Hypsicrătēa, the wife of Mithridates, who accompanied her husband in man’s clothes, when he fled before Pompey. Plutarch, Pompey.
Hypsicrătes, a Phœnician who wrote a history of his country, in the Phœnician language. This history was saved from the flames of Carthage, when that city was taken by Scipio, and translated into Greek.
Hypsipĭdes, a Macedonian in Alexander’s army, famous for his friendship for Menedemus, &c. Curtius, bk. 7, ch. 7.
Hypsĭpy̆le, a queen of Lemnos, daughter of Thoas and Myrine. During her reign, Venus, whose altars had been universally slighted, punished the Lemnian women, and rendered their mouths and breath so extremely offensive to the smell, that their husbands abandoned them, and gave themselves up to some female slaves, whom they had taken in a war against Thrace. This contempt was highly resented by all the women of Lemnos, and they resolved on revenge, and all unanimously put to death their male relations, Hypsipyle alone excepted, who spared the life of her father Thoas. Soon after this cruel murder, the Argonauts landed at Lemnos, in their expedition to Colchis, and remained for some time in the island. During their stay the Argonauts rendered the Lemnian women mothers, and Jason, the chief of the Argonautic expedition, left Hypsipyle pregnant at his departure, and promised her eternal fidelity. Hypsipyle brought twins, Euneus and Nebrophonus, whom some have called Deiphilus or Thoas. Jason forgot his vows and promises to Hypsipyle, and the unfortunate queen was soon after forced to leave her kingdom by the Lemnian women, who conspired against her life, still mindful that Thoas had been preserved by means of his daughter. Hypsipyle, in her flight, was seized by pirates, and sold to Lycurgus king of Nemæa. She was entrusted with the care of Archemorus the son of Lycurgus; and, when the Argives marched against Thebes, they met Hypsipyle, and obliged her to show them a fountain, where they might quench their thirst. To do this more expeditiously, she laid down the child on the grass, and in her absence he was killed by a serpent. Lycurgus attempted to revenge the death of his son, but Hypsipyle was screened from his resentment by Adrastus the leader of the Argives. Ovid, Heroides, poem 6.—Apollonius, bk. 1.—Statius, bk. 5, Thebiad.—Flaccus, bk. 2.—Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 9; bk. 3, ch. 6.—Hyginus, fables 15, 74, &c. See: [Archemorus].
Hyrcānia, a large country of Asia, at the north of Parthia, and at the west of Media, abounding in serpents, wild beasts, &c. It is very mountainous, and unfit for drawing a cavalry in order of battle. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 4, li. 367.—Cicero, Tusculanæ Disputationes, bk. 1, ch. 45.—Strabo, bks. 2 & 11.——A town of Lydia, destroyed by a violent earthquake in the age of Tiberius. Livy, bk. 37, ch. 38.
Hyrcănum mare, a large sea, called also Caspian. See: [Caspium mare].
Hyrcānus, a name common to some of the high priests of Judea. Josephus.
Hyria, a country of Bœotia, near Aulis, with a lake, river, and town of the same name. It is more probably situate near Tempe. It received its name from Hyrie, a woman who wept so much for the loss of her son, that she was changed into a fountain. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 7, li. 372.—Herodotus, bk. 7, ch. 170.——A town of Isauria, on the Calycadnus.
Hyrieus, or Hyreus, a peasant, or, as some say, a prince of Tanagra, son of Neptune and Alcyone, who kindly entertained Jupiter, Neptune, and Mercury, when travelling over Bœotia. Being childless, he asked of the gods to give him a son without his marrying, as he promised his wife, who was lately dead, and whom he tenderly loved, that he never would marry again. The gods, to reward the hospitality of Hyreus, made water in the hide of a bull, which had been sacrificed the day before to their divinity, and they ordered him to wrap it up and bury it in the ground for nine months. At the expiration of the nine mouths, Hyreus opened the earth, and found a beautiful child in the bull’s hide, whom he called Orion. See: [Orion].
Hyrmina, a town of Elis in Peloponnesus. Strabo, bk. 8.