Hermodōrus, a Sicilian, pupil to Plato.——A philosopher of Ephesus, who is said to have assisted, as interpreter, the Roman decemvirs in the composition of the 10 tables of laws, which had been collected in Greece. Cicero, Tusculanæ Disputationes, bk. 5, ch. 36.—Pliny, bk. 34, ch. 5.——A native of Salamis, contemporary with Philo the Athenian architect. Cicero, Orator, bk. 1, ch. 14.——A poet who wrote a book called Νομιμα on the laws of different nations.
Hermŏgĕnes, an architect of Alabanda in Caria, employed in building the temple of Diana at Magnesia. He wrote a book upon his profession.——A rhetorician in the second century, the best editions of whose rhetorica are that of Sturmius, 3 vols., 12mo, Strasbourg, 1571, and of Laurentius, Geneva, 1614. He died A.D. 161, and it is said that his body was opened, and his heart found hairy and of an extraordinary size. At the age of 25, as is reported, he totally lost his memory.——A lawyer in the age of Diocletian.——A musician. Horace, bk. 1, satire 3, li. 129.——A sophist of Tarsus, of such brilliant talents, that at the age of 15 he excited the attention and gained the patronage of the emperor Marcus Antoninus.
Hermolāus, a young Macedonian among the attendants of Alexander. As he was one day hunting with the king he killed a wild boar which was coming towards him. Alexander, who followed close behind him, was so disappointed because the beast had been killed before he could dart at it, that he ordered Hermolaus to be severely whipped. This treatment irritated Hermolaus, and he conspired to take away the king’s life, with others who were displeased with the cruel treatment he had received. The plot was discovered by one of the conspirators, and Alexander seized them, and asked what had compelled them to conspire to take his life. Hermolaus answered for the rest, and observed that it was unworthy of Alexander to treat his most faithful and attached friends like slaves, and to shed their blood without the least mercy. Alexander ordered him to be put to death. Curtius, bk. 8, ch. 6.
Hermopŏlis, two towns of Egypt, now Ashmunein and Demenhur. Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 9.
Hermotīmus, a famous prophet of Clazomenæ. It is said that his soul separated itself from his body and wandered in every part of the earth to explain futurity, after which it returned again and animated his frame. His wife, who was acquainted with the frequent absence of his soul, took advantage of it and burnt his body, as if totally dead, and deprived the soul of its natural receptacle. Hermotimus received divine honours in a temple at Clazomenæ, into which it was unlawful for women to enter. Pliny, bk. 7, ch. 51, &c.—Lucian.
Hermundūri, a people of Germany, subdued by Aurelius. They were at the north of the Danube, and were considered by Tacitus as a tribe of the Suevi, but called, together with the Suevi, Hermiones by Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 14.—Tacitus, Annals, bk. 13, extra.—Velleius Paterculus, bk. 2, ch. 106.
Hermus, a river of Asia Minor, whose sands, according to the poets, were covered with gold. It flows near Sardes, and receives the waters of the Pactolus and Hyllus, after which it falls into the Ægean sea. It is now called Kedous or Sarabat. Virgil, Georgics, bk. 2, li. 137.—Lucan, bk. 3, li. 210.—Martial, bk. 8, ltr. 78.—Silius Italicus, bk. 1, li. 159.—Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 29.
Hernĭci, a people of Campania celebrated for their inveterate enmity to the rising power of Rome. Livy, bk. 9, chs. 43 & 44.—Silius Italicus, bk. 4, li. 226.—Juvenal, satire 14, li. 183.—Dionysius of Halicarnassus, bk. 8, ch. 10.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 7, li. 684.
Hero, a beautiful priestess of Venus at Sestus, greatly enamoured 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].