[73] Helymus is named by Dionys. Hal. 1. 52 as having accompanied Acestes from Troy to Sicily. Strabo 13, p. 608 B. makes him land in Sicily with Aeneas, Virg. makes him a companion or retainer of Acestes, but younger, vv. 300, 301 below. In any case his name was connected with Sicily, as the mythic founder of the Elymi, a people there, Thuc. 6. 2. ‘Maturus aevi’ means merely of ripe years, not necessarily implying old age: ‘maturus’ however is frequently used of the old, with reference either to their experience or to their age, and is in effect a comparative term. Comp. 9. 246, “annis gravis atque animi maturus Aletes,” who is distinguished in this way from Nisus and Euryalus, to whom he is speaking, and from Ascanius, who follows him. So Hor. 4 Od. 4. 55, “Natosque maturosque patres;” id. A. P. 115, “Maturusne senex an adhuc florente iuventa Fervidus.” Here it discriminates Acestes from Ascanius, and perhaps from Helymus and the rest, ‘cetera pubes.’
