The paper addresses Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great. Constantine’s importance as a prototype of exemplary Christian rulership, and as a symbol of legitimacy and identity within the context of imperial ideological strategies, has been in the forefront of scholarly attention. Less interest, however, has been expressed for Helena. Nonetheless, both literary and visual primary sources, throughout the Byzantine period, describe and show Helena as an inseparable part of Constantine’s ideal Christian profile. The paper endeavours to take a fresh look at the evidence between the fourth and ninth centuries in order to lead to new insights into the origins of Helena’s cult, the emergence of a Helena-legend with symbolic and metaphorical functions, and the way that Byzantines reconstructed, evaluated, and appreciated her role.
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