GỸNAECŎNŎMI or GỸNAECŎCOSMI (γυναικονόμοι or γυναικοκόσμοι),
magistrates at Athens, originally appointed to superintend the
conduct of Athenian women. Their power was afterwards extended in
such a manner that they became a kind of police for the purpose of
preventing any excesses or indecencies, whether committed by men
or by women. Hence they superintended the meetings of friends even
in private houses, for instance, at weddings and on other festive
occasions.
HALTĒRES (ἁλτῆρες) were certain masses of stone or metal, which were
used in the gymnastic exercises of the Greeks and Romans. Persons who
practised leaping frequently performed their exercises with halteres
in both hands; but they were also frequently used merely to exercise
the body in somewhat the same manner as our dumb-bells.
[Illustration: Halteres. (Tassie, ‘Catalogue,’ pl. 46.)]
HARMĂMAXA (ἁρμάμαξα), a carriage for persons, covered overhead and
inclosed with curtains. It was in general large, often drawn by four
horses, and attired with splendid ornaments. It occupied among the
Persians the same place which the carpentum did among the Romans,
being used, especially upon state occasions, for the conveyance of
women and children, of eunuchs, and of the sons of the king with
their tutors.
HARMOSTAE (ἁρμοσταί, from ἁρμόζω, to fit or join together), the name
of the governors whom the Lacedaemonians, after the Peloponnesian
war, sent into their subject or conquered towns, partly to keep
them in submission, and partly to abolish the democratical form of
government, and establish in its stead one similar to their own.
Although in many cases they were ostensibly sent for the purpose of
abolishing the tyrannical government of a town, and to restore the
people to freedom, yet they themselves acted like kings or tyrants.
[Illustration: Flesh-hook. (British Museum.)]
HARPĂGO (ἁρπάγη: λύκος: κρεάγρα), a grappling-iron, a drag, a
flesh-hook. In war the grappling-iron, thrown at an enemy’s ship,
seized the rigging, and was then used to drag the ship within reach,
so that it might be easily boarded or destroyed. These instruments
appear to have been much the same as the _manus ferreae_. The
flesh-hook (κρεάγρα) was an instrument used in cookery, resembling a
hand with the fingers bent inwards, used to take boiled meat out of
the caldron.