of Leander, a youth of Abydos. These two lovers were so faithful to
one another, that Leander in the night escaped from the vigilance
of his family, and swam across the Hellespont, while Hero in Sestos
directed his course by holding a burning torch on the top of a high
tower. After many interviews of mutual affection and tenderness,
Leander was drowned in a tempestuous night as he attempted his
usual course, and Hero in despair threw herself down from her tower
and perished in the sea.――_Musæus Grammaticus_, _Leander & Hero_.
――_Ovid_, _Heroides_, poems 17 & 18.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 3,
li. 258.
=Herōdes=, surnamed the _Great_ and _Ascalonita_, followed the interest
of Brutus and Cassius, and afterwards that of Antony. He was made
king of Judæa by means of Antony, and after the battle of Actium
he was continued in his power by his flattery and submission to
Augustus. He rendered himself odious by his cruelty, and as he knew
that the day of his death would become a day of mirth and festivity,
he ordered the most illustrious of his subjects to be confined and
murdered the very moment that he expired, that every eye in the
kingdom might seem to shed tears at the death of Herod. He died
in the 70th year of his age, after a reign of 40 years. _Josephus._
――――Antipas, a son of Herod the Great, governor of Galileæ, &c.
――――Agrippa, a Jew intimate with the emperor Caligula, &c.――――This
name was common to many of the Jews. _Josephus._――――Atticus. _See:_
Atticus.
=Herodiānus=, a Greek historian, who flourished A.D. 247. He was born
at Alexander, and he was employed among the officers of the Roman
emperors. He wrote a Roman history in eight books, from the death
of Marcus Aurelius to Maximinus. His style is peculiarly elegant,
but it wants precision, and the work too plainly betrays that the
author was not a perfect master of geography. He is accused of being
too partial to Maximinus, and too severe upon Alexander Severus.
His book comprehends the history of 68 or 70 years, and he asserts
that he has been an eye-witness of whatever he has written. The best
editions of his history are that of Politian, 4to, Dovan, 1525, who
afterwards published a very valuable Latin translation, and that of
Oxford, 8vo, 1708.
=Herodicus=, a physician surnamed _Gymnastic_, who flourished B.C. 443.
――――A grammarian surnamed _Crateleus_, B.C. 123.
=Hērŏdŏtus=, a celebrated historian of Halicarnassus, whose father’s
name was Lyxes, and that of his mother Dryo. He fled to Samos when
his country laboured under the oppressive tyranny of Lygdamis, and
travelled over Egypt, Italy, and all Greece. He afterwards returned
to Halicarnassus, and expelled the tyrant; which patriotic deed, far
from gaining the esteem and admiration of the populace, displeased
and irritated them, so that Herodotus was obliged to fly to Greece
from the public resentment. To procure a lasting fame he publicly
repeated at the Olympic games the history which he had composed,
in his 39th year, B.C. 445. It was received with such universal
applause, that the names of the nine Muses were unanimously given to
the nine books into which it is divided. This celebrated composition,
which has procured its author the title of father of history, is
written in the Ionic dialect. Herodotus is among the historians what
Homer is among the poets, and Demosthenes among the orators. His
style abounds with elegance, ease, and sweetness; and if there is
any of the fabulous or incredible, the author candidly informs the
reader that it is introduced upon the narration of others. The work
is a history of the wars of the Persians against the Greeks, from
the age of Cyrus to the battle of Mycale in the reign of Xerxes,
and besides this, it gives an account of the most celebrated nations
in the world. Herodotus had written another history of Assyria and
Arabia, which is not extant. The life of Homer, generally attributed
to him, is supposed by some not to be the production of his pen.
Plutarch has accused him of malevolence towards the Greeks, an
imputation which can easily be refuted. The two best editions
of this great historian are that of Wesseling, folio, Amsterdam,
1763; and that of Glasgow, 9 vols., 12mo, 1761. _Cicero_, _de
Legibus_, ch. 1; _On Oratory_, ch. 2.――_Dionysius of Halicarnassus_,
bk. 1.――_Quintilian_, bk. 10, ch. 1.――_Plutarch_, _de Herodoti
Malignitate_.――――A man who wrote a treatise concerning Epicurus.
_Diogenes Laërtius._――――A Theban wrestler of Megara, in the age of
Demetrius son of Antigonus. He was six feet and a half in height,
and he ate generally 20 pounds of flesh, with bread in proportion,
at each of his meals. _Athenæus_, bk. 16.――――Another, whose
victories are celebrated by Pindar.
=Heroes=, a name which was given by the ancients to such as were born
from a god, or to such as had signalized themselves by their actions,
and seemed to deserve immortality by the services which they had
rendered their country. The heroes which Homer describes, such as
Ajax, Achilles, &c., were of such prodigious strength, that they
could lift up and throw stones which the united force of four or
five men of his age could not have moved. The heroes were supposed
to be interested in the affairs of mankind after death, and they
were invoked with much solemnity. As the altars of the gods were
crowded with sacrifices and libations, so the heroes were often
honoured with a funeral solemnity, in which their great exploits
were enumerated. The origin of heroism might proceed from the
opinions of some philosophers, who taught that the souls of great
men were often raised to the stars, and introduced among the
immortal gods. According to the notions of the stoics, the ancient
heroes inhabited a pure and serene climate, situate above the moon.
=Herōis=, a festival, celebrated every ninth year by the Delphians, in
honour of a heroine. There were in the celebration a great number of
mysterious rites, with a representation of something like Semele’s
resurrection.
=Heron=, two mathematicians, one of whom is called the _ancient_
and the other the _younger_. The former, who lived about 100 years
before Christ, was disciple to Ctesibius, and wrote a curious book
translated into Latin, under the title of _Spiritualium Liber_; the
only edition of which is that of Baldus, _Aug._ _Vind._ 1616.
=Heroopŏlis=, a town of Egypt on the Arabic gulf.
=Herŏphĭla=, a Sibyl, who, as some suppose, came to Rome in the reign
of Tarquin. _See:_ Sibyllæ. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 12.
=Herophĭlus=, an impostor in the reign of Julius Cæsar, who pretended
to be the grandson of Marius. He was banished from Rome by Cæsar for
his seditions, and was afterwards strangled in prison.――――A Greek
physician, about 570 years before the christian era. He was one of
the first who dissected bodies. Pliny, Cicero, and Plutarch have
greatly commended him.
=Herostrătus.= _See:_ Erostratus.
=Herpa=, a town of Cappadocia.
=Herse=, a daughter of Cecrops king of Athens, beloved by Mercury.
The god disclosed his love to Aglauros, Herse’s sister, in hopes of
procuring an easy admission to Herse; but Aglauros, through jealousy,
discovered the amour. Mercury was so offended at her behaviour, that
he struck her with his caduceus and changed her into a stone. Herse
became mother of Cephalus by Mercury, and after death she received
divine honours at Athens. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 2, li. 559,
&c.――――A wife of Danaus. _Apollodorus._
=Hersephoria=, festivals of Athens in honour of Minerva, or more
probably of Herse.
=Hersĭlia=, one of the Sabines, carried away by the Romans at the
celebration of the Consualia. She was given and married to Romulus,
though, according to some, she married Hostus, a youth of Latium,
by whom she had Hostus Hostilius. After death she was presented
with immortality by Juno, and received divine honours under the
name of Ora. _Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 11.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 14,
li. 832.
=Hertha= and =Herta=, a goddess among the Germans, supposed to be the
same as the earth. She had a temple and a chariot dedicated to her
service in a remote island, and was supposed to visit the earth
at stated times, when her coming was celebrated with the greatest
rejoicings and festivity. _Tacitus_, _Germania_.
=Herŭli=, a savage nation in the northern parts of Europe, who
attacked the Roman power in its decline.
=Hesænus=, a mountain near Pæonia.
=Hēsiŏdus=, a celebrated poet, born at Ascra in Bœotia. His father’s
name was Dius, and his mother’s Pycimede. He lived in the age of
Homer, and even obtained a poetical prize in competition with him,
according to Varro and Plutarch. Quintilian, Philostratus, and
others maintain that Hesiod lived before the age of Homer; but
Velleius Paterculus and others support that he flourished about 100
years after him. Hesiod is the first who wrote a poem on agriculture.
This composition is called _The Works and the Days_; and besides
the instructions which are given to the cultivator of the field, the
reader is pleased to find many moral reflections worthy of a refined
Socrates or a Plato. His _Theogony_ is a miscellaneous narration
executed without art, precision, choice, judgment, or connection,
yet it is the more valuable for the faithful account it gives of the
gods of antiquity. His _Shield of Hercules_ is but a fragment of a
larger poem, in which it is supposed he gave an account of the most
celebrated heroines among the ancients. Hesiod, without being master
of the fire and sublimity of Homer, is admired for the elegance of
his diction, and the sweetness of his poetry. Besides these poems
he wrote others, now lost. Pausanias says that, in his age, Hesiod’s
verses were still written on tablets in the temple of the Muses, of
which the poet was a priest. If we believe _Clement of Alexandria_,
bk. 6, _Stromateis_, the poet borrowed much from Musæus. One of
Lucian’s dialogues bears the name of _Hesiod_, and in it the poet
is introduced as speaking of himself. Virgil, in his Georgics,
has imitated the compositions of Hesiod, and taken his _opera_ and
_dies_ for model, as he acknowledges. Cicero strongly commends him,
and the Greeks were so partial to his poetry and moral instructions,
that they ordered their children to learn all by heart. Hesiod
was murdered by the sons of Ganyctor of Naupactum, and his body
was thrown into the sea. Some dolphins brought back the body to
the shore, which was immediately known, and the murderers were
discovered by the poet’s dogs, and thrown into the sea. If Hesiod
flourished in the age of Homer, he lived 907 B.C. The best editions
of this poet are that of Robinson, 4to, Oxford, 1737; that of
Loesner, 8vo, Lipscomb, 1778; and that of Parma, 4to, 1785. _Cicero_,
_Letters to his Friends_, bk. 6, ltr. 18.――_Pausanias_, bk. 9,
ch. 3, &c.――_Quintilian_, bk. 10, ch. 1.――_Paterculus._――_Varro._
――_Plutarch_, _Septem Sapientium Convivium_, & _De Sollertia
Animalium_.
=Hēsiŏne=, a daughter of Laomedon king of Troy, by Strymo the daughter
of Scamander. It fell to her lot to be exposed to a sea monster,
to whom the Trojans yearly presented a marriageable virgin, to
appease the resentment of Apollo and Neptune, whom ♦Laomedon had
offended; but Hercules promised to deliver her, provided he received
as a reward six beautiful horses. Laomedon consented, and Hercules
attacked the monster just as he was going to devour Hesione, and he
killed him with his club. Laomedon, however, refused to reward the
hero’s services; and Hercules, incensed at his treachery, besieged
Troy, and put the king and all his family to the sword, except
Podarces, or Priam, who had advised his father to give the promised
horses to his sister’s deliverer. The conqueror gave Hesione in
marriage to his friend Telamon, who had assisted him during the war,
and he established Priam upon his father’s throne. The removal of
Hesione to Greece proved at last fatal to the Trojans; and Priam,
remembering with indignation that his sister had been forcibly
given to a foreigner, sent his son Paris to Greece to reclaim the
possessions of Hesione, or more probably to revenge his injuries
upon the Greeks by carrying away Helen, which gave rise, soon after,
to the Trojan war. Lycophron mentions that Hercules threw himself,
armed from head to foot, into the mouth of the monster to which
Hesione was exposed, and that he tore his belly to pieces, and came
out safe only with the loss of his hair, after a confinement of
three days. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 5, li. 638.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 5, &c.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 11,
li. 212.――――The wife of Nauplius.
♦ ‘Lamedon’ replaced with ‘Laomedon’
=Hespĕria=, a large island of Africa, once the residence of the
Amazons. _Diodorus_, bk. 3.――――A name common to both Italy and Spain.
It is derived from Hesper or Vesper, the setting sun, or the evening,
whence the Greeks called Italy Hesperia, because it was situate at
the setting sun, or in the west. The same name, for similar reasons,
was applied to Spain by the Latins. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, li.
634, &c.――_Horace_, bk. 1, ode 34, li. 4; bk. 1, ode 27, li. 28.
――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 7, li. 15.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 11,
li. 258.――――A daughter of the Cebrenus. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 11, li. 759.
=Hespĕrĭdes=, three celebrated nymphs, daughters of Hesperus.
Apollodorus mentions four, Ægle, Erythia, Vesta, and Arethusa; and
Diodorus confounds them with the Atlantides, and supposes that they
were the same number. They were appointed to guard the golden apples
which Juno gave to Jupiter on the day of their nuptials; and the
place of their residence, placed beyond the ocean by Hesiod, is more
universally believed to be near mount Atlas in Africa, according to
Apollodorus. This celebrated place or garden abounded with fruits
of the most delicious kind, and was carefully guarded by a dreadful
dragon, which never slept. It was one of the labours of Hercules
to procure some of the golden apples of the Hesperides. The hero,
ignorant of the situation of this celebrated garden, applied to the
nymphs in the neighbourhood of the Po for information, and was told
that Nereus the god of the sea, if properly managed [_See:_ Nereus],
would direct him in his pursuits. Hercules seized Nereus as he was
asleep, and the sea god, unable to escape from his grasp, answered
all the questions which he proposed. Some say that Nereus sent
Hercules to Prometheus, and that from him he received all his
information. When Hercules came into Africa, he repaired to Atlas,
and demanded of him three of the golden apples. Atlas unloaded
himself and placed the burden of the heavens on the shoulders
of Hercules, while he went in quest of the apples. At his return
Hercules expressed his wish to ease the burden by putting something
on his head, and when Atlas assisted him to remove his inconvenience,
Hercules artfully left the burden, and seized the apples, which
Atlas had thrown on the ground. According to other accounts,
Hercules gathered the apples himself, without the assistance of
Atlas, and he previously killed the watchful dragon which kept
the tree. These apples were brought to Eurystheus, and afterwards
carried back by Minerva into the garden of the Hesperides, as
they could be preserved in no other place. Hercules is sometimes
represented gathering the apples, and the dragon which guarded
the tree appears bowing down his head, as having received a mortal
wound. This monster, as it is supposed, was the offspring of Typhon,
and it had 100 heads and as many voices. This number, however, is
reduced by some to only one head. Those that attempt to explain
mythology, observe that the Hesperides were certain persons who
had an immense number of flocks, and that the ambiguous word μηλον,
which signifies an _apple_ and a _sheep_, gave rise to the fable
of the golden apples of the Hesperides. _Diodorus_, bk. 4.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 4, li. 637, &c.; bk. 9, li. 90.――_Hyginus_,
fable 30.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 5.――_Hesiod_, _Theogony_,
li. 215, &c.
=Hespĕris.= _See:_ Hesperus.――――A town of Cyrenaica, now _Bernic_
or _Bengazi_, where most authors have placed the garden of the
Hesperides.
=Hesperītis=, a country of Africa. _Diodorus_, bk. 4.
=Hespĕrus=, a son of Japetus, brother to Atlas. He came to Italy,
and the country received the name of _Hesperia_ from him, according
to some accounts. He had a daughter called Hesperis, who married
Atlas, and became mother of seven daughters, called Atlantides or
Hesperides. _Diodorus_, bk. 4.――――The name of Hesperus was also
applied to the planet Venus, when it appeared after the setting of
the sun. It was called _Phosphorus_ or _Lucifer_ when it preceded
the sun. _Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 2, ch. 2.――_Seneca_, _de
Hippolytus_, li. 749; _Medea_, li. 71.
=Hestia=, one of the Hesperides. _Apollodorus._
=Hestiæa=, a town of Eubœa.
=Hesus=, a deity among the Gauls, the same as the Mars of the Romans.
_Lucan_, bk. 1, li. 445.
=Hesychia=, a daughter of Thespius. _Apollodorus._
=Hesychius=, the author of a Greek lexicon in the beginning of the
third century, a valuable work which has been learnedly edited by
Albert, 2 vols., folio, Leiden, 1746.
=Hetricŭlum=, now _Latarico_, a town in the country of the Brutii.
_Livy_, bk. 30, ch. 19.
=Hetrūria= and =Etruria=, a celebrated country of Italy, at the west
of the Tiber. It originally contained 12 different nations, which
had each their respective monarch, called Lucumon. Their names
were Veientes, Clusini, Perusini, Cortonenses, Arretini, Vetuloni,
Volaterrani, Rusellani, Volscinii, Tarquinii, Falisci, and Cæretani.
The inhabitants were particularly famous for their superstition,
and great confidence in omens, dreams, auguries, &c. They all proved
powerful and resolute enemies to the rising empire of the Romans,
and were conquered only after much effusion of blood. _Pliny_, bk. 3,
ch. 5.――_Strabo_, bk. 5.――_Plutarch_, _Romulus_.――_Mela_, bk. 2,
ch. 4.
=Heurippa=, a surname of Diana.
=Hexapy̆lum=, a gate at Syracuse. The adjoining place of the city, or
the wall, bore the same name. _Diodorus_, bks. 11 & 14.――_Livy_,
bk. 24, ch. 21; bk. 25, ch. 24; bk. 32, ch. 39.
=Hiarbas=, or =Iarbas=, a king of Gætulia. _See:_ Iarbas.
=Hiber=, a name applied to a Spaniard, as living near the river
Hiberus or Iberus. _See:_ Iberus.
=Hibernia= and =Hybernia=, a large island at the west of Britain,
now called _Ireland_. Some of the ancients have called it Ibernia,
Juverna, Iris, Hierna, Ogygia, Ivernia. _Juvenal_, satire 2, li. 160.
――_Strabo_, bk. 4.――_Orpheus._――_Aristotle._
=Hibrildes=, an Athenian general. _Dionysius of Halicarnassus_, bk. 7.
=Hicetāon=, a son of Laomedon, brother to Priam and father of
Menalippus. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 3.――――The father of Thymœtes, who
came to Italy with Æneas. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 133.
=Hicētas=, a philosopher of Syracuse, who believed that the earth
moved, and that all the heavenly bodies were stationary. _Diogenes
Laërtius_, _Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers_.――――A tyrant
of Syracuse. _See:_ Icetas.
=Hiempsal=, a king of Numidia, &c. _See:_ Hyempsal. _Plutarch._
=Hiera=, a woman who married Telephus king of Mysia, and who was said
to surpass Helen in beauty.――――The mother of Pandarus and Bitias
by Alcanor. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 673.――――One of the Lipari
islands, called also Theresia, now _Vulcano_. _Pausanias_, bk. 10,
ch. 11.
=Hierapŏlis=, a town of Syria, near the Euphrates.――――Another of
Phrygia, famous for hot baths, now _Bambukkalasi_.――――Another of
Crete.
=Hiĕrax=, a youth who awoke Argus, to inform him that Mercury was
stealing Io. Mercury killed him, and changed him into a bird of prey.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 2.――――Antiochus, king of Syria and brother
to Seleucus, received the surname of Hierax. _Justin_, bk. 37, ch. 3.
――――An Egyptian philosopher in the third century.
=Hierĭchus= (untis), the name of Jericho in the Holy Land, called the
city of palm trees, from its abounding in dates. _Pliny_, bk. 5,
ch. 14.――_Tacitus_, _Histories_, bk. 5, ch. 6.
=Hiĕro I.=, a king of Syracuse, after his brother Gelon, who rendered
himself odious in the beginning of his reign by his cruelty and
avarice. He made war against Theron the tyrant of Agrigentum, and
took Himera. He obtained three different crowns at the Olympic games,
two in horse-races, and one at a chariot-race. Pindar has celebrated
him as being victorious at Olympia. In the latter part of his reign
the conversation of Simonides, Epicharmus, Pindar, &c., softened
in some measure the roughness of his morals and the severity of his
government, and rendered him the patron of learning, genius, and
merit. He died, after a reign of 18 years, B.C. 467, leaving the
crown to his brother Thrasybulus, who disgraced himself by his vices
and tyranny. _Diodorus_, bk. 11.――――The second of that name, king
of Syracuse, was descended from Gelon. He was unanimously elected
king by all the states of the island of Sicily, and appointed to
carry on the war against the Carthaginians. He joined his enemies in
besieging Messana, which had surrendered to the Romans, but he was
beaten by Appius Claudius the Roman consul, and obliged to retire to
Syracuse, where he was soon blocked up. Seeing all hopes of victory
lost, he made peace with the Romans, and proved so faithful to his
engagements during the 59 years of his reign, that the Romans never
had a more firm or more attached ally. He died in the 94th year
of his age, about 225 years B.C. He was universally regretted, and
all the Sicilians showed by their lamentations that they had lost
a common father and a friend. He liberally patronized the learned,
and employed the talents of Archimedes for the good of his country.
He wrote a book on agriculture, now lost. He was succeeded by
Hieronymus. _Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bks. 4, 8.――_Justin_, bk. 23,
ch. 4.――_Florus_, bk. 2, ch. 2.――_Livy_, bk. 16.――――An Athenian,
intimate with Nicias the general. _Plutarch_, _Nicias_.――――A
Parthian, &c. _Tacitus._
=Hierocæsarea=, a town of Lydia. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 2, ch. 47;
bk. 3, ch. 62.
=Hierocepia=, an island near Paphos in Cyprus.
=Hierŏcles=, a persecutor of the christians under Diocletian, who
pretended to find inconsistencies in Scripture, and preferred the
miracles of Thyaneus to those of Christ. His writings were refuted
by Lactantius and Eusebius.――――A Platonic philosopher, who taught
at Alexandria, and wrote a book on providence and fate, fragments
of which are preserved by Photius; a commentary on the golden verses
of Pythagoras; and facetious moral verses. He flourished A.D. 485.
The best edition is that of Asheton and Warren, 8vo, London, 1742.
――――A general in the interest of Demetrius. _Polyænus_, bk. 5.――――A
governor of Bithynia and Alexandria, under Diocletian.――――An officer.
_See:_ Heliogabalus.
=Hierodūlum=, a town of Libya.
=Hieronĭca lex=, by Hiero tyrant of Sicily, to settle the quantity
of corn, the price and time of receiving it, between the farmers
of Sicily and the collector of the corn tax at Rome. This law, on
account of its justice and candour, was continued by the Romans when
they became masters of Sicily.