Hermeias, a native of Methymna who wrote a history of Sicily.
Hermes, the name of Mercury among the Greeks. See: [Mercurius].——A famous gladiator. Martial, bk. 5, ltr. 25.——An Egyptian philosopher. See: [Mercurius Trismegistus].
Hermesiănax, an elegiac poet of Colophon, son of Agoneus. He was publicly honoured with a statue. Pausanias, bk. 6, ch. 17.——A native of Cyprus, who wrote a history of Phrygia. Plutarch.
Hermias, a Galatian philosopher in the second century. His irrisio philosophorum gentilium was printed with Justin Martyr’s works, folio, Paris, 1615 & 1636, and with the Oxford edition of Tatian, 8vo, 1700.
Hermĭnius, a general of the Hermanni, &c.——A Roman who defended a bridge with Cocles against the army of Porsenna. Livy, bk. 2, ch. 10.——A Trojan killed by Catillus in the Rutulian war. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 11, li. 642.
Hermiŏne, a daughter of Mars and Venus, who married Cadmus. The gods, except Juno, honoured her nuptials with their presence, and she received, as a present, a rich veil and a splendid necklace which had been made by Vulcan. She was changed into a serpent with her husband Cadmus, and placed in the Elysian fields. See: [Harmonia]. Apollodorus, bk. 3.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 4, fable 13.——A daughter of Menelaus and Helen. She was privately promised in marriage to Orestes the son of Agamemnon; but her father, ignorant of this pre-engagement, gave her hand to Pyrrhus the son of Achilles, whose services he had experienced in the Trojan war. Pyrrhus, at his return from Troy, carried home Hermione and married her. Hermione, tenderly attached to her cousin Orestes, looked upon Pyrrhus with horror and indignation. According to others, however, Hermione received the addresses of Pyrrhus with pleasure, and even reproached Andromache his concubine with stealing his affections from her. Her jealousy for Andromache, according to some, induced her to unite herself to Orestes, and to destroy Pyrrhus. She gave herself to Orestes after this murder, and received the kingdom of Sparta as a dowry. Homer, Odyssey, bk. 4.—Euripides, Andromache & Orestes.—Ovid, Heroides, poem 8.—Propertius, bk. 1.——A town of Argolis, where Ceres had a famous temple. The inhabitants lived by fishing. The descent to hell from their country was considered so short that no money, according to the usual right of burial, was put into the mouth of the dead to be paid to Charon for their passage. The sea on the neighbouring coast was called Hermionicus sinus. Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 5.—Virgil, Ciris, li. 472.—Strabo, bk. 8.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 3.—Ptolemy, bk. 3, ch. 16.—Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 34.
Hermiŏniæ, a city near the Riphæan mountains. Orpheus, Argonauts.
Hermiŏnĭcus sinus, a bay on the coast of Argolis near Hermione. Strabo, bks. 1 & 8.
Hermippus, a freedman, disciple of Philo, in the reign of Adrian, by whom he was greatly esteemed. He wrote five books upon dreams.——A man who accused Aspasia the mistress of Pericles of impiety and prostitution. He was son of Lysis, and distinguished himself as a poet by 40 theatrical pieces and other compositions, some of which are quoted by Athenæus. Plutarch.——A peripatetic philosopher of Smyrna, who flourished B.C. 210.
Hermŏcrătes, a general of Syracuse, against Nicias the Athenian. His lenity towards the Athenian prisoners was looked upon as treacherous. He was banished from Sicily without even a trial, and he was murdered as he attempted to return back to his country, B.C. 408.——Plutarch, Nicias, &c.——A sophist celebrated for his rising talents. He died in the 28th year of his age, in the reign of the emperor Severus.——The father-in-law of Dionysius tyrant of Sicily.——A Rhodian employed by Artaxerxes to corrupt the Grecian states, &c.——A sophist, preceptor to Pausanias the murderer of Philip. Diodorus, bk. 16.