/hel"euhn/ , n.
1. Also called Helen of Troy . Class. Myth. the beautiful daughter of Zeus and Leda and wife of Menelaus whose abduction by Paris was the cause of the Trojan War.
2. a female given name.
[ Hélène Helena Heléne, of obscure orig., prob. the name of a pre-Greek vegetation goddess; often linked by folk etym. with heléne, heláne torch, St. Elmo's fire, an unrelated word ]