[1] "Hippocrates Cous, primus quidem ex omnibus memoria dignus, ab
studio sapientiae disciplinam hanc separavit, vir et arte et facundia
insignis" (Celsus, _De medicina_).
HIPPOCRENE (the "fountain of the horse," [Greek: he hippou krene]), the
spring on Mt Helicon, in Boeotia, which, like the other spring there,
Aganippe, was sacred to the Muses and Apollo, and hence taken as the
source of poetic inspiration. The spring, surrounded by an ancient wall,
is now known as _Kryopegadi_ or the cold spring. According to the
legend, it was produced by the stamping of the hoof of Bellerophon's
horse Pegasus. The same story accounts for the Hippocrene in Troezen and
the spring Peirene at Corinth.
HIPPODAMUS, of Miletus, a Greek architect of the 5th century B.C. It was
he who introduced order and regularity into the planning of cities, in
place of the previous intricacy and confusion. For Pericles he planned
the arrangement of the harbour-town Peiraeus at Athens. When the
Athenians founded Thurii in Italy he accompanied the colony as
architect, and afterwards, in 408 B.C., he superintended the building of
the new city of Rhodes. His schemes consisted of series of broad,
straight streets, cutting one another at right angles.
HIPPODROME (Gr. [Greek: hippodromos], from [Greek: hippos], horse, and
[Greek: dromos], racecourse), the course provided by the Greeks for
horse and chariot racing; it corresponded to the Roman _circus_, except
that in the latter only four chariots ran at a time, whereas ten or more
contended in the Greek games, so that the width was far greater, being
about 400 ft., the course being 600 to 700 ft. long. The Greek
hippodrome was usually set out on the slope of a hill, and the ground
taken from one side served to form the embankment on the other side. One
end of the hippodrome was semicircular, and the other end square with an
extensive portico, in front of which, at a lower level, were the stalls
for the horses and chariots. The modern hippodrome is more for
equestrian and other displays than for horse racing. The Hippodrome in
Paris somewhat resembles the Roman amphitheatre, being open in the
centre to the sky, with seats round on rising levels.
HIPPOLYTUS, in Greek legend, son of Theseus and Hippolyte, queen of the
Amazons (or of her sister Antiope), a famous hunter and charioteer and
favourite of Artemis. His stepmother Phaedra became enamoured of him,
but, finding her advances rejected, she hanged herself, leaving a letter
in which she accused Hippolytus of an attempt upon her virtue. Theseus
thereupon drove his son from his presence with curses and called upon
his father Poseidon to destroy him. While Hippolytus was driving along
the shore at Troezen (the scene of the _Hippolytus_ of Euripides), a
sea-monster (a bull or _phoca_) sent by Poseidon emerged from the waves;
the horses were scared, Hippolytus was thrown out of the chariot, and
was dragged along, entangled in the reins, until he died. According to a
tradition of Epidaurus, Asclepius restored him to life at the request of
Artemis, who removed him to Italy (see VIRBIUS). At Troezen, where he
had a special sanctuary and priest, and was worshipped with divine
honours, the story of his death was denied. He was said to have been
rescued by the gods at the critical moment, and to have been placed
amongst the stars as the Charioteer (Auriga). It was also the custom of
the Troezenian maidens to cut off a lock of their hair and to dedicate
it to Hippolytus before marriage (see Frazer on Pausanias ii. 32. 1).
Well-known classical parallels to the main theme are Bellerophon and
Antea (or Stheneboea) and Peleus and Astydamia. The story was the
subject of two plays by Euripides (the later of which is extant), of a
tragedy by Seneca and of Racine's _Phedre_. A trace of it has survived
in the legendary death of the apocryphal martyr Hippolytus, a Roman
officer who was torn to pieces by wild horses as a convert to
Christianity (see J. J. Dollinger, _Hippolytus and Callistus_, Eng. tr.
by A. Plummer, 1876, pp. 28-39, 51-60).
According to the older explanations, Hippolytus represented the sun,
which sets in the sea (cf. the scene of his death and the story of
Phaethon), and Phaedra the moon, which travels behind the sun, but is
unable to overtake it. It is more probable, however, that he was a local
hero famous for his chastity, perhaps originally a priest of Artemis,
worshipped as a god at Troezen, where he was closely connected and
sometimes confounded with Asclepius. It is noteworthy that, in a speech
put into the mouth of Theseus by Euripides, the father, who of course
believes his wife's story and regards Hippolytus as a hypocrite, throws
his son's pretended misogyny and asceticism (Orphism) in his teeth. This
seems to point to a struggle between a new ritual and that of Poseidon,
the chief deity of Troezen, in which the representative of the intruding
religion meets his death through the agency of the offended god, as
Orpheus (q.v.) was torn to pieces by the votaries of the jealous
Dionysus. According to S. Reinach (_Archiv fur Religionswissenschaft_,
x., 1907, p. 47), the Troezenian Hippolytus was a horse, the hypostasis
of an equestrian divinity periodically torn to pieces by the faithful,
who called themselves, and believed themselves to be, horses. Death was
followed by resuscitation, as in the similar myths of Adonis (the sacred
boar), Orpheus (the fox), Pentheus (the fawn), Phaethon (the white
sun-horse).
See Wilamowitz-Mollendorff's Introduction to his German translation of
Euripides' _Hippolytus_ (1891); A. Kalkmann, _De Hippolytis
Euripideis_ (Bonn, 1882); and (for representations in art) "Uber
Darstellung der Hippolytussage" in _Archaologische Zeitung_ (xli.
1883); J. E. Harrison, _Mythology and Monuments of Ancient Athens_
(1890), cl.
HIPPOLYTUS, a writer of the early Church. The mystery which enveloped
the person and writings of Hippolytus,[1] one of the most prolific
ecclesiastical writers of early times, had some light thrown upon it for
the first time about the middle of the 19th century by the discovery of
the so-called _Philosophumena_ (see below). Assuming this writing to be
the work of Hippolytus, the information given in it as to the author and
his times can be combined with other traditional dates to form a
tolerably clear picture. Hippolytus must have been born in the second
half of the 2nd century, probably in Rome. Photius describes him in his
_Bibliotheca_ (cod. 121) as a disciple of Irenaeus, and from the context
of this passage it is supposed that we may conclude that Hippolytus
himself so styled himself. But this is not certain, and even if it were,
it does not necessarily imply that Hippolytus enjoyed the personal
teaching of the celebrated Gallic bishop; it may perhaps merely refer to
that relation of his theological system to that of Irenaeus which can
easily be traced in his writings. As a presbyter of the church at Rome
under Bishop Zephyrinus (199-217), Hippolytus was distinguished for his
learning and eloquence. It was at this time that Origen, then a young
man, heard him preach (Hieron. _Vir. ill._ 61; cp. Euseb. _H.E._ vi. 14,
10). It was probably not long before questions of theology and church
discipline brought him into direct conflict with Zephyrinus, or at any
rate with his successor Calixtus I. (q.v.). He accused the bishop of
favouring the Christological heresies of the Monarchians, and, further,
of subverting the discipline of the Church by his lax action in
receiving back into the Church those guilty of gross offences. The
result was a schism, and for perhaps over ten years Hippolytus stood as
bishop at the head of a separate church. Then came the persecution under
Maximinus the Thracian. Hippolytus and Pontius, who was then bishop,
were transported in 235 to Sardinia, where it would seem that both of
them died. From the so-called chronograph of the year 354 (_Catalogus
Liberianus_) we learn that on the 13th of August, probably in 236, the
bodies of the exiles were interred in Rome and that of Hippolytus in the
cemetery on the Via Tiburtina. So we must suppose that before his death
the schismatic was received again into the bosom of the Church, and this
is confirmed by the fact that his memory was henceforth celebrated in
the Church as that of a holy martyr. Pope Damasus I. dedicated to him
one of his famous epigrams, and Prudentius (_Peristephanon_, 11) drew a
highly coloured picture of his gruesome death, the details of which are
certainly purely legendary: the myth of Hippolytus the son of Theseus
was transferred to the Christian martyr. Of the historical Hippolytus
little remained in the memory of after ages. Neither Eusebius (_H.E._
vi. 20, 2) nor Jerome (_Vir. ill._ 61) knew that the author so much read
in the East and the Roman saint were one and the same person. The notice
in the _Chronicon Paschale_ preserves one slight reminiscence of the
historical facts, namely, that Hippolytus's episcopal see was situated
at Portus near Rome. In 1551 a marble statue of a seated man was found
in the cemetery of the Via Tiburtina: on the sides of the seat were
carved a paschal cycle, and on the back the titles of numerous writings.
It was the statue of Hippolytus, a work at any rate of the 3rd century;
at the time of Pius IX. it was placed in the Lateran Museum, a record in
stone of a lost tradition.
Hippolytus's voluminous writings, which for variety of subject can be
compared with those of Origen, embrace the spheres of exegesis,
homiletics, apologetics and polemic, chronography and ecclesiastical
law. His works have unfortunately come down to us in such a fragmentary
condition that it is difficult to obtain from them any very exact notion
of his intellectual and literary importance. Of his exegetical works the
best preserved are the _Commentary on the Prophet Daniel_ and the
_Commentary on the Song of Songs_. In spite of many instances of a want
of taste in his typology, they are distinguished by a certain sobriety
and sense of proportion in his exegesis. We are unable to form an
opinion of Hippolytus as a preacher, for the _Homilies on the Feast of
Epiphany_ which go under his name are wrongly attributed to him. He
wrote polemical words directed against the pagans, the Jews and
heretics. The most important of these polemical treatises is the
_Refutation of all Heresies_, which has come to be known by the
inappropriate title of the _Philosophumena_. Of its ten books, the
second and third are lost; Book i. was for a long time printed (with the
title _Philosophumena_) among the works of Origen; Books iv.-x. were
found in 1842 by the Greek Minoides Mynas, without the name of the
author, in a MS. at Mount Athos. It is nowadays universally admitted
that Hippolytus was the author, and that Books i. and iv.-x. belong to
the same work. The importance of the work has, however, been much
overrated; a close examination of the sources for the exposition of the
Gnostic system which is contained in it has proved that the information
it gives is not always trustworthy. Of the dogmatic works, that on
_Christ and Antichrist_ survives in a complete state. Among other things
it includes a vivid account of the events preceding the end of the
world, and it was probably written at the time of the persecution under
Septimius Severus, i.e. about 202. The influence of Hippolytus was felt
chiefly through his works on chronographic and ecclesiastical law. His
chronicle of the world, a compilation embracing the whole period from
the creation of the world up to the year 234, formed a basis for many
chronographical works both in the East and West. In the great
compilations of ecclesiastical law which arose in the East since the 4th
century (see below: also APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTIONS) much of the material
was taken from the writings of Hippolytus; how much of this is genuinely
his, how much of it worked over, and how much of it wrongly attributed
to him, can no longer be determined beyond dispute even by the most
learned investigation.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--The edition of J. A. Fabricius, _Hippolyti opera graece
et latine_ (2 vols., Hamburg, 1716-1718, reprinted in Gallandi,
_Bibliotheca veterum patrum_ (vol. ii., 1766), and Migne, _Cursus
patrol. ser. Graeca_, vol. x.) is out of date. The preparation of a
complete critical edition has been undertaken by the Prussian Academy
of Sciences. The task is one of extraordinary difficulty, for the
textual problems of the various writings are complex and confused: the
Greek original is extant in a few cases only (the _Commentary on
Daniel_, the _Refutation, on Antichrist_, parts of the _Chronicle_,
and some fragments); for the rest we are dependent on fragments of
translations, chiefly Slavonic, all of which are not even published.
Of the Academy's edition one volume was published at Berlin in 1897,
containing the _Commentaries on Daniel_ and on the _Song of Songs_,
the treatise on _Antichrist_, and the _Lesser Exegetical_ and
_Homiletic Works_, edited by Nathanael Bonwetsch and Hans Achelis. The
_Commentary on the Song of Songs_ has also been published by Bonwetsch
(Leipzig, 1902) in a German translation based on a Russian translation
by N. Marr of the Grusian (Georgian) text, and he added to it
(Leipzig, 1904) a translation of various small exegetical pieces,
which are preserved in a Georgian version only (_The Blessing of
Jacob_, _The Blessing of Moses_, _The Narrative of David and
Goliath_). A great part of the original of the _Chronicle_ has been
published by Adolf Bauer (Leipzig, 1905) from the _Codex Matritensis
Graecus_, 221. For the _Refutation_ we are still dependent on the
editions of Miller (Oxford, 1851), Duncker and Schneidewin (Gottingen,
1859), and Cruice (Paris, 1860). An English translation is to be found
in the _Ante-Nicene Christian Library_ (Edinburgh, 1868-1869).
See Bunsen, _Hippolytus and his Age_ (1852, 2nd ed., 1854; Ger. ed.,
1853); Dollinger, _Hippolytus und Kallistus_ (Regensb. 1853; Eng.
transl., Edinb., 1876); Gerhard Ficker, _Studien zur Hippolytfrage_
(Leipzig, 1893); Hans Achelis, _Hippolytstudien_ (Leipzig, 1897); Karl
Johannes Neumann, _Hippolytus von Rom in seiner Stellung zu Staat und
Welt_, part i. (Leipzig, 1902); Adhemar d'Ales, _La Theologie de Saint
Hippolyte_ (Paris, 1906). (G. K.)