672 



HELIOCENTRIC PLACE OF A PLANET HELIOS. 



a, anil takes no concern in its internal administra- 

 tion. The British ceased to occupy it as a military 

 1 ost in 182 1. The inhabitants are of Frisian descent, 

 ami the old Frisian dialect is still spoken here. Dur- 

 ing the last general war in Europe, great magazines 

 of colonial goods were formed on the island, in order 

 to be smuggled to the continent, as occasions offered ; 

 and it is so favourably situated to be the centre of a 

 contraband trade, that it did much to defeat the ex- 

 tlu>ivo system in the north of Europe. 



HELIOCENTRIC PLACE OF A PLANET is 

 that place in the ecliptic in which the planet would 

 appear if viewed from the centre of the sun ; and 

 consequently the heliocentric place coincides with the 

 longitude of a planet, as viewed from the same 

 centre. 



HELIODORUS ; one of the best Greek amatory 

 writers. He was a native of Emesa, in Syria, and 

 lived near the end of the fourth century. He was a 

 believer in the Christian religion, and bishop of Tri- 

 cea (Tricala), in Thessaly ; but towards the close of 

 his life, he was deposed. His youthful work, Mthio- 

 pica (i. e. .iEthiopic History), or the Loves of Thea- 

 genes and Chariclea, in poetical prose, and an almost 

 epic tone, is distinguished by its strict morality from 

 the other Greek romances, and interests the reader 

 by the wonderful adventures it recounts. The best 

 editions are those of Bourdelot (Paris, 1619; Leip- 

 sic, 1772), of Coray (Paris, 1804, 2 vols.; Leipsic, 

 1805, 2 vols.). 



HELIOGABALUS, M. AURELIUS ANTONINUS ; a 

 Roman emperor, son of Varius Marcellus. He was 

 called Heliogabalus, because he had been priest of 

 that divinity in Phoenicia. After the death of Ma- 

 crinus, he was invested with the imperial purple, and 

 the senate, however unwilling to submit to a youth 

 only fourteen years of age, approved of his election, 

 and bestowed upon him the title of Augustus. He- 

 liogabalus made his grand-mother Moesa, and his 

 mother Soemias, his colleagues on the throne, and, to 

 bestow more dignity upon the sex, he chose a senate 

 of women, over which his mother presided, and pre- 

 scribed all the modes and fashions which prevailed 

 in the empire. Rome now displayed a scene of 

 cruelty and debauchery ; the imperial palace was 

 full of prostitution, and the most infamous of the 

 populace became the favourites of the prince. He 

 raised his horse to the honours of the consulship, and 

 obliged his subjects to pay adoration to a god called 

 Heliogabalus. This was no other than a large black 

 stone, whose figure resembled that of a cone. To 

 this ridiculous deity temples were raised at Rome, and 

 the altars of the gods plundered to deck those of the 

 new divinity. In the midst of his extravagances, 

 Heliogabalus married four wives. His licentiousness 

 soon displeased the populace, and Heliogabalus, un- 

 able to appease the seditions of the soldiers, whom 

 his rapacity and debaucheries had irritated, hid him- 

 self in the filth and excrements of the camp, where 

 he was found in the arms of his mother. His heac 

 was severed from his body, A.D. 222, in the eigh- 

 teenth year of his age, after a reign of three years 

 nine months, and four days. He was succeeded by 

 Alexander Severus. Heliogabalus burdened his sub 

 jects with the most oppressive taxes, his halls were 

 covered with carpets of gold and silver tissue, anc 

 his mats were made with the down of hares, and with 

 the soft feathers which were found under the wings 

 of partridges. He was fond of covering his shoes 

 with precious stones, to draw the admiration of th< 

 people as he walked along the streets, and he wa 

 the first Roman who ever wore a dress of silk. Hi 

 often invited the most common of the people to shan 

 his banquets, and made them sit down on large bellow 

 full of wind, which, suddenly emptying themselves 



lirew the quests on the ground, and left them a prey 

 o wild beasts. He often tied some of his favourites 

 m a large wheel, and was particularly delighted to 

 ee them whirled round like Ixions, and sometimes 

 uspended in the air, or sunk beneath the water. 



HELIOMETER (called, also, Astrometer) ; an in- 

 trument for measuring small distances on the sky, 

 mrticularly the apparent diameters of the sun and 

 f the moon, more conveniently than can be done 

 with the micrometer. There are different ways of 

 constructing it. The heliometer of Bouguer is an 

 stronomical telescope, provided with two object- 

 ;lasses, one of which is movable, and which form two 

 distinct images of the same object, visible through 

 he same eye-glass. If, in contemplating a celestial 

 K)dy, the object-glasses are placed so as to bring the 

 mages to touch each other, the distance of the Gen- 

 res of the glasses gives the diameter of the image. 

 :n this manner, the instrument gives, for instance, 

 the difference of the diameter of the sun in the peri- 

 fee and apogee. See Lalande's Astronomic, second 

 dition, 2433. 



HELIOPOLIS, in Coelosyria. See Balbec. 



HELIOPOLIS (city of the sun), which, in the 

 Egyptian language, was called the city of On, was 

 situated a little to the north of Memphis, and was 

 one of the most extensive cities of Egypt, during the 

 reign of the Pharaohs, and so adorned by monuments 

 as to be esteemed among the first sacred cities of the 

 dngdom. The temple dedicated to Re was a mag- 

 nificent building, having in front an avenue of 

 sphinxes, celebrated in history, and adorned by seve- 

 ral obelisks, raised by order of Sethosis Rameses, 

 1900 years B. C. By means of lakes and canals, 

 ;he town, though built upon an artificial eminence, 

 communicated with the Nile, and, during the flour- 

 ishing ages of the Egyptian monarchy, the priests 

 and scholars acquired and taught the elements of 

 learning within the precincts of its temples. At the 

 time of Strabo, who visited this town soon after the 

 death of our Saviour, the apartments were still 

 shown, in which, four centuries before, Eudoxus and 

 Plato had laboured to learn the philosophy of Egypt. 

 Here Joseph and Mary are said to have rested with 

 our Saviour. It is now called Metarea. Near the 

 village stands the pillar of On, a famous obelisk, 

 supposed to be the oldest monument of the kind ex- 

 isting. Its height is 67^ feet, and its breadth at the 

 base six feet. It is one entire mass of reddish gran- 

 ite. Hieroglyphical characters are rudely sculptured 

 upon it. A bloody battle was fought here, March 

 20, 1800, between the French and the Turks. 



HELIOS ; the god of the sun (in Latin, Sol), in 

 the Greek mythology ; son of Hyperion and Theia, 

 and brother of Eos (Aurora, the dawn) and Selene 

 (Luna, the moon). He dwells with Eos in the ocean, 

 behind Colchis. From the portals of the morning, 

 he rides through the air, in an oblique curve, to the 

 gates of evening ; and, after having cooled his horses 

 in the ocean, he drives his chariot into a self-moving 

 golden vessel, made by Vulcan, which, with wonder- 

 ful rapidity bears him along the northern shore of the 

 ocean back to Colchis, where he bathes his horses in 

 the lake of the sun, and rests during the night, till 

 the dawn of the morning. Later authors assign him 

 a palace in the west, where he refreshes himself 

 and his horses with ambrosial food. Respecting 

 the history of Helios, the poets relate his contest 

 with Neptune for the isthmus of Corinth, his reveal- 

 ing the secret amours of Mars and Venus, and his 

 disclosure to Ceres of the ravisher of her daughter. 

 In Sicily, he had a herd of cattle dedicated to him, 

 with the sight of which he was delighted, as he rode 

 through the sky. His vengeance fell heavily upon 

 the companions of Ulysses, who slaughtered some of 



