Hyempsal, a son of Micipsa, brother to Adherbal, murdered by Jugurtha, after the death of his father. Sallust, Jugurthine War.
Hyettus, a town of Bœotia. Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 24.
Hygeia, or Hygiea, the goddess of health, daughter of Æsculapius, held in great veneration among the ancients. Her statues represented her with a veil, and the matrons usually consecrated their locks to her. She was also represented on monuments as a young woman holding a serpent in one hand, and in the other a cup, out of which the serpent sometimes drank. According to some authors, Hygeia is the same as Minerva, who received that name from Pericles, who erected her a statue, because in a dream she had told him the means of curing an architect, whose assistance he wanted to build a temple. Plutarch, Pericles.—Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 23.
Hygiana, a town of Peloponnesus.
Caius Julius Hygīnus, a grammarian, one of the freedmen of Augustus. He was a native of Alexandria; or, according to some, he was a Spaniard, very intimate with Ovid. He was appointed librarian to the library of mount Palatine, and he was able to maintain himself by the liberality of Caius Licinius. He wrote a mythological history, which he called fables, and Poeticon Astronomicon, besides treatises on the cities of Italy, on such Roman families as were descended from the Trojans, a book on agriculture, commentaries on Virgil, the lives of great men, &c., now lost. The best edition of Hyginus is that of Munkerus, 2 vols., 8vo, Amsterdam, 1681. These compositions have been greatly mutilated, and their incorrectness and their bad Latinity have induced some to suppose that they are spurious. Suetonius, Lives of the Grammarians.
Hyla and Hylas, a river of Mysia, where Hylas was drowned. Virgil, Georgics, bk. 3, li. 6.——A colony of Phocis.
Hylactor, one of Actæon’s dogs, from his barking (ὐλακτω, latro). Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 3.
Hylæ, a small town of Bœotia. Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 7.
Hylæus, a name given to some centaurs, one of whom was killed by Hercules on mount Pholoe. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 8, li. 294.——Another, by Theseus, at the nuptials of Pirithous. Statius, Thebiad, bk. 7, li. 267.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 12, li. 378.——Another, killed by Bacchus. Statius, Thebiad, bk. 6, li. 530.—Virgil, Georgics, bk. 2, li. 457.——A fourth, killed by Atalanta. Apollodorus, bk. 3.——One of Actæon’s dogs.
Hylas, a son of Thiodamas king of Mysia and Menedice, stolen away by Hercules, and carried on board the ship Argo to Colchis. On the Asiatic coast the Argonauts landed to take a supply of fresh water, and Hylas, following the example of his companions, went to the fountain with a pitcher, and fell into the water and was drowned. The poets have embellished this tragical story, by saying that the nymphs of the river, enamoured of the beautiful Hylas, carried him away; and that Hercules, disconsolate at the loss of his favourite youth, filled the woods and mountains with his complaints, and at last abandoned the Argonautic expedition to go and seek him. Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 9.—Hyginus, fables 14, 271.—Virgil, Eclogues, poem 6.—Propertius, bk. 1, poem 20.——A river of Bithynia. Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 32.