from Amphytus and Telechius, the charioteers (μνιοχοι) of Castor
and Pollux, and thence called Lacedæmonii. _Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 21.
――_Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 40.――_Flaccus_, bk. 3, li. 270; bk. 6,
li. 42.
=Henna.= _See:_ Enna.
=Hephæstia=, the capital town of Lemnos.――――A festival in honour of
Vulcan (Ἡφαιστος) at Athens. There was then a race with torches
between three young men. Each in his turn ran a race with a lighted
torch in his hand, and whoever could carry it to the end of the
course before it was extinguished, obtained the prize. They delivered
it one to the other after they finished their course, and from that
circumstance we see many allusions in ancient authors who compare
the vicissitudes of human affairs to this delivering of the torch,
particularly in these lines of Lucretius bk. 2:
_Inque brevi spatio mutantur sæcla animantum,
Et quasi cursores vitai lampada tradunt._
=Hephæstiădes=, a name applied to the Lipari isles as sacred to Vulcan.
=Hephæstii=, mountains in Lycia which are set on fire by the lightest
touch of a burning torch. Their very stones burnt in the middle of
water, according to _Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 106.
=Hephæstio=, a Greek grammarian of Alexandria in the age of the
emperor Verus. There remains of his compositions a treatise entitled
_Enchiridion de metris & poemate_, the best edition of which is that
of _Pauw_, 4to, Utrecht, 1726.
=Hephæstion=, a Macedonian famous for his intimacy with Alexander.
He accompanied the conqueror in his Asiatic conquests, and was so
faithful and attached to him, that Alexander often observed that
Craterus was the friend of the king, but Hephæstion the friend of
Alexander. He died at Ecbatana 325 years before the christian era,
according to some from excess of drinking, or eating. Alexander
was so inconsolable at the death of this faithful subject, that he
shed tears at the intelligence, and ordered the sacred fire to be
extinguished, which was never done but at the death of a Persian
monarch. The physician who attended Hephæstion in his illness was
accused of negligence, and by the king’s order inhumanly put to
death, and the games were interrupted. His body was entrusted to the
care of Perdiccas, and honoured with the most magnificent funeral
at Babylon. He was so like the king in features and stature, that he
was often saluted by the name of Alexander. _Curtius._――_Arrian_, bk.
7, &c.――_Plutarch_, _Alexander_.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 7,
ch. 8.
=Heptaphōnos=, a portico, which received this name, because the voice
was re-echoed seven times in it. _Pliny_, bk. 36, ch. 15.
=Heptapŏlis=, a country of Egypt, which contained seven cities.
=Heptapy̆los=, a surname of Thebes in Bœotia, from its seven gates.
=Hera=, the name of Juno among the Greeks.――――A daughter of Neptune
and Ceres when transformed into a mare. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3.――――A
town of Æolia and of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 6, ch. 7.――――A town
of Sicily, called also _Hybla_. _Cicero_, _Letters to Atticus_,
bk. 2, ltr. 1.
=Herăclēa=, an ancient town of Sicily, near Agrigentum. Minos planted
a colony there when he pursued Dædalus; and the town, anciently
known by the name of _Macara_, was called from him _Minoa_. It was
called Heraclea after Hercules, when he obtained a victory over
Eryx.――――A town of Macedonia.――――Another in Pontus, celebrated for
its naval power and its consequence among the Asiatic states. The
inhabitants conveyed home in their ships the 10,000 at their return.
――――Another in Crete.――――Another in Parthia.――――Another in Bithynia.
――――Another in Phthiotis, near Thermopylæ, called also _Trachinea_,
to distinguish it from others.――――Another in Lucania. _Cicero_,
_For Archias_, ch. 4.――――Another in Syria.――――Another in Chersonesus
Taurica.――――Another in Thrace, and three in Egypt, &c.――――There were
no less than 40 cities of that name in different parts of the world,
all built in honour of Hercules, whence the name is derived.――――A
daughter of Hiero tyrant of Sicily, &c.
=Heraclēia=, a festival at Athens celebrated every fifth year, in
honour of Hercules. The ♦Thespians and Thebans in Bœotia observed a
festival of the same name, in which they offered apples to the god.
This custom of offering apples arose from this: It was always usual
to offer sheep, but the overflowing of the river Asopus prevented
the votaries of the god from observing it with the ancient ceremony;
and as the word μηλον signifies both an _apple_ and a _sheep_, some
youths, acquainted with the ambiguity of the word, offered apples to
the god, with much sport and festivity. To represent the sheep, they
raised an apple upon four sticks as the legs, and two more were
placed at the top to represent the horns of the victim. Hercules was
delighted at the ingenuity of the youths, and the festivals were
ever continued with the offering of apples. _Pollux_, bk. 8, ch. 9.
There was also a festival at Sicyon in honour of Hercules. It
continued two days; the first was called ὀνοματας, the second
ἡρακλεια.――――At a festival of the same name at Cos, the priest
officiated with a mitre on his head, and in woman’s apparel.――――At
Lindus, a solemnity of the same name was also observed, and at the
celebration nothing was heard but execrations and profane words, and
whosoever accidentally dropped any other words, was accused of
having profaned the sacred rites.
♦ ‘Thisbians’ replaced with ‘Thespians’
=Heracleum=, a promontory of Cappadocia.――――A town of Egypt near
Canopus, on the western mouth of the Nile, to which it gave its name.
_Diodorus_, bk. 1.――_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 2, ch. 60.――_Strabo_,
bks. 2 & 17.――――The port town of Gnossus in Crete.
=Heracleōtes=, a surname of Dionysius the philosopher.――――A philosopher
of Heraclea, who, like his master Zeno, and all the Stoics, firmly
believed that pain was not an evil. A severe illness, attended with
the most acute pains, obliged him to renounce his principles, and at
the same time the philosophy of the Stoics, about 264 years before
the christian era. He became afterwards one of the Cyrenaic sect,
which placed the _summum bonum_ in pleasure. He wrote some poetry,
and chiefly treatises of philosophy. _Diogenes Laërtius_, _Lives and
Opinions of Eminent Philosophers_.
=Heraclīdæ=, the descendants of Hercules, greatly celebrated in ancient
history. Hercules at his death left to his son Hyllus all the rights
and claims which he had upon the Peloponnesus, and permitted him
to marry Iole, as soon as he came of age. The posterity of Hercules
were not more kindly treated by Eurystheus than their father had
been, and they were obliged to retire for protection to the court of
Ceyx king of Trachinia. Eurystheus pursued them thither; and Ceyx,
afraid of his resentment, begged the Heraclidæ to depart from his
dominions. From Trachinia they came to Athens, where Theseus the
king of the country, who had accompanied their father in some of his
expeditions, received them with great humanity, and assisted them
against their common enemy Eurystheus. Eurystheus was killed by the
hand of Hyllus himself, and his children perished with him, and all
the cities of the Peloponnesus became the undisputed property of
the Heraclidæ. Their triumph, however, was short; their numbers were
lessened by a pestilence, and the oracle informed them that they
had taken possession of the Peloponnesus, before the gods permitted
their return. Upon this they abandoned Peloponnesus, and came to
settle in the territories of the Athenians, where Hyllus, obedient
to his father’s commands, married Iole the daughter of Eurytus. Soon
after he consulted the oracle, anxious to recover the Peloponnesus,
and the ambiguity of the answer determined him to make a second
attempt. He challenged to single combat Atreus the successor of
Eurystheus on the throne of Mycenæ, and it was mutually agreed that
the undisturbed possession of the Peloponnesus should be ceded to
whosoever defeated his adversary. Echemus accepted the challenge
for Atreus, and Hyllus was killed, and the Heraclidæ a second time
departed from Peloponnesus. Cleodæus the son of Hyllus made a third
attempt, and was equally unsuccessful, and his son Aristomachus some
time after met with the same unfavourable reception, and perished
in the field of battle. Aristodemus, Temenus, and Chresphontes, the
three sons of Aristomachus, encouraged by the more expressive and
less ambiguous word of an oracle, and desirous to revenge the death
of their progenitors, assembled a numerous force, and with a fleet
invaded all Peloponnesus. Their expedition was attended with success,
and after some ♦decisive battles they became masters of all the
peninsula, which they divided among themselves two years after. The
recovery of the Peloponnesus by the descendants of Hercules forms an
interesting epoch in ancient history, which is universally believed
to have happened 80 years after the Trojan war, or 1104 years before
the christian era. This conquest was totally achieved about 120
years after the first attempt of Hyllus. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2,
ch. 7, &c.――_Herodotus_, bk. 9, ch. 26.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 17.
――_Paterculus_, bk. 1, ch. 2.――_Clement of Alexandria_, _Stromateis_,
bk. 1.――_Thucydides_, bk. 1, ch. 12, &c.――_Diodorus_, bk. 1, &c.
――_Aristotle_, _Politics_, bk. 7, ch. 26.
♦ ‘deicsive’ replaced with ‘decisive’
=Herăclīdes=, a philosopher of Heraclea in Pontus, for some time
disciple of Seusippus and Aristotle. He wished it to be believed
that he was carried into heaven the very day of his death, and the
more firmly to render it credible, he begged one of his friends
to put a serpent in his bed. The serpent disappointed him, and
the noise which the number of visitors occasioned, frightened him
from the bed before the philosopher had expired. He lived about 335
years before the christian era. _Cicero_, _Tusculanæ Disputationes_,
bk. 5; _Letters to his brother Quintus_, bk. 3.――_Diogenes Laërtius_,
_Pythagoras_.――――An historian of Pontus surnamed _Lembus_, who
flourished B.C. 177.――――A man who, after the retreat of Dionysius
the younger from Sicily, raised cabals against Dion, in whose hands
the sovereign power was lodged. He was put to death by Dion’s order.
_Cornelius Nepos_, _Dion._――――A youth of Syracuse, in the battle in
which Nicias was defeated.――――A son of Agathocles.――――A man placed
over a garrison at Athens by Demetrius.――――A sophist of Lycia, who
opened a school at Smyrna in the age of the emperor Severus.――――A
painter of Macedonia in the reign of king Perseus.――――An architect
of Tarentum, intimate with Philip king of Macedonia. He fled to
Rhodes on pretence of a quarrel with Philip, and set fire to the
Rhodian fleet. _Polyænus._――――A man of Alexandria.
=Heraclītus=, a celebrated Greek philosopher of Ephesus, who flourished
about 500 years before the christian era. His father’s name was
Hyson, or Heracion. Naturally of a melancholy disposition, he
passed his time in a solitary and unsocial manner, and received
the appellation of the obscure philosopher, and the mourner, from
his unconquerable custom of weeping at the follies, frailty, and
vicissitudes of human affairs. He employed his time in writing
different treatises, and one particularly, in which he supported
that there was a fatal necessity, and that the world was created
from fire, which he deemed a god omnipotent and omniscient. His
opinions about the origin of things were adopted by the Stoics,
and Hippocrates entertained the same notions of a supreme power.
Heraclitus deserves the appellation of man-hater, for the rusticity
with which he answered the polite invitations of Darius king of
Persia. To remove himself totally from the society of mankind, he
retired to the mountains, where for some time he fed on grass in
common with the wild inhabitants of the place. Such a diet was soon
productive of a dropsical complaint, and the philosopher condescended
to revisit the town. The enigmatical manner in which he consulted
the physicians made his applications unintelligible, and he was left
to depend for cure only upon himself. He fixed his residence on a
dunghill, in hopes that the continual warmth which proceeded from
it might dissipate the watery accumulation and restore him to the
enjoyment of his former health. Such a remedy proved ineffectual,
and the philosopher, despairing of a cure by the application of
ox-dung, suffered himself to die in the 60th year of his age. Some
say that he was torn to pieces by dogs. _Diogenes Laërtius_, _Lives
and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers_.――_Clement of Alexandria_,
_Stromateis_, bk. 5.――――A lyric poet.――――A writer of Halicarnassus,
intimate with Callimachus. He was remarkable for the elegance of his
style.――――A native of Lesbos, who wrote a history of Macedonia.――――A
writer of Sicyon, &c. _Plutarch._
=Heraclius=, a river of Greece. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 37.――――A
brother of Constantine, &c.――――A Roman emperor, &c.
=Heræa=, a town of Arcadia.――――Festivals at Argos in honour of Juno,
who was the patroness of that city. They were also observed by the
colonies of the Argives which had been planted at Samos and Ægina.
There were always two processions to the temple of the goddess
without the city walls. The first was of the men in armour, the
second of the women, among whom the priestess, a woman of the first
quality, was drawn in a chariot by white oxen. The Argives always
reckoned their years from her priesthood, as the Athenians from
their archons, and the Romans from their consuls. When they came
to the temple of the goddess they offered a hecatomb of oxen. Hence
the sacrifice is often called ἑκατομβια, and sometimes λεχερνα,
from λεχος, _a bed_, because Juno presided over marriages, births,
&c. There was a festival of the same name in Elis, celebrated every
fifth year, in which 16 matrons wove a garment for the goddess.
――――There were also others instituted by Hippodamia, who had
received assistance from Juno when she married Pelops. Sixteen
matrons, each attended by a maid, presided at the celebration.
The contenders were young virgins, who being divided in classes,
according to their age, ran races each in their order, beginning
with the youngest. The habit of all was exactly the same; their hair
was dishevelled, and their right shoulder bare to the breast, with
coats reaching no lower than the knee. She who obtained the victory
was rewarded with crowns of olives, and obtained a part of the ox
that was offered in sacrifice, and was permitted to dedicate her
picture to the goddess.――――There was also a solemn day of mourning
at Corinth which bore the same name, in commemoration of Medea’s
children, who were buried in Juno’s temple. They had been slain by
the Corinthians; who, as it is reported, to avert the scandal which
accompanied so barbarous a murder, presented Euripides with a large
sum of money to write a play, in which Medea is represented as the
murderer of her children.――――Another festival of the same name at
Pallene, with games in which the victor was rewarded with a garment.
=Heræi montes=, a chain of mountains at the north of Sicily.
_Diodorus_, bk. 14.
=Heræum=, a temple and grove of Juno, situate between Argos and Mycenæ.
――――A town of Thrace.
=Herbessus=, a town of Sicily at the north of ♦Agrigentum, built by a
Phœnician or Carthaginian colony. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 14, li. 265.
♦ ‘Arigentum’ replaced with ‘Agrigentum’
=Herbita=, an inland town of Sicily. _Cicero_, _Against Verres_, bk. 2,
ch. 64; bk. 3, ch. 32.
=Herceius=, an epithet given to Jupiter. _Ovid_, _Ibis_, li. 286.
――_Lucan_, bk. 9, li. 979.
=Herculanea via=, a mound raised between the Lucrine lake and the sea,
called also _Herculeum iter_. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 12, li. 118.
=Herculāneum=, a town of Campania, swallowed up, with Pompeii, by an
earthquake, produced from an eruption of mount Vesuvius, August 24th,
A.D. 79, in the reign of Titus. After being buried under the lava
for more than 1600 years, these famous cities were discovered in the
beginning of the 18th century; Herculaneum in 1713, about 24 feet
underground, by labourers digging for a well, and Pompeii 40 years
after, about 12 feet below the surface, and from the houses and
the streets, which in a great measure remain still perfect, have
been drawn busts, statues, manuscripts, paintings, and utensils,
which do not a little contribute to enlarge our notions concerning
the ancients, and develop many classical obscurities. The valuable
antiquities, so miraculously recovered, are preserved in the museum
of Portici, a small town in the neighbourhood, and the engravings,
&c., ably taken from them have been munificently presented to the
different learned bodies of Europe. _Seneca_, _Quæstiones naturales_,
bk. 6, chs. 1 & 26.――_Cicero_, _Letters to Atticus_, bk. 7, ltr. 3.
――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 4.――_Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 16.