The brothers divided the inheritance; but Per-
ses, by means of bribes to the judges, contrived to de-
fraud his elder brother, llesio/ thereupon migrated
to Orchomenus, as Gottling supposes, and the harsh
epithets which he applies to his native village {Op.
ses, by means of bribes to the judges, contrived to de-
fraud his elder brother, llesio/ thereupon migrated
to Orchomenus, as Gottling supposes, and the harsh
epithets which he applies to his native village {Op.
Charles - 1867 - Classical Dictionary
'Hpoi.
) Panyasis,an eminent
poet, whom some ranked next to Homer (Suidas, a.
r. Xlavvua. ). while others place him after Hesiod and
Antimachus, was his uncle either by the mother's or
father's side. Herodotus is regarded by many as the
father of profane history, and Cicero (Leg. , 1, I) calls
Sim "hislorire patrem:" by this, however, nothing
more must be meant, than that he is the first profane,
historian whose work is distinguished for its finished
form, and has come down to us entire. Thus Cicero
himself, on another occasion, speaks cf him as the
first "qui pnnccps genus hoc (scribendi) ornavit"
(De Oral. , 2, 13); while Dionysius of Halicarnassus
has given us a list of many historical writers who pre-
ceded him. (Consult Crcu:er, Fragm. Hist. Antiq.
Hcidclh. , 1826, 8vo. ) The facts of his life are few and
doubtful, except so far as we can collect them from
his own works. Not liking the government of I. yg-
diiinis, who was tyrant of Halicarnassus, Herodotus
retired for a season to the island of Samos, where he
is said to have cultivated the Ionic dialect of the Greek,
which was the language there prevalent. Before he
was thirty years of age he joined in an attempt, which
proved successful, to expel Lygdamis. But the ban-
ishment of the tyrant did not give tranquillity to Hali-
carnassus, and Herodotus, who himself had become
an object of dislike, again left his native country, and
:>iued, as it is said, a colony which the Athenians sent
to Thurium in Southern Italy, B. C. 443. He is said
to have died in Thurium, and to have been buried in
the Agora. --Herodotus presents himself to our con-
sideration in two points; as a traveller and observer,
and as an historian. The extent of his travels may
be ascertained pretty clearly from his History; but the
order in which he visited each place, and the time of
visiting, cannot be determined. The story of his read-
ing his work at the Olympic games, on which occasion
he is said to have received universal applause, and to
have had the names of the nine Muses given to the
nine books of his History, has been well discussed by
Dahlmann, and we may perhaps say disproved. (He-
rodot. , aus scincm Ruche, sein Lcben, Altona, 1823. )
The story is founded upon a small piece by Lucian,
entitled " Herodotus or Aetion," which apparently was
not intended by the writer himself as an historical
truth; and, in addition to this, Herodotus was only
about twenty-eight years old (Suid. , s. v. Qovuvdiinc)
when he is said to have read to the assembled Greeks
at Olympia a work which was the result of most ex-
tensive travelling and research, and which bears in
every part of it evident marks of the hand of a man of
mature oge. Tho Olympic recitation is not even al-
luded to by Plutarch, in his treatise on the "Malignity
? ? of Herodotus" At a later period Herodotus read his
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? HERODOTUS
HER
n one man now throws a clear and steady light. --The
atyle of Herodotus is simple, pleasing, and generally
perspicuous , often highly poetical both in expression
and sentiment. But it bears evident marks of belong-
ing to a period when prose composition had not yet
become a subject of art. His sentences are often ill-
constructed and hang loosely together; but his clear
comprehension of his own meaning, and the sterling
north of his matter, have saved him from the reproach
>>f diffuscness and incoherence. His acquirements
we-s apparently the result of his own experience. In
physical knowledge he was certainly behind the sci-
ence of his day. He had, no doubt, reflected on politi-
cal questions; but he seems to have formed his opinions
mainly from what he himself had observed. To pure
philosophical speculations he had no inclination, and
there is not a trace of such in his writings. He had
a strong religious feeling bordering on superstition,
though even here he could clearly distinguish the gross
ind absurd from that which was decorous. He seems
to have viewed the manners and customs of all nations
in a more truly philosophical way than many so-called
philosophers, considering them as various forms of
social existence under which happiness might be
found. He treats with decent respect the religious
observances of every nation; a decisive proof, if any
were wanting, of his great good sense. --That He-
rodotus was not duly appreciated by all his country-
men, and that in modern times his wonderful stories
have been the subject of merriment to the half-learn-
<<1, who measure his experience by their own igno-
? auce, we merely notice, without thinking it necessary
'. o say more. The incidental confirmations of his ve-
racity, which have been accumulating of late years on
all sides, and our more exact knowledge of the coun-
tries which he visited, enable us to appreciate him bet-
ter than many of the Greeks themselves could do; and
it cannot now be denied, that a sound and comprehen-
? i? 3 study of antiqui'v must be based upon a thorough
knowledge of the work of Herodotus. --Plutarch ac-
cused Herodotus of partiality, and composed a treatise
on what he termed the "malignity" of this writer
(Ttpi Tijf 'Hpoiorov KanorjOeiac), taxing him with in-
justice towards the Tbebaus, Corinthians, and Greeks
in general; but the whole affair is a weak and frivo-
lous one. The historian has also found two new an-
tagonists in more recent times. MM. Chahan de Cir-
nied and F. Martin, authors of a work entitled "Re*
ckerches Cuncuscs sur ['historic anciennc de I'Asie,"
drawn from Oriental manuscripts in the " Bibliotheque
du Roi" (Pari*, 1806), oppose to him the testimony of
Mar-lbas-Cadina, a Syrian, and the secretary of Vala-
sarces, king of Armenia. This writer pretends to have
found in the archives of Nineveh a Greek translation,
made by order of Alexander the Great, of a Chaldean
work of very remote antiquity. The history of Mar-
lbas-Cadina no longer exists, but it was the source
whence Moses of Chorene in the fifth century, and
John Catholicos in the tenth, drew the materials for
their respective works. This attack, however, on the
credibility of the Greek writer, is undeserving of any
serious consideration, more especially as the French
editors themselves, just mentioned, confess that Mar-
lbas-Cadina deals largely in fable. --A life of Homer is
commonly ascribed to Herodotus, and appears in most
editions of his history; but it is now deemed supposi-
titious The three best editions of Herodotus are,
? ? that of Wesseling, Atnst. , 1763, fol. ; that of Schweig-
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? HER
die south of Thessaly, and giving extension to the
name, first of Achasans, and afterward of Hellenes, as
ore learn from the legends in Pausanias and Thucydi-
des; so that in the same sense the Normans who col-
onized Italy, or the Saxons who settled in England,
might justly be called heroes. The root of the word
teems to be h? i, whence come the Latin and German
forma of kerut and herr (" master"); vir, tirlus, &c.
The Sanscrit word sura appears to contain the same
element as " lieros. "--The promiscuous (or Homeric)
ose of the word "hero" disappeared in the age suc-
ceeding the Homeric poems. It seems probable that
the Hellenic invasion, commonly called the return of
*t<< Heraclido? , put an end to it. The new conquerors
of Southern Greece'do not seem themselves to have
borne or used the title; and afterward, when they or
their descendants looked back to the warlike legends
of ti. e earlier race who had borne the title, the lays, ex-
ploits, and legends were called heroic; and from the
combined effect of poetical exaggeration, reverence for
antiquity, and traditions of national descent, the more
modern use of the word arose, carrying with it notions
? f mythical dignity, and of superiority to the later races
of mankind. The custom of showing respect or af-
fection by making precious offerings, and celebrating
costly sacrifices at the tombs of the dead; the imagi-
native temper of the Greeks, which, as it loved to as-
cribe a divine genealogy to the gnat, was equally will-
ing to admit them to a share of the divine nature and
enjoyments after death; and the love of magnifying
past ages, common to all nations, will sufficiently ex-
plain the change of earthly leaders into protecting genii
or daemons, who were believed to be immortal, invisi-
ble, though frequenting the earth, powerful to bestow
good or evil, and therefore to be appeased or propitia-
ted like the gods themselves. In the age of Hesiod,
? s is evident from the passage above referred to, the
day of heroes was past, and they were already invest-
ed with their mythological character, which appears to
furnish one among other reasons for believing him to
iiave lived after the Homeric age. (ThlrlwalVs Greece,
vol. 1, p. 123, seqq. --Philological Museum, No. 4, p.
72, seqq. --Encycl. Vs. Krunol, vol. 12, p. 160, scq. )
Heron or Hero, I. a native of Alcxandrea, and dis-
tiple of Ctesibius flourished about 217 B. C. He was
celebrated as a mechanician, and invented the hydrau-
lic clock, and the machine called "the fountain of
Hero. " He must have enjoyed a high reputation,
since he is mentioned by Gregory Nazianzen with
Eucljl and Ptolemy. He is now, however, principally
known by some fragments of his writings on mechan-
ics, which are to be found in the "Mathcmalici Vete-
res," published at Paris in 1693. His extant writings
are, 1. "On the Machine called the Chiroballislra"
(XetpoCaXluorpac KaraOKevij Kal cw/iucrpia). This is
found in the "Malhematici Veteres" already cited.
--2. Bar ulcus (BapovXnoc), a treatise on the raising of
heavy weights, which is mentioned by Pappus, and
was found by Golius in Arabic. A translation of it
iuto German, by Burgraan, was published in the Com-
ment. Goelt. , 7, 77. -3. Belopoeica (Beh>Kouna), a
treatise on the manufacture of darts, published by
Baldi, with an account of Hero, at Augsburg, in
1616, and also in the Malh. Vet. --4. On Pneumatic
Machines (XlvcvpaTiKu). In this work is thu first and
only notice among the ancient writers of the applica-
tion of steam as a moving power. (Stuart's History
of the S'cam-Engine, 4to. ) It was published by
? ? Coinmandine it Urbino in 1575, and at Amsterdam
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? Hfc rt
niglu discover the secret spr. ngs of life. (Celsus,
Pra-f. ) From the peculiar advantages which the
school of Alexandres presented by this authorized dis-
tention of the human body, it gained, and for many
centuries preserved, the first reputation for medical
education, so that Ammianus Marcellinus, who lived
sbout 660 vears after its establishment, aays, that it
was sufficient to secure credit to any physician if he
eouid say that he had studied at Alexandres. (Amm.
Marc, 22, 16. ) Herophilus made great discoveries
in anatomy, and Fallopius calls him the evangelist of
anatomists. (Fallop. , Observ. , p. 396. ) He is to be
regarded as the inventor of pathological anatomy, hav-
ing been the first that thought of opening the bodies
of men after death, in order to ascertain the nature of
the malady which bad caused their dissolution. His
principal discoveries have reference to the nervous
system, which ho acknowledged as the seat of the sen-
sations. (Galen, de loc. affect. , lib. 3, p. 282 --Ruf-
fus. de appcllat part. corf, hum. , lib. 2, p. 66. ) He
tin determined that the nerves sre not connected with
the membranes that cover the brain, but with the brain
itself, though as yet the distinction of the nerves from
the tendons and other white tissues had not been made
>>ut The description which Herophilus gave of the
arain itself was far superior to those of previous au-
thors. He discovered the arachnoid membrane, and
ihowed that it lined the ventricles, which he supposed
were the seat of the soul; and the chief meeting of
the sinuses, into which the veins of the brain pour their
Mood, still bears the name of torcular Hcrophili. He
noticed the lacteals, though he was not aware of their
use. He pointed out that the first division of the . in-
testinal canal is never more than the breadth of twelve
fingers in length, snd from this fact proposed for it a
name, the Latin form of which (duodenum) is still ap-
plied to it. He described with great exactness the
jrspin of sight, and gave to its various membranes the
? lames which have still, in a great measure, remained
? o them. He operated on the cataract by extracting
die crystalline humour. The ancient physicians praise
lis descriptions of the os hyoides, which he called
tapaoTdriK, of the liver, and of the parta of genera-
ion. (Ruffus, I c, p. 37. -- Galen, de Admimstr.
Anal. , lib. 6, p. 172. ) Herophilus was the first, also,
'. hat had just notions respecting the pulse, of which his
vaster, Praxagoras, had taught him some of the value,
<s a means of discriminating diseases. ( Galen, de dig.
'fuls. , lib. 2, p. 24. --Plin. , 11, 37-- Id. , 29, I. ) He
does not appear to have drawn many pathological con-
tusions from his knowledge of the healthy structure.
H was he, however, who first showed that paralysis is
ihe result, not of a vitiated state of the humours, as
vas previously imagined, but of an affection of the
tervous system. Herophilus seems to have founded
a school which took its name from him. He is sup-
posed to have been the first that commented on the
aphorisms of Hippocrates. His commentary exists in
manuscript in the Ambrosian library at Milan. All
his other works, among which was one on respiration,
are lost. (Sprengel, Hist, de la Med. , vol. 1, p. 433,
ttaa. )
HeeostrXtvs, less correctly Erobtratus, the in-
cendiary who set fire to the famous temple of Diana
at Ephesus. When put to the torture, he confessed
that his only object was to gain himself a name among
posterity- The states-general of Asia endeavoured,
very foolishly, to prevent this, by ordering that his
? ? name should never be mentioned; but the natural
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? HESIODUS.
HESIODUS.
sea.
The brothers divided the inheritance; but Per-
ses, by means of bribes to the judges, contrived to de-
fraud his elder brother, llesio/ thereupon migrated
to Orchomenus, as Gottling supposes, and the harsh
epithets which he applies to his native village {Op. et
D. 637, acq. ) were, in all probability, prompted by re-
sentment at the wrong which ho had suffered from the
Ascrcan judges, in relation to the division of his patri-
mony. (G'ittling, Praf. ad Hcs. , p. iv. ) From a
passage in the proem to the Theogony, it has been in-
ferred that Hesiod was literally a shepherd, and tended
bis flocks on the side of Helicon; and this supposition,
though directly at variance with the statement of Pau-
janias, who makes mm a pr est of the Muses on Mount
Helicon, seems decidedly the most rational one. He
was evidently born in an humble station, and was him-
self engaged in rural pursuits; and this perfectly accords
with the subject of the poem which was unanimously
ascribed to him, namely, the Works and Days, which
is a collection of reflections and precepts relating to
husbandry, and the regulation of a rural household.
The only additional fact that can be gathered from
Hesiod's writings is, that he passed into the island of
Eubcea, on occasion of a poetical contest at Chalcis,
which formed part of the funeral games instituted in
honour of Arnphidamas: that he obtained a tripod as
the prize, and consecrated it to the Muses of Helicon.
This latter passage, however, is suspected by Guictus
and Wolf; but it seems to have formed a part of the
poem from time immemorial; and it may not be un-
reasonable to infer its authenticity from the tradition
respecting an imaginary contest between Homer and
Hesiod. That the passage should have been raised
sn the basis of the tradition is impossible, because, in
that case, it is obvious that the name of Homer would
ha'e appeared in the verses; but it is highly probable
th. it the tradition was built on the passage. If the
passage be a forgery, it is a forgery without any os-
tensible purpose; it is a mere gratuitous imposture
which tends to nothing; and it seems impossible that
any person should take the trouble of foisting suppos-
ititious lines into Hesiod's poem, for the barren object
? f inducing a belief that he had won a poetical prize
from somebody. This nullity of purpose could not but
strike those who, being themselves willing to believe
that Homer was the competitor at Chalcis, were anx-
ious for proofs to convince others: and hence an in-
terpolation of this very passage has been practised;
which alone shows that, if a forgery, it was an un-
meaning and useless forgery. For the verse, "Vic-
tor in song a tripod bore away," it has been attempted
to substitute, " Victor in song o'er Homer the divine. "
Connected with the same design of making Homer and
Hesiod contemporaries, is an imposture on a large
scale, which professes to be an historical account of
the contest between Homer and Hesiod, and which
appears to be erected on tho above tradition as related
by Plutarch; for it is evident, from a passage in the
work itself, that it was not composed till tho time of
the Emperor Hadrian. As to the tradition of this im-
aginary meeting, for which not a shadow of evidence
appears in Hesiod's own writings, Robinson offers a
very probable conjecture: that it originated in a coin-
cidence between this passage of the work and a pas-
sage in one of Homer's hymns, where the writer sup-
plicates Venus to grant him the victory in some ap-
proaching contest. --The following account is given as
? ? to the manner of Hesiod's death. Hesiod is said to
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? H&>>10DU&
HES
business. These precepts, which do not relate to par-1 piter and Typhoeus, astonishes the reader oy sudnci
ticular seasons of the year, but to the course of each | bursts of enthusiasm, for which the prolix and nerve-
lunar month, are exclusively of a superstitions charac- less narrative of the general poem had little prepared
*a, and are in great part connected with tbo different , him. Mihou has borrowed some images from these
worships which were celebrated upon these days: but I descriptions: and the arming of the Messiah for battle
our knowledge is far too insufficient to explain them . is obviously imitated from the magnificent picture
all. --One thing must be very evident to all who read of Jupiter summoning all the terrors of his omnip-
tbo "Works and Days," that in its present state it "' ''""
shows a want of purpose and of unity too great to be
accounted for otherwise than on tho supposition of its
fragmentary nature. Ulrici considera the moral and
the agricultural instruction as genuine; the story of
Prometheus, and that of the Five Ages, as much al-
tered from their original Hesiodic form; and the de-
scripti in of Winter as latest of all. (Ulrici, Geschichte
ier H<. Un. Dichtkunst, vol. 1, p. 360. )--The "The-
ogony" is perhaps the work which, whether genuine
or not, most emphatically expresses the feeling which
is supposed to have given rise to the Hieratic school.
It consists, as its name expresses, of an account of the
origin of the world, iacluding the birth of the gods,
and makes use of numerous personifications. This
has given rise to a theory, that the old histories of
creation, from which Hesiod drew without under-
standing them, were in fact philosophical, and not
mythological, speculations -, so that the names winrji in
after limes were applied to persons, had originally be-
longed only to qualities, attributes, etc. , and that the
inventor bad carefully excluded all personal agency
from his system. Thus much we may safely assert
respecting the "Theogony," that it points out one im-
portant feature in the Greek character, and one which,
when that character arrived at maturity, produced re-
sults, of which the Theogony is at best but a feeble
promise; we mean that speculative tendency which
lies at the root of Greek philosophy. --Even as early as
the time of Pausanias (8, 18, and 9, 31), it was doubt-
ed whether Hesiod was actually the author of this
poem. According to a learned German critic, it is a
tpecies of milangc, formed by the union of several
poems on the same subject, and which has been ef-
fected by the same copyists or grammarians. Such ia
the theory of Hermann, who has advanced this hy-
pothesis in a letter addressed to llgcn, and which the
latter has placed at the head of his edition of Homer's
Hymns. Hermann thinks that he has discovered seven
different exordia, composed of the following verses:
the first, of verses 1, 22-24, 26-52; the second, of
verses 1-4, 11-21; the third, of verses 1, 2, 5-21,
75-93; the fourth, of verses 1, 53-64, 68-74; the
fifth, of verses 1, 53-61', 65, 66; in the sixth, the. 60th
and 61st verses were immediately followed hy the 67th;
the seventh, of verses 1, 94-103. --The Theogony is
interesting as being the most ancient monument that
we have of the Greek mythology. When we consider
it as a poem, we find no composition of ancient times
so stamped with a rude simplicity of character. It
is without luminous order of arrangement, abounds
with dry and insipid details, and only by snatches, as
it were, rises to any extraordinary elevation of fancy.
It exhibits that crude irregularity, and that mixture of
meanness and grandeur, which characterize a strong
but uncultivated genius. The censure of Quintilian,
that " Hesiod rarely rises, and a great part of him is
occupied in mere names," is confessedly merited.
Considered, however, as a general critique, the judg-
ment which Quintilian pronounces on Hesiod is liable
? ? to objection. The sentence just quoted refers plainly
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? H ES
HESPERIDES.
Sue his I >r. g ihrcatened vengeance on Laomeion.
He accordingly rollcctcd a fleet of eighteen fifty-oared
vessels (Homer, //. , 5, 641, says six), manned by a val-
iant band of volunteer warriors, and, sailing to Ilium,
took the city, having been powerfully aided by his friend
ap. d follower Telamon. Hercules slew with his arrows
Laomedon and all his sons except Podarces, who had
advised his father to give the stipulated reward to the
Aero for the destruction of the monster. He then
gave Hesionc to Telamon as a reward of" his valour,
and allowed her to choose one among the captives to
be set at liberty. When she had fixed upon her
bro'iier Podarces, Hercules replied that be must first
be made a slave, and then she might give something
for him and redeem him. She took her golden veil on
her head, and with it bought him, and hence he was after-
ward named Priamus (Purchased) instead of Podarces
(Swift-foot). Hesione was taken to Greece by Tela-
mon, where she became the mother of Teucer. (Apol-
lod. , 2, 5, 9, seqq. --Id. , 2, fi, i. --Keightley's Mythol-
ogy, p. 359, 365. )
HkspekIa, a name applied by the poets to Italy, as
lying to the west of Greece. It is of Greek origin
('Eoirtpia), and is derived from iortipa, "eremite;,"
so that Hcsperia properly means "the evening-land,"
i. e. , the western region. (Virg. , Mn. , 1, 530. --Id.
ib. , 569. --Ovid, Met. , 2, 458. --Lucan, 1, 224. ) It
is also, though less frequently, applied to Spain, as ly-
ing west of Italy. (Horat. , Od. , 1, 36, 4. --Lucan,
4, 14. )
Hesperides, or " the Western Maidens," three cel-
eorated nymphs, whose genealogy is differently given
by various writers. According to Hesiod (Theog. ,
215), they were the daughters of Night, without a fa-
ther. Diodorus, on the other hand, makes them to
have had for their parents Atlas and Hesperis daugh-
ter of Hesperus (Diod. Sic, 4, 27), an account which
is followed by Milton in his Comus (v. 981). Others,
however, to assimilate them to their neighbours the
Grata; and Gorgons, call the Hcsperides the offspring
of Pborcys and Ceto. (Schol. ad Apoll. Rh, 4,1399. )
Apollonius gives their names as AZgie, Hespera, and
Erythe'is (4, 1427), while Apollodorus, who increases
the number to four, calls them -'Eglc, Ervthea, Hestia,
and Arethusa. (Apollod. , 2, 5, 11. ) Hesiod makes
them to have dwelt "beyond the bright ocean," op-
posite to where Atlas stood supporting the heavens
(Theog. , 518), and when Atlas had been fixed as a
mountain in the extremity of Libya, the dwelling of
the Hesperides was usually placed in his vicinity,
though some set it in the country of the Hyperboreans.
(Apollod. , 1. c. )--According to the legend, when the
bridal of Jupiter and Juno took place, the different dei-
ties came with nuptial presents for the latter, and
among them the goddess of Earth, with branches hav-
ing golden apples growing on them (" Terrain venisse
ferentem aurea mala cum ramis. " Hijgin. , Poet,
istron. , 2, 3. ) Juno, greatly admiring these, begged
of Earth to plant them in her gardens, which extended
as far as Mount Atlas (" qui cranl usque ad Allanlem
montem. " Hygin. , I. c. ) The Hesperides, or daugh-
ters of Atlas, were directed to watch these trees; but,
as they were somewhat remiss in discharging this duty,
and frequently plucked off the apples themselves, Ju-
no sent thither a large serpent to guard the precious
fruit. This monster was the offspring of Typhon and
Echidna, and had a hundred heads, so that it never
? ? slept. (Hygin. , 1. c. ) According to Pisander, the
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? HES
HIS
lenl, enclosed withii. steep, and, for ihe most part, per-
pendicular, sides of aolid rock, rising sometimes to a
height of sixty or seventy feet, or more, before they
reach the level of the plain in which they arc situated.
The soil at the bottom of these chasms appears to
have been washed down from the plain above by the
heavy rains, and is frequently cultivated by the Arabs;
so that a person, in walking over the country where
they exist, comes suddenly upon a beautiful orchard
or garden, blooming in secret, and in the greatest lux-
uriance, at a considerable depth beneath his feet, and
defended on all sides by walls of solid rock, so as to
be at firs: sight apparently inaccessible. The effect
of these secluded little spots, protected, as it were, from
the intrusion of mankind, by the steepness and depth
of :he barriers which enclose them, is singular and
pleasing in the extreme; they reminded us of some
of those secluded retreats which we read of in fairy
legends or tales. It was impossible to walk along the
edge of these precipices, looking everywhere for some
part less abrupt than the rest, by which we might de-
scend into the gardens beneath, without calling to
mind the description given by Scylax of the far-famed
gardens of the Hesperides. "--It has been supposed by
many, and among the rest by Gossellin and Pacho,
that the Hesperian gardens of the ancients were no-
thing more than some of those verdant caves which
stud the Libyan desert, and which, from their con-
cealed and inaccessible position, their unknown origin,
and their striking contrast to the surrounding waste,
might well suggest the idea of a terrestrial paradise,
and become the types of the still fairer creations of
poetic fable. Possibly, therefore, supposing the fable
to rest on a real basis, the first of these Elysian groves
may have been at the extremity of Cyrena'ica mentioned
by Beechey, and the original idea of the legend may
have been taken from a subterranean garden of the
above description. --The garden of the Hesperides is
stated by Scylax (p. 46) to have been an enclosed spot
of ten stadia each way, filled with thickly-planted fruit-
trees of various kinds, and inaccessible on all sides.
It was situated at six hundred and twenty stadia (fifty
geographical miles) from the port of Barce; and this
agrees precisely with that of the place described by
Captain Beechey from Ptolcmata. The testimony of
Pliny (5, 5) is very decided in fixing the site of the
Hesperides in the neighbourhood of Berenice. "Not
far from the city" (Berenice), "is the river Lethon,
and the sacred grove where the gardens of the Hes-
perides are said to be situated. We do not mean,"
remarks Captain B. , "to point out any one of these
subterranean gardens as that which is described in the
passage above quoted from Scylax; for we know of
no one which will correspond, in point of extent, to
the garden which that author has mentioned. All
those which we saw were considerably less than the
fifth of a mile in diameter (the measurement given by
Scylax); and the places of this nature which would
best agree with the dimensions, are now filled with
water sufficiently fresh to be drinkable, and take the
form of romantic little lakes. Scarcely any two of the
gardens we met with were, however, of the same depth
or extent; end we have no reason to conclude that,
because we saw none which were large enough to be
fixed upon for the garden of the Hesperides, there is
therefore no place of the dimensions required; par-
ticularly as the singular formation alluded lo continues
? ? to the foot of the Cyrenaic chain, which is fourteen
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? HESY CUIUS.
HT. l
wnetb. r the glossary which has reached us under the
name of this writer be really his, or whether it be not
merely an abridgment of his work. What has inclined
some to favour the latter opinion is the circumstance
of the citations being omitted. Others think, and with
tome, appearance of reason, that this lexicon was ori-
ginally a small volume, and that the numerous biblical
glosses which are at present found in it have been in-
tercalated by the copyists, who have taken the remarks
nade in the margin by the possessors of manuscripts
for portions of the text itself. However this may be,
the work of Hesychius is very important towards ac-
quiring a full knowledge of the Greek language. It
has preserved for us a large number of passages from
poets, orators, historians, and physicians, whose works
are lost. Hesychius explains, moreover, various words
that depart from the ordinary usage of the Greek
tongue, as well as terms used in sacrifices, gymnastic
encounters, &c. And yet it must be acknowledged
that his text is in a most corrupt state, and that when
he is a solitary witness his testimony ought to be re-
ceived with caution. (Mas. Crit. , vol. 1, p. 503. )
The work, in fact, has all the appearance of rough
notes, put down in the course of reading, rather than
of a finished production. It was not known until the
sixteenth century. Only one MS. , in the library of
St. Mark, at Venice, is said to be preserved, and that
is full of abbreviations, and has many erasures; which
accounts for the great corruption of the text, in spite
of the labours of many able editors. It appears, how-
ever, that in the seventeenth century there existed a
second manuscript in the Florence library. (EberCs
Bibliogr. Lexicon, vol. 1, p. 772. )--The best edition
of Hesychius is that of Alberti, completed by Kuhn-
ken, Lugd. Bat. , 1746-1776, 2 vols. fol. It is to be
regretted, however, that Alberti could not avail him-
self of the valuable MS. notes of Benlley on this lexi-
cographer. --The editio princepsof Hesychius was pub-
lished by the elder Aldus, Venice, 1514, fol. , under the
care of Marcus Musurus. The manuscript followed was
the Venice one. This, however, being, as we have al-
ready remarked, very difficult to decipher, and in other
respects extremely inaccurate, Musurus took great
pains to correct and restore it. This is often done
with intelligence and success; but often also he de-
ceives himself in his corrections, and in general treats
his original in too arbitrary a manner. Schow, of Co-
penhagen, being at Venice, collated the manuscript
with the edition of Alberti, and took note of all the
variations. He published this collation at Lcipsic,
1792, 8vo, under the title, "Hesychii Lexicon ex tod.
Ms. b'Miotkeca S.
poet, whom some ranked next to Homer (Suidas, a.
r. Xlavvua. ). while others place him after Hesiod and
Antimachus, was his uncle either by the mother's or
father's side. Herodotus is regarded by many as the
father of profane history, and Cicero (Leg. , 1, I) calls
Sim "hislorire patrem:" by this, however, nothing
more must be meant, than that he is the first profane,
historian whose work is distinguished for its finished
form, and has come down to us entire. Thus Cicero
himself, on another occasion, speaks cf him as the
first "qui pnnccps genus hoc (scribendi) ornavit"
(De Oral. , 2, 13); while Dionysius of Halicarnassus
has given us a list of many historical writers who pre-
ceded him. (Consult Crcu:er, Fragm. Hist. Antiq.
Hcidclh. , 1826, 8vo. ) The facts of his life are few and
doubtful, except so far as we can collect them from
his own works. Not liking the government of I. yg-
diiinis, who was tyrant of Halicarnassus, Herodotus
retired for a season to the island of Samos, where he
is said to have cultivated the Ionic dialect of the Greek,
which was the language there prevalent. Before he
was thirty years of age he joined in an attempt, which
proved successful, to expel Lygdamis. But the ban-
ishment of the tyrant did not give tranquillity to Hali-
carnassus, and Herodotus, who himself had become
an object of dislike, again left his native country, and
:>iued, as it is said, a colony which the Athenians sent
to Thurium in Southern Italy, B. C. 443. He is said
to have died in Thurium, and to have been buried in
the Agora. --Herodotus presents himself to our con-
sideration in two points; as a traveller and observer,
and as an historian. The extent of his travels may
be ascertained pretty clearly from his History; but the
order in which he visited each place, and the time of
visiting, cannot be determined. The story of his read-
ing his work at the Olympic games, on which occasion
he is said to have received universal applause, and to
have had the names of the nine Muses given to the
nine books of his History, has been well discussed by
Dahlmann, and we may perhaps say disproved. (He-
rodot. , aus scincm Ruche, sein Lcben, Altona, 1823. )
The story is founded upon a small piece by Lucian,
entitled " Herodotus or Aetion," which apparently was
not intended by the writer himself as an historical
truth; and, in addition to this, Herodotus was only
about twenty-eight years old (Suid. , s. v. Qovuvdiinc)
when he is said to have read to the assembled Greeks
at Olympia a work which was the result of most ex-
tensive travelling and research, and which bears in
every part of it evident marks of the hand of a man of
mature oge. Tho Olympic recitation is not even al-
luded to by Plutarch, in his treatise on the "Malignity
? ? of Herodotus" At a later period Herodotus read his
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? HERODOTUS
HER
n one man now throws a clear and steady light. --The
atyle of Herodotus is simple, pleasing, and generally
perspicuous , often highly poetical both in expression
and sentiment. But it bears evident marks of belong-
ing to a period when prose composition had not yet
become a subject of art. His sentences are often ill-
constructed and hang loosely together; but his clear
comprehension of his own meaning, and the sterling
north of his matter, have saved him from the reproach
>>f diffuscness and incoherence. His acquirements
we-s apparently the result of his own experience. In
physical knowledge he was certainly behind the sci-
ence of his day. He had, no doubt, reflected on politi-
cal questions; but he seems to have formed his opinions
mainly from what he himself had observed. To pure
philosophical speculations he had no inclination, and
there is not a trace of such in his writings. He had
a strong religious feeling bordering on superstition,
though even here he could clearly distinguish the gross
ind absurd from that which was decorous. He seems
to have viewed the manners and customs of all nations
in a more truly philosophical way than many so-called
philosophers, considering them as various forms of
social existence under which happiness might be
found. He treats with decent respect the religious
observances of every nation; a decisive proof, if any
were wanting, of his great good sense. --That He-
rodotus was not duly appreciated by all his country-
men, and that in modern times his wonderful stories
have been the subject of merriment to the half-learn-
<<1, who measure his experience by their own igno-
? auce, we merely notice, without thinking it necessary
'. o say more. The incidental confirmations of his ve-
racity, which have been accumulating of late years on
all sides, and our more exact knowledge of the coun-
tries which he visited, enable us to appreciate him bet-
ter than many of the Greeks themselves could do; and
it cannot now be denied, that a sound and comprehen-
? i? 3 study of antiqui'v must be based upon a thorough
knowledge of the work of Herodotus. --Plutarch ac-
cused Herodotus of partiality, and composed a treatise
on what he termed the "malignity" of this writer
(Ttpi Tijf 'Hpoiorov KanorjOeiac), taxing him with in-
justice towards the Tbebaus, Corinthians, and Greeks
in general; but the whole affair is a weak and frivo-
lous one. The historian has also found two new an-
tagonists in more recent times. MM. Chahan de Cir-
nied and F. Martin, authors of a work entitled "Re*
ckerches Cuncuscs sur ['historic anciennc de I'Asie,"
drawn from Oriental manuscripts in the " Bibliotheque
du Roi" (Pari*, 1806), oppose to him the testimony of
Mar-lbas-Cadina, a Syrian, and the secretary of Vala-
sarces, king of Armenia. This writer pretends to have
found in the archives of Nineveh a Greek translation,
made by order of Alexander the Great, of a Chaldean
work of very remote antiquity. The history of Mar-
lbas-Cadina no longer exists, but it was the source
whence Moses of Chorene in the fifth century, and
John Catholicos in the tenth, drew the materials for
their respective works. This attack, however, on the
credibility of the Greek writer, is undeserving of any
serious consideration, more especially as the French
editors themselves, just mentioned, confess that Mar-
lbas-Cadina deals largely in fable. --A life of Homer is
commonly ascribed to Herodotus, and appears in most
editions of his history; but it is now deemed supposi-
titious The three best editions of Herodotus are,
? ? that of Wesseling, Atnst. , 1763, fol. ; that of Schweig-
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? HER
die south of Thessaly, and giving extension to the
name, first of Achasans, and afterward of Hellenes, as
ore learn from the legends in Pausanias and Thucydi-
des; so that in the same sense the Normans who col-
onized Italy, or the Saxons who settled in England,
might justly be called heroes. The root of the word
teems to be h? i, whence come the Latin and German
forma of kerut and herr (" master"); vir, tirlus, &c.
The Sanscrit word sura appears to contain the same
element as " lieros. "--The promiscuous (or Homeric)
ose of the word "hero" disappeared in the age suc-
ceeding the Homeric poems. It seems probable that
the Hellenic invasion, commonly called the return of
*t<< Heraclido? , put an end to it. The new conquerors
of Southern Greece'do not seem themselves to have
borne or used the title; and afterward, when they or
their descendants looked back to the warlike legends
of ti. e earlier race who had borne the title, the lays, ex-
ploits, and legends were called heroic; and from the
combined effect of poetical exaggeration, reverence for
antiquity, and traditions of national descent, the more
modern use of the word arose, carrying with it notions
? f mythical dignity, and of superiority to the later races
of mankind. The custom of showing respect or af-
fection by making precious offerings, and celebrating
costly sacrifices at the tombs of the dead; the imagi-
native temper of the Greeks, which, as it loved to as-
cribe a divine genealogy to the gnat, was equally will-
ing to admit them to a share of the divine nature and
enjoyments after death; and the love of magnifying
past ages, common to all nations, will sufficiently ex-
plain the change of earthly leaders into protecting genii
or daemons, who were believed to be immortal, invisi-
ble, though frequenting the earth, powerful to bestow
good or evil, and therefore to be appeased or propitia-
ted like the gods themselves. In the age of Hesiod,
? s is evident from the passage above referred to, the
day of heroes was past, and they were already invest-
ed with their mythological character, which appears to
furnish one among other reasons for believing him to
iiave lived after the Homeric age. (ThlrlwalVs Greece,
vol. 1, p. 123, seqq. --Philological Museum, No. 4, p.
72, seqq. --Encycl. Vs. Krunol, vol. 12, p. 160, scq. )
Heron or Hero, I. a native of Alcxandrea, and dis-
tiple of Ctesibius flourished about 217 B. C. He was
celebrated as a mechanician, and invented the hydrau-
lic clock, and the machine called "the fountain of
Hero. " He must have enjoyed a high reputation,
since he is mentioned by Gregory Nazianzen with
Eucljl and Ptolemy. He is now, however, principally
known by some fragments of his writings on mechan-
ics, which are to be found in the "Mathcmalici Vete-
res," published at Paris in 1693. His extant writings
are, 1. "On the Machine called the Chiroballislra"
(XetpoCaXluorpac KaraOKevij Kal cw/iucrpia). This is
found in the "Malhematici Veteres" already cited.
--2. Bar ulcus (BapovXnoc), a treatise on the raising of
heavy weights, which is mentioned by Pappus, and
was found by Golius in Arabic. A translation of it
iuto German, by Burgraan, was published in the Com-
ment. Goelt. , 7, 77. -3. Belopoeica (Beh>Kouna), a
treatise on the manufacture of darts, published by
Baldi, with an account of Hero, at Augsburg, in
1616, and also in the Malh. Vet. --4. On Pneumatic
Machines (XlvcvpaTiKu). In this work is thu first and
only notice among the ancient writers of the applica-
tion of steam as a moving power. (Stuart's History
of the S'cam-Engine, 4to. ) It was published by
? ? Coinmandine it Urbino in 1575, and at Amsterdam
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? Hfc rt
niglu discover the secret spr. ngs of life. (Celsus,
Pra-f. ) From the peculiar advantages which the
school of Alexandres presented by this authorized dis-
tention of the human body, it gained, and for many
centuries preserved, the first reputation for medical
education, so that Ammianus Marcellinus, who lived
sbout 660 vears after its establishment, aays, that it
was sufficient to secure credit to any physician if he
eouid say that he had studied at Alexandres. (Amm.
Marc, 22, 16. ) Herophilus made great discoveries
in anatomy, and Fallopius calls him the evangelist of
anatomists. (Fallop. , Observ. , p. 396. ) He is to be
regarded as the inventor of pathological anatomy, hav-
ing been the first that thought of opening the bodies
of men after death, in order to ascertain the nature of
the malady which bad caused their dissolution. His
principal discoveries have reference to the nervous
system, which ho acknowledged as the seat of the sen-
sations. (Galen, de loc. affect. , lib. 3, p. 282 --Ruf-
fus. de appcllat part. corf, hum. , lib. 2, p. 66. ) He
tin determined that the nerves sre not connected with
the membranes that cover the brain, but with the brain
itself, though as yet the distinction of the nerves from
the tendons and other white tissues had not been made
>>ut The description which Herophilus gave of the
arain itself was far superior to those of previous au-
thors. He discovered the arachnoid membrane, and
ihowed that it lined the ventricles, which he supposed
were the seat of the soul; and the chief meeting of
the sinuses, into which the veins of the brain pour their
Mood, still bears the name of torcular Hcrophili. He
noticed the lacteals, though he was not aware of their
use. He pointed out that the first division of the . in-
testinal canal is never more than the breadth of twelve
fingers in length, snd from this fact proposed for it a
name, the Latin form of which (duodenum) is still ap-
plied to it. He described with great exactness the
jrspin of sight, and gave to its various membranes the
? lames which have still, in a great measure, remained
? o them. He operated on the cataract by extracting
die crystalline humour. The ancient physicians praise
lis descriptions of the os hyoides, which he called
tapaoTdriK, of the liver, and of the parta of genera-
ion. (Ruffus, I c, p. 37. -- Galen, de Admimstr.
Anal. , lib. 6, p. 172. ) Herophilus was the first, also,
'. hat had just notions respecting the pulse, of which his
vaster, Praxagoras, had taught him some of the value,
<s a means of discriminating diseases. ( Galen, de dig.
'fuls. , lib. 2, p. 24. --Plin. , 11, 37-- Id. , 29, I. ) He
does not appear to have drawn many pathological con-
tusions from his knowledge of the healthy structure.
H was he, however, who first showed that paralysis is
ihe result, not of a vitiated state of the humours, as
vas previously imagined, but of an affection of the
tervous system. Herophilus seems to have founded
a school which took its name from him. He is sup-
posed to have been the first that commented on the
aphorisms of Hippocrates. His commentary exists in
manuscript in the Ambrosian library at Milan. All
his other works, among which was one on respiration,
are lost. (Sprengel, Hist, de la Med. , vol. 1, p. 433,
ttaa. )
HeeostrXtvs, less correctly Erobtratus, the in-
cendiary who set fire to the famous temple of Diana
at Ephesus. When put to the torture, he confessed
that his only object was to gain himself a name among
posterity- The states-general of Asia endeavoured,
very foolishly, to prevent this, by ordering that his
? ? name should never be mentioned; but the natural
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? HESIODUS.
HESIODUS.
sea.
The brothers divided the inheritance; but Per-
ses, by means of bribes to the judges, contrived to de-
fraud his elder brother, llesio/ thereupon migrated
to Orchomenus, as Gottling supposes, and the harsh
epithets which he applies to his native village {Op. et
D. 637, acq. ) were, in all probability, prompted by re-
sentment at the wrong which ho had suffered from the
Ascrcan judges, in relation to the division of his patri-
mony. (G'ittling, Praf. ad Hcs. , p. iv. ) From a
passage in the proem to the Theogony, it has been in-
ferred that Hesiod was literally a shepherd, and tended
bis flocks on the side of Helicon; and this supposition,
though directly at variance with the statement of Pau-
janias, who makes mm a pr est of the Muses on Mount
Helicon, seems decidedly the most rational one. He
was evidently born in an humble station, and was him-
self engaged in rural pursuits; and this perfectly accords
with the subject of the poem which was unanimously
ascribed to him, namely, the Works and Days, which
is a collection of reflections and precepts relating to
husbandry, and the regulation of a rural household.
The only additional fact that can be gathered from
Hesiod's writings is, that he passed into the island of
Eubcea, on occasion of a poetical contest at Chalcis,
which formed part of the funeral games instituted in
honour of Arnphidamas: that he obtained a tripod as
the prize, and consecrated it to the Muses of Helicon.
This latter passage, however, is suspected by Guictus
and Wolf; but it seems to have formed a part of the
poem from time immemorial; and it may not be un-
reasonable to infer its authenticity from the tradition
respecting an imaginary contest between Homer and
Hesiod. That the passage should have been raised
sn the basis of the tradition is impossible, because, in
that case, it is obvious that the name of Homer would
ha'e appeared in the verses; but it is highly probable
th. it the tradition was built on the passage. If the
passage be a forgery, it is a forgery without any os-
tensible purpose; it is a mere gratuitous imposture
which tends to nothing; and it seems impossible that
any person should take the trouble of foisting suppos-
ititious lines into Hesiod's poem, for the barren object
? f inducing a belief that he had won a poetical prize
from somebody. This nullity of purpose could not but
strike those who, being themselves willing to believe
that Homer was the competitor at Chalcis, were anx-
ious for proofs to convince others: and hence an in-
terpolation of this very passage has been practised;
which alone shows that, if a forgery, it was an un-
meaning and useless forgery. For the verse, "Vic-
tor in song a tripod bore away," it has been attempted
to substitute, " Victor in song o'er Homer the divine. "
Connected with the same design of making Homer and
Hesiod contemporaries, is an imposture on a large
scale, which professes to be an historical account of
the contest between Homer and Hesiod, and which
appears to be erected on tho above tradition as related
by Plutarch; for it is evident, from a passage in the
work itself, that it was not composed till tho time of
the Emperor Hadrian. As to the tradition of this im-
aginary meeting, for which not a shadow of evidence
appears in Hesiod's own writings, Robinson offers a
very probable conjecture: that it originated in a coin-
cidence between this passage of the work and a pas-
sage in one of Homer's hymns, where the writer sup-
plicates Venus to grant him the victory in some ap-
proaching contest. --The following account is given as
? ? to the manner of Hesiod's death. Hesiod is said to
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? H&>>10DU&
HES
business. These precepts, which do not relate to par-1 piter and Typhoeus, astonishes the reader oy sudnci
ticular seasons of the year, but to the course of each | bursts of enthusiasm, for which the prolix and nerve-
lunar month, are exclusively of a superstitions charac- less narrative of the general poem had little prepared
*a, and are in great part connected with tbo different , him. Mihou has borrowed some images from these
worships which were celebrated upon these days: but I descriptions: and the arming of the Messiah for battle
our knowledge is far too insufficient to explain them . is obviously imitated from the magnificent picture
all. --One thing must be very evident to all who read of Jupiter summoning all the terrors of his omnip-
tbo "Works and Days," that in its present state it "' ''""
shows a want of purpose and of unity too great to be
accounted for otherwise than on tho supposition of its
fragmentary nature. Ulrici considera the moral and
the agricultural instruction as genuine; the story of
Prometheus, and that of the Five Ages, as much al-
tered from their original Hesiodic form; and the de-
scripti in of Winter as latest of all. (Ulrici, Geschichte
ier H<. Un. Dichtkunst, vol. 1, p. 360. )--The "The-
ogony" is perhaps the work which, whether genuine
or not, most emphatically expresses the feeling which
is supposed to have given rise to the Hieratic school.
It consists, as its name expresses, of an account of the
origin of the world, iacluding the birth of the gods,
and makes use of numerous personifications. This
has given rise to a theory, that the old histories of
creation, from which Hesiod drew without under-
standing them, were in fact philosophical, and not
mythological, speculations -, so that the names winrji in
after limes were applied to persons, had originally be-
longed only to qualities, attributes, etc. , and that the
inventor bad carefully excluded all personal agency
from his system. Thus much we may safely assert
respecting the "Theogony," that it points out one im-
portant feature in the Greek character, and one which,
when that character arrived at maturity, produced re-
sults, of which the Theogony is at best but a feeble
promise; we mean that speculative tendency which
lies at the root of Greek philosophy. --Even as early as
the time of Pausanias (8, 18, and 9, 31), it was doubt-
ed whether Hesiod was actually the author of this
poem. According to a learned German critic, it is a
tpecies of milangc, formed by the union of several
poems on the same subject, and which has been ef-
fected by the same copyists or grammarians. Such ia
the theory of Hermann, who has advanced this hy-
pothesis in a letter addressed to llgcn, and which the
latter has placed at the head of his edition of Homer's
Hymns. Hermann thinks that he has discovered seven
different exordia, composed of the following verses:
the first, of verses 1, 22-24, 26-52; the second, of
verses 1-4, 11-21; the third, of verses 1, 2, 5-21,
75-93; the fourth, of verses 1, 53-64, 68-74; the
fifth, of verses 1, 53-61', 65, 66; in the sixth, the. 60th
and 61st verses were immediately followed hy the 67th;
the seventh, of verses 1, 94-103. --The Theogony is
interesting as being the most ancient monument that
we have of the Greek mythology. When we consider
it as a poem, we find no composition of ancient times
so stamped with a rude simplicity of character. It
is without luminous order of arrangement, abounds
with dry and insipid details, and only by snatches, as
it were, rises to any extraordinary elevation of fancy.
It exhibits that crude irregularity, and that mixture of
meanness and grandeur, which characterize a strong
but uncultivated genius. The censure of Quintilian,
that " Hesiod rarely rises, and a great part of him is
occupied in mere names," is confessedly merited.
Considered, however, as a general critique, the judg-
ment which Quintilian pronounces on Hesiod is liable
? ? to objection. The sentence just quoted refers plainly
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? H ES
HESPERIDES.
Sue his I >r. g ihrcatened vengeance on Laomeion.
He accordingly rollcctcd a fleet of eighteen fifty-oared
vessels (Homer, //. , 5, 641, says six), manned by a val-
iant band of volunteer warriors, and, sailing to Ilium,
took the city, having been powerfully aided by his friend
ap. d follower Telamon. Hercules slew with his arrows
Laomedon and all his sons except Podarces, who had
advised his father to give the stipulated reward to the
Aero for the destruction of the monster. He then
gave Hesionc to Telamon as a reward of" his valour,
and allowed her to choose one among the captives to
be set at liberty. When she had fixed upon her
bro'iier Podarces, Hercules replied that be must first
be made a slave, and then she might give something
for him and redeem him. She took her golden veil on
her head, and with it bought him, and hence he was after-
ward named Priamus (Purchased) instead of Podarces
(Swift-foot). Hesione was taken to Greece by Tela-
mon, where she became the mother of Teucer. (Apol-
lod. , 2, 5, 9, seqq. --Id. , 2, fi, i. --Keightley's Mythol-
ogy, p. 359, 365. )
HkspekIa, a name applied by the poets to Italy, as
lying to the west of Greece. It is of Greek origin
('Eoirtpia), and is derived from iortipa, "eremite;,"
so that Hcsperia properly means "the evening-land,"
i. e. , the western region. (Virg. , Mn. , 1, 530. --Id.
ib. , 569. --Ovid, Met. , 2, 458. --Lucan, 1, 224. ) It
is also, though less frequently, applied to Spain, as ly-
ing west of Italy. (Horat. , Od. , 1, 36, 4. --Lucan,
4, 14. )
Hesperides, or " the Western Maidens," three cel-
eorated nymphs, whose genealogy is differently given
by various writers. According to Hesiod (Theog. ,
215), they were the daughters of Night, without a fa-
ther. Diodorus, on the other hand, makes them to
have had for their parents Atlas and Hesperis daugh-
ter of Hesperus (Diod. Sic, 4, 27), an account which
is followed by Milton in his Comus (v. 981). Others,
however, to assimilate them to their neighbours the
Grata; and Gorgons, call the Hcsperides the offspring
of Pborcys and Ceto. (Schol. ad Apoll. Rh, 4,1399. )
Apollonius gives their names as AZgie, Hespera, and
Erythe'is (4, 1427), while Apollodorus, who increases
the number to four, calls them -'Eglc, Ervthea, Hestia,
and Arethusa. (Apollod. , 2, 5, 11. ) Hesiod makes
them to have dwelt "beyond the bright ocean," op-
posite to where Atlas stood supporting the heavens
(Theog. , 518), and when Atlas had been fixed as a
mountain in the extremity of Libya, the dwelling of
the Hesperides was usually placed in his vicinity,
though some set it in the country of the Hyperboreans.
(Apollod. , 1. c. )--According to the legend, when the
bridal of Jupiter and Juno took place, the different dei-
ties came with nuptial presents for the latter, and
among them the goddess of Earth, with branches hav-
ing golden apples growing on them (" Terrain venisse
ferentem aurea mala cum ramis. " Hijgin. , Poet,
istron. , 2, 3. ) Juno, greatly admiring these, begged
of Earth to plant them in her gardens, which extended
as far as Mount Atlas (" qui cranl usque ad Allanlem
montem. " Hygin. , I. c. ) The Hesperides, or daugh-
ters of Atlas, were directed to watch these trees; but,
as they were somewhat remiss in discharging this duty,
and frequently plucked off the apples themselves, Ju-
no sent thither a large serpent to guard the precious
fruit. This monster was the offspring of Typhon and
Echidna, and had a hundred heads, so that it never
? ? slept. (Hygin. , 1. c. ) According to Pisander, the
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? HES
HIS
lenl, enclosed withii. steep, and, for ihe most part, per-
pendicular, sides of aolid rock, rising sometimes to a
height of sixty or seventy feet, or more, before they
reach the level of the plain in which they arc situated.
The soil at the bottom of these chasms appears to
have been washed down from the plain above by the
heavy rains, and is frequently cultivated by the Arabs;
so that a person, in walking over the country where
they exist, comes suddenly upon a beautiful orchard
or garden, blooming in secret, and in the greatest lux-
uriance, at a considerable depth beneath his feet, and
defended on all sides by walls of solid rock, so as to
be at firs: sight apparently inaccessible. The effect
of these secluded little spots, protected, as it were, from
the intrusion of mankind, by the steepness and depth
of :he barriers which enclose them, is singular and
pleasing in the extreme; they reminded us of some
of those secluded retreats which we read of in fairy
legends or tales. It was impossible to walk along the
edge of these precipices, looking everywhere for some
part less abrupt than the rest, by which we might de-
scend into the gardens beneath, without calling to
mind the description given by Scylax of the far-famed
gardens of the Hesperides. "--It has been supposed by
many, and among the rest by Gossellin and Pacho,
that the Hesperian gardens of the ancients were no-
thing more than some of those verdant caves which
stud the Libyan desert, and which, from their con-
cealed and inaccessible position, their unknown origin,
and their striking contrast to the surrounding waste,
might well suggest the idea of a terrestrial paradise,
and become the types of the still fairer creations of
poetic fable. Possibly, therefore, supposing the fable
to rest on a real basis, the first of these Elysian groves
may have been at the extremity of Cyrena'ica mentioned
by Beechey, and the original idea of the legend may
have been taken from a subterranean garden of the
above description. --The garden of the Hesperides is
stated by Scylax (p. 46) to have been an enclosed spot
of ten stadia each way, filled with thickly-planted fruit-
trees of various kinds, and inaccessible on all sides.
It was situated at six hundred and twenty stadia (fifty
geographical miles) from the port of Barce; and this
agrees precisely with that of the place described by
Captain Beechey from Ptolcmata. The testimony of
Pliny (5, 5) is very decided in fixing the site of the
Hesperides in the neighbourhood of Berenice. "Not
far from the city" (Berenice), "is the river Lethon,
and the sacred grove where the gardens of the Hes-
perides are said to be situated. We do not mean,"
remarks Captain B. , "to point out any one of these
subterranean gardens as that which is described in the
passage above quoted from Scylax; for we know of
no one which will correspond, in point of extent, to
the garden which that author has mentioned. All
those which we saw were considerably less than the
fifth of a mile in diameter (the measurement given by
Scylax); and the places of this nature which would
best agree with the dimensions, are now filled with
water sufficiently fresh to be drinkable, and take the
form of romantic little lakes. Scarcely any two of the
gardens we met with were, however, of the same depth
or extent; end we have no reason to conclude that,
because we saw none which were large enough to be
fixed upon for the garden of the Hesperides, there is
therefore no place of the dimensions required; par-
ticularly as the singular formation alluded lo continues
? ? to the foot of the Cyrenaic chain, which is fourteen
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? HESY CUIUS.
HT. l
wnetb. r the glossary which has reached us under the
name of this writer be really his, or whether it be not
merely an abridgment of his work. What has inclined
some to favour the latter opinion is the circumstance
of the citations being omitted. Others think, and with
tome, appearance of reason, that this lexicon was ori-
ginally a small volume, and that the numerous biblical
glosses which are at present found in it have been in-
tercalated by the copyists, who have taken the remarks
nade in the margin by the possessors of manuscripts
for portions of the text itself. However this may be,
the work of Hesychius is very important towards ac-
quiring a full knowledge of the Greek language. It
has preserved for us a large number of passages from
poets, orators, historians, and physicians, whose works
are lost. Hesychius explains, moreover, various words
that depart from the ordinary usage of the Greek
tongue, as well as terms used in sacrifices, gymnastic
encounters, &c. And yet it must be acknowledged
that his text is in a most corrupt state, and that when
he is a solitary witness his testimony ought to be re-
ceived with caution. (Mas. Crit. , vol. 1, p. 503. )
The work, in fact, has all the appearance of rough
notes, put down in the course of reading, rather than
of a finished production. It was not known until the
sixteenth century. Only one MS. , in the library of
St. Mark, at Venice, is said to be preserved, and that
is full of abbreviations, and has many erasures; which
accounts for the great corruption of the text, in spite
of the labours of many able editors. It appears, how-
ever, that in the seventeenth century there existed a
second manuscript in the Florence library. (EberCs
Bibliogr. Lexicon, vol. 1, p. 772. )--The best edition
of Hesychius is that of Alberti, completed by Kuhn-
ken, Lugd. Bat. , 1746-1776, 2 vols. fol. It is to be
regretted, however, that Alberti could not avail him-
self of the valuable MS. notes of Benlley on this lexi-
cographer. --The editio princepsof Hesychius was pub-
lished by the elder Aldus, Venice, 1514, fol. , under the
care of Marcus Musurus. The manuscript followed was
the Venice one. This, however, being, as we have al-
ready remarked, very difficult to decipher, and in other
respects extremely inaccurate, Musurus took great
pains to correct and restore it. This is often done
with intelligence and success; but often also he de-
ceives himself in his corrections, and in general treats
his original in too arbitrary a manner. Schow, of Co-
penhagen, being at Venice, collated the manuscript
with the edition of Alberti, and took note of all the
variations. He published this collation at Lcipsic,
1792, 8vo, under the title, "Hesychii Lexicon ex tod.
Ms. b'Miotkeca S.
