesus was tied on the Cross. The rope, considered to be the only relic of its kind, has been held at the Stavrovouni Monastery , which
3535-516: The Indo-Iranian languages (see Graeco-Aryan ), but little definitive evidence has been found. In addition, Albanian has also been considered somewhat related to Greek and Armenian, and it has been proposed that they all form a higher-order subgroup along with other extinct languages of the ancient Balkans; this higher-order subgroup is usually termed Palaeo-Balkan , and Greek has a central position in it. Linear B , attested as early as
3636-590: The Lutheran Church revere her as a saint . Helena was Greek , however, her birthplace is not known with certainty. Helenopolis , then Drepanum, in Bithynia is, following Procopius , "generally assumed" to be the place. Her name is attested on coins as Flavia Helena, Flavia Julia Helena and sometimes Aelena. Joseph Vogt suggested that the name Helena was typical for the Greek-speaking part of
3737-715: The Mount of Olives ; sites of Christ's birth and ascension, respectively. Local founding legend attributes to Helena's orders the construction of a church in Egypt to identify the Burning Bush of Sinai. The chapel at Saint Catherine's Monastery —often referred to as the Chapel of Saint Helen—is dated to the year 330. Jerusalem was still being rebuilt following the destruction caused by Titus in AD 70. Emperor Hadrian had built during
3838-486: The Oxford area, sometimes styled magister (teacher). He was probably a secular canon of St. George's college . All the charters signed by Geoffrey are also signed by Walter, Archdeacon of Oxford , a canon at that church. Another frequent co-signatory is Ralph of Monmouth, a canon of Lincoln . Archbishop Theobald of Bec consecrated Geoffrey as Bishop of St Asaph at Lambeth on 24 February 1152, having ordained him
3939-726: The United Kingdom , and throughout the European Union , especially in Germany . Historically, significant Greek-speaking communities and regions were found throughout the Eastern Mediterranean , in what are today Southern Italy , Turkey , Cyprus , Syria , Lebanon , Israel , Palestine , Egypt , and Libya ; in the area of the Black Sea , in what are today Turkey, Bulgaria , Romania , Ukraine , Russia , Georgia , Armenia , and Azerbaijan ; and, to
4040-468: The genitive ). The verbal system has lost the infinitive , the synthetically -formed future, and perfect tenses and the optative mood . Many have been replaced by periphrastic ( analytical ) forms. Pronouns show distinctions in person (1st, 2nd, and 3rd), number (singular, dual , and plural in the ancient language; singular and plural alone in later stages), and gender (masculine, feminine, and neuter), and decline for case (from six cases in
4141-417: The syntax of Greek have remained constant: verbs agree with their subject only, the use of the surviving cases is largely intact (nominative for subjects and predicates, accusative for objects of most verbs and many prepositions, genitive for possessors), articles precede nouns, adpositions are largely prepositional, relative clauses follow the noun they modify and relative pronouns are clause-initial. However,
Helena, mother of Constantine I - Misplaced Pages Continue
4242-418: The 130s a temple to Venus over the supposed site of Jesus ' tomb near Calvary , and renamed the city Aelia Capitolina . Accounts differ concerning whether the temple was dedicated to Venus or Jupiter. According to Eusebius, "[t]here was a temple of Venus on the spot. This the queen (Helena) had destroyed." According to tradition, Helena ordered the temple torn down and, according to the legend that arose at
4343-414: The 15th century, the town's coat of arms has shown a representation of the True Cross and three crowned nails in her honour. Colchester Town Hall has a Victorian statue of the saint on top of its 50-metre-high (160 ft) tower. The arms of Nottingham are almost identical because of the city's connection with Cole, her supposed father. Flores de Mayo honors her and her son Constantine for finding
4444-469: The 2021 novel Eagle Ascending by Dan Whitfield she is depicted as having lived to age 118 as result of the powers of the True Cross. Greek language Greek ( Modern Greek : Ελληνικά , romanized : Elliniká , [eliniˈka] ; Ancient Greek : Ἑλληνική , romanized : Hellēnikḗ ) is an Indo-European language, constituting an independent Hellenic branch within
4545-566: The 20th century on), especially from French and English, are typically not inflected; other modern borrowings are derived from Albanian , South Slavic ( Macedonian / Bulgarian ) and Eastern Romance languages ( Aromanian and Megleno-Romanian ). Greek words have been widely borrowed into other languages, including English. Example words include: mathematics , physics , astronomy , democracy , philosophy , athletics , theatre, rhetoric , baptism , evangelist , etc. Moreover, Greek words and word elements continue to be productive as
4646-871: The Apostles ". Her feast day in the Roman Catholic Church and in Antiochian Western Rite Vicariate falls on 18 August. Her feast day in the Coptic Orthodox Church is on 9 Pashons . Some Anglican and Lutheran churches keep the 21 May date. Helena is honored in the Church of England on 21 May but in the Episcopal Church on 22 May . In the Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Churches ,
4747-594: The Britons and Rome. Geoffrey further states that she was brought up in the manner of a queen, as she had no brothers to inherit the throne of Britain. The source for this may have been Sozomen's Historia Ecclesiastica , which, however, does not claim Helena was British but only that her son Constantine picked up his Christianity there. Constantine was with his father when he died in York , but neither had spent much time in Britain. The statement made by English chroniclers of
4848-614: The Conqueror 's conquest and settled in the southeast of Wales. Monmouth had been in the hands of Breton lords since 1075 or 1086, and the names Galfridus and Arthur were more common among the Bretons than the Welsh. He may have served for a while in the Benedictine Monmouth Priory , but most of his adult life appears to have been spent outside Wales. Between 1129 and 1151, his name appears on six charters in
4949-568: The Empire, but is not epigraphically attested in inscriptions of Bithynia (Helena's proposed region of origin) and it was also common in Latin-speaking areas. Procopius lived much later than the era he was describing and his description may have been actually intended as an etymological explanation about the toponym Helenopolis . On the other hand, her son Constantine renamed the city " Helenopolis " after her death around AD 330, which supports
5050-544: The Greek alphabet since approximately the 9th century BC. It was created by modifying the Phoenician alphabet , with the innovation of adopting certain letters to represent the vowels. The variant of the alphabet in use today is essentially the late Ionic variant, introduced for writing classical Attic in 403 BC. In classical Greek, as in classical Latin, only upper-case letters existed. The lower-case Greek letters were developed much later by medieval scribes to permit
5151-549: The Greek language was the Cypriot syllabary (also a descendant of Linear A via the intermediate Cypro-Minoan syllabary ), which is closely related to Linear B but uses somewhat different syllabic conventions to represent phoneme sequences. The Cypriot syllabary is attested in Cyprus from the 11th century BC until its gradual abandonment in the late Classical period, in favor of the standard Greek alphabet. Greek has been written in
SECTION 50
#17327833015425252-484: The Indo-European language family. It is native to Greece , Cyprus , Italy (in Calabria and Salento ), southern Albania , and other regions of the Balkans , Caucasus , the Black Sea coast, Asia Minor , and the Eastern Mediterranean . It has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning at least 3,400 years of written records. Its writing system is the Greek alphabet , which has been used for approximately 2,800 years; previously, Greek
5353-498: The Middle Ages, according to which Helena was supposed to have been the daughter of a British prince, is entirely without historical foundation. It may arise from the similarly named Welsh princess Saint Elen (alleged to have married Magnus Maximus and to have borne a son named Constantine) or from the misinterpretation of a term used in the fourth chapter of the panegyric on Constantine's marriage with Fausta. The description of Constantine honoring Britain oriendo ( lit. "from
5454-412: The Roman Empire and that therefore her place of origin should be looked for in the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire. No Greek inscriptions have been attested dedicated to Helena during her lifetime. The 6th-century historian Procopius is the earliest authority for the statement that Helena was a native of Drepanum, in the province of Bithynia in Asia Minor . The name Helena appears in all areas of
5555-434: The True Cross with a parade with floral and fluvial themed parade showcasing her, Constantine and other people who followed her journey to find the True Cross. Her discovery of the Cross along with Constantine is dramatised in the Santacruzan , a ritual pageant in the Philippines . Held in May (when Roodmas was once celebrated), the procession also bears elements of the month's Marian devotions . A Santacruzan procession
5656-404: The acute during the late 20th century, and it has only been retained in typography . After the writing reform of 1982, most diacritics are no longer used. Since then, Greek has been written mostly in the simplified monotonic orthography (or monotonic system), which employs only the acute accent and the diaeresis. The traditional system, now called the polytonic orthography (or polytonic system),
5757-423: The arrival of Proto-Greeks, some documented in Mycenaean texts ; they include a large number of Greek toponyms . The form and meaning of many words have changed. Loanwords (words of foreign origin) have entered the language, mainly from Latin, Venetian , and Turkish . During the older periods of Greek, loanwords into Greek acquired Greek inflections, thus leaving only a foreign root word. Modern borrowings (from
5858-399: The belief that the city was indeed her birthplace. The Byzantinist Cyril Mango has, however, argued that Helenopolis was refounded to strengthen the communication network around Constantine's new capital in Constantinople , and was renamed simply to honor Helena, not to necessarily mark her birthplace. There was also a Helenopolis in Palestine and a Helenopolis in Lydia . These cities, and
5959-469: The book is a translation of an "ancient book in the British language that told in orderly fashion the deeds of all the kings of Britain", given to him by Walter , Archdeacon of Oxford, but modern historians have dismissed this claim. It is likely, however, that the Archdeacon did furnish Geoffrey with some materials in the Welsh language which helped inspire his work, as Geoffrey's position and acquaintance with him would not have permitted him to fabricate such
6060-453: The building of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre . Churches were also built on other sites detected by Helena. The "Letter From Constantine to Macarius of Jerusalem", as presented in Eusebius' Life of Constantine , states: Such is our Saviour's grace, that no power of language seems adequate to describe the wondrous circumstance to which I am about to refer. For, that the monument of his [Christ's] most holy Passion, so long ago buried beneath
6161-408: The campaign against Zenobia . It is said that upon meeting they were wearing identical silver bracelets; Constantius saw her as his divinely-sent soulmate. Barnes calls attention to an epitaph at Nicomedia of one of Aurelian's protectors, which could indicate the emperor's presence in the Bithynian region soon after AD 270. The precise legal nature of the relationship between Helena and Constantius
SECTION 60
#17327833015426262-495: The country. Prior to the Greco-Turkish War and the resulting population exchange in 1923 a very large population of Greek-speakers also existed in Turkey , though very few remain today. A small Greek-speaking community is also found in Bulgaria near the Greek-Bulgarian border. Greek is also spoken worldwide by the sizable Greek diaspora which has notable communities in the United States , Australia , Canada , South Africa , Chile , Brazil , Argentina , Russia , Ukraine ,
6363-399: The court of Diocletian at Nicomedia, where Constantine grew to be a member of the inner circle. Helena never remarried and lived for a time in obscurity, though close to her only son, who had a deep regard and affection for her. Constantine was proclaimed augustus (emperor) in 306 by Constantius' troops after the latter had died, and following his elevation his mother was brought back to
6464-441: The dative led to a rise of prepositional indirect objects (and the use of the genitive to directly mark these as well). Ancient Greek tended to be verb-final, but neutral word order in the modern language is VSO or SVO. Modern Greek inherits most of its vocabulary from Ancient Greek, which in turn is an Indo-European language, but also includes a number of borrowings from the languages of the populations that inhabited Greece before
6565-528: The earliest forms attested to four in the modern language). Nouns, articles, and adjectives show all the distinctions except for a person. Both attributive and predicative adjectives agree with the noun. The inflectional categories of the Greek verb have likewise remained largely the same over the course of the language's history but with significant changes in the number of distinctions within each category and their morphological expression. Greek verbs have synthetic inflectional forms for: Many aspects of
6666-431: The eastern provinces in 327 to return to Rome, bringing with her large parts of the True Cross and other relics, which were then stored in her palace's private chapel, now the Basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme , where they can be still seen today. This has been maintained by Cistercian monks in the monastery which has been attached to the church for centuries. Helena died around 330, with her son at her side. She
6767-465: The end of the 4th century, chose a site to begin excavating, which led to the recovery of three different crosses. The legend is recounted in Ambrose , On the Death of Theodosius (died 395) and at length in Rufinus ' chapters appended to his translation into Latin of Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History , the main body of which does not mention the event. Then, Rufinus relates, the empress refused to be swayed by anything short of solid proof and performed
6868-412: The extent that one can speak of a new language emerging. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than a foreign language. It is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, " Homeric Greek is probably closer to Demotic than 12-century Middle English
6969-423: The feast of Meskel , which commemorates her discovery of the cross, is celebrated on 17 Meskerem in the Ethiopian calendar (September 27, Gregorian calendar, or on 28 September in leap years). The holiday is usually celebrated with the lighting of a large bonfire , or Demera , based on the belief that she had a revelation in a dream. She was told that she should make a bonfire and that the smoke would show her where
7070-448: The ground, should have remained unknown for so long a series of years, until its reappearance to his servants now set free through the removal of him who was the common enemy of all, is a fact which truly surpasses all admiration. I have no greater care than how I may best adorn with a splendid structure that sacred spot, which, under Divine direction, I have disencumbered as it were of the heavy weight of foul idol worship [the Roman temple];
7171-421: The imperial treasury in order to locate the relics of the Christian tradition . In AD 326–28 Helena undertook a trip to Palestine. According to Eusebius of Caesarea , who records the details of her pilgrimage to Palestine and other eastern provinces, and Socrates Scholasticus , she was responsible for the construction or beautification of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem , and the Church of Eleona on
7272-613: The information and smoothing out apparent inconsistencies in order to create a single grand narrative which fed into the preferred narrative of the Norman rulers of Britain. Much of the information that he used can be shown to be derived from two discrete sources: Stretching this source material out, chopping, changing and re-editing it in the process, Geoffrey added not just his own fictions but also additional information culled from Roman and early medieval histories and early medieval writers such as Gildas and Bede. Geoffrey's earliest writing
7373-449: The language show both conservative and innovative tendencies across the entire attestation of the language from the ancient to the modern period. The division into conventional periods is, as with all such periodizations, relatively arbitrary, especially because, in all periods, Ancient Greek has enjoyed high prestige, and the literate borrowed heavily from it. Across its history, the syllabic structure of Greek has varied little: Greek shows
7474-467: The late 15th century BC, was the first script used to write Greek. It is basically a syllabary , which was finally deciphered by Michael Ventris and John Chadwick in the 1950s (its precursor, Linear A , has not been deciphered and most likely encodes a non-Greek language). The language of the Linear B texts, Mycenaean Greek , is the earliest known form of Greek. Another similar system used to write
7575-452: The many other countries of the Greek diaspora . Greek roots have been widely used for centuries and continue to be widely used to coin new words in other languages; Greek and Latin are the predominant sources of international scientific vocabulary . Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around the 3rd millennium BC, or possibly earlier. The earliest written evidence is
7676-465: The morphological changes also have their counterparts in the syntax, and there are also significant differences between the syntax of the ancient and that of the modern form of the language . Ancient Greek made great use of participial constructions and of constructions involving the infinitive, and the modern variety lacks the infinitive entirely (employing a raft of new periphrastic constructions instead) and uses participles more restrictively. The loss of
7777-513: The other works. Here he is known as Merlin of the Woods ( Merlinus Sylvestris ) or Scottish Merlin ( Merlinus Caledonius ) and is portrayed as an old man living as a crazed and grief-stricken outcast in the forest. The story is set long after the timeframe of the History ' s Merlin, but the author tries to synchronise the works with references to the mad prophet's previous dealings with Vortigern and Arthur. The Vita did not circulate widely, and
7878-556: The outset", "from the beginning") may have been taken as an allusion to his birth ("from his beginning") although it was actually discussing the beginning of his reign. At least twenty-five holy wells currently exist in the United Kingdom dedicated to a Saint Helen. She is also the patron saint of Abingdon and Colchester . St Helen's Chapel in Colchester was believed to have been founded by Helena herself, and since
7979-407: The place-names of the region. Geoffrey was known to his contemporaries as Galfridus Arturus or variants thereof. The "Arthur" in these versions of his name may indicate the name of his father or a nickname based on his scholarly interests. Earlier scholars assumed that Geoffrey was Welsh or at least spoke Welsh . His knowledge of this language appears to have been slight, however, and there
8080-584: The province of Helenopontus in the Pontus, were probably all named after Constantine's mother. Two other locations in France and the Pyrenees have been named after Helena. Equally uncertain to Drepanum and without strong documentation suggestions about her birthplace are: Naissus (central Balkans), Caphar or Edessa ( Mesopotamia ) and Trier . The bishop and historian Eusebius of Caesarea states that Helena
8181-639: The public life in 312, returning to the imperial court. She appears in the Eagle Cameo portraying Constantine's family, probably commemorating the birth of Constantine's son Constantine II in the summer of 316. She lived in the Horti Spei Veteris in Rome which she converted into an even more luxurious palace. According to Eusebius, Helena was converted to Christianity by Constantine. He appointed her as Augusta , and gave her unlimited access to
8282-643: The regions of Apulia and Calabria in Italy. In the framework of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages , Greek is protected and promoted officially as a regional and minority language in Armenia, Hungary , Romania, and Ukraine. It is recognized as a minority language and protected in Turkey by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne . The phonology , morphology , syntax , and vocabulary of
8383-437: The stressed vowel; the so-called breathing marks ( rough and smooth breathing ), originally used to signal presence or absence of word-initial /h/; and the diaeresis , used to mark the full syllabic value of a vowel that would otherwise be read as part of a diphthong. These marks were introduced during the course of the Hellenistic period. Actual usage of the grave in handwriting saw a rapid decline in favor of uniform usage of
8484-568: The study was that the Historia Regum Britanniae appears to contain significant demonstrable archaeological fact, despite being compiled many centuries after the period that it describes. Geoffrey seems to have brought together a disparate mass of source material, including folklore, chronicles, king-lists, dynastic tables, oral tales, and bardic praise poems, some of which was irrevocably garbled or corrupted. In doing so, Geoffrey exercised considerable editorial control, massaging
8585-599: The true cross was buried. So she ordered the people of Jerusalem to bring wood and make a huge pile. After adding frankincense to it, the bonfire was lit and the smoke rose high up to the sky and returned to the ground, exactly to the spot where the Cross had been buried. Uncovering of the Precious Cross and the Precious Nails ( Roodmas ) by Empress Saint Helen in Jerusalem falls on 6 March . She
8686-419: Was a Catholic cleric from Monmouth , Wales , and one of the major figures in the development of British historiography and the popularity of tales of King Arthur . He is best known for his chronicle The History of the Kings of Britain ( Latin : De gestis Britonum or Historia Regum Britanniae ) which was widely popular in its day, being translated into other languages from its original Latin. It
8787-574: Was a distinct dialect of Greek itself. Aside from the Macedonian question, current consensus regards Phrygian as the closest relative of Greek, since they share a number of phonological, morphological and lexical isoglosses , with some being exclusive between them. Scholars have proposed a Graeco-Phrygian subgroup out of which Greek and Phrygian originated. Among living languages, some Indo-Europeanists suggest that Greek may be most closely related to Armenian (see Graeco-Armenian ) or
8888-420: Was about 80 on her return from Palestine. Since that journey has been dated to 326–28, she was probably born around 246 to 249. Information about her social background universally suggests that she came from the lower classes. Fourth-century sources, following Eutropius ' Breviarium, record that she came from a humble background. Bishop Ambrose of Milan, writing in the late 4th century was the first to call her
8989-476: Was also said to have been founded by Helena. According to tradition, Helena is responsible for the large population of cats in Cyprus . Local tradition holds that she imported hundreds of cats from Egypt or Palestine in the fourth century to rid a monastery of snakes. The monastery is today known as "St. Nicholas of the Cats" (Greek Άγιος Νικόλαος των Γατών ) and is located near Limassol . Helena left Jerusalem and
9090-505: Was also used in Ancient Greek. Greek has occasionally been written in the Latin script , especially in areas under Venetian rule or by Greek Catholics . The term Frankolevantinika / Φραγκολεβαντίνικα applies when the Latin script is used to write Greek in the cultural ambit of Catholicism (because Frankos / Φράγκος is an older Greek term for West-European dating to when most of (Roman Catholic Christian) West Europe
9191-603: Was buried in the Mausoleum of Helena , outside Rome on the Via Labicana . Her sarcophagus is on display in the Pio-Clementine Vatican Museum , next to the sarcophagus of her granddaughter Constantina (Saint Constance). However, in 1154 her remains were replaced in the sarcophagus with the remains of Pope Anastasius IV , and Helena's remains were moved to Santa Maria in Ara Coeli . Helena
9292-556: Was by far the most widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world . It eventually became the official language of the Byzantine Empire and developed into Medieval Greek . In its modern form , Greek is the official language of Greece and Cyprus and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union . It is spoken by at least 13.5 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey , and
9393-635: Was given historical credence well into the 16th century, but is now considered historically unreliable. Geoffrey was born between about 1090 and 1100, in Wales or the Welsh Marches . He had reached the age of majority by 1129 when he is recorded as witnessing a charter. Geoffrey refers to himself in his Historia as Galfridus Monemutensis (Geoffrey of Monmouth), which indicates a significant connection to Monmouth , Wales, and may refer to his birthplace. His works attest to some acquaintance with
9494-507: Was in Naissus ( Niš , Serbia ). In order to obtain a wife more consonant with his rising status, Constantius divorced Helena some time before 289, when he married Theodora , Maximian 's daughter under his command. The narrative sources date the marriage to 293, when Constantius was appointed caesar (heir-apparent) of Maximian, but the Latin panegyric of 289 refers to the new couple as already married. Helena and her son were dispatched to
9595-567: Was probably the Prophetiae Merlini ( Prophecies of Merlin ) which he wrote before 1135, and which appears both independently and incorporated into The History of the Kings of Britain . It consists of a series of obscure prophetic utterances attributed to Merlin which he claimed to have translated from an unspecified language. The third work attributed to Geoffrey is the hexameter poem Vita Merlini ( Life of Merlin ), based more closely on traditional material about Merlin than
9696-485: Was recorded in writing systems such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary . The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin , Cyrillic , Coptic , Gothic , and many other writing systems. The Greek language holds a very important place in the history of the Western world. Beginning with the epics of Homer , ancient Greek literature includes many works of lasting importance in
9797-455: Was renamed Helenopolis in her honor, although several locations have been proposed for her birthplace and origin. Helena ranks as an important figure in the history of Christianity . In her final years, she made a religious tour of Syria Palaestina and Jerusalem , during which ancient tradition claims that she discovered the True Cross . The Eastern Orthodox Church , Catholic Church , Oriental Orthodox Churches , Anglican Communion , and
9898-558: Was the Historia Regum Britanniae ( The History of the Kings of Britain ), the work best known to modern readers. It relates the purported history of Britain, from its first settlement by Brutus of Troy , a descendant of Trojan hero Aeneas , to the death of Cadwaladr in the 7th century, covering Julius Caesar 's invasions of Britain , Kings Leir and Cymbeline , and one of the earliest developed narratives of King Arthur . Geoffrey claims in his dedication that
9999-517: Was under the control of the Frankish Empire ). Frankochiotika / Φραγκοχιώτικα (meaning 'Catholic Chiot') alludes to the significant presence of Catholic missionaries based on the island of Chios . Additionally, the term Greeklish is often used when the Greek language is written in a Latin script in online communications. The Latin script is nowadays used by the Greek-speaking communities of Southern Italy . The Yevanic dialect
10100-637: Was used for literary and official purposes in the newly formed Greek state. In 1976, Dimotiki was declared the official language of Greece, after having incorporated features of Katharevousa and thus giving birth to Standard Modern Greek , used today for all official purposes and in education . The historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of the Greek language are often emphasized. Although Greek has undergone morphological and phonological changes comparable to those seen in other languages, never since classical antiquity has its cultural, literary, and orthographic tradition been interrupted to
10201-673: Was written by Romaniote and Constantinopolitan Karaite Jews using the Hebrew Alphabet . In a tradition, that in modern time, has come to be known as Greek Aljamiado , some Greek Muslims from Crete wrote their Cretan Greek in the Arabic alphabet . The same happened among Epirote Muslims in Ioannina . This also happened among Arabic-speaking Byzantine rite Christians in the Levant ( Lebanon , Palestine, and Syria ). This usage
#541458