Fragments in T. Kock, Comicorum Atticorum fragmenta, i. (1880), and A. Meineke, Poëtarum Graecorum comicorum fragmenta (1855).
HERMIT, a solitary, one who withdraws from all intercourse with other human beings in order to live a life of religious contemplation, and so marked off from a “coenobite” (Gr. κοινός, common, and βίος, life), one who shares this life of withdrawal with others in a community (see [Asceticism] and [Monasticism]). The word “hermit” is an adaptation through the O. Fr. ermite or hermite, from the Lat. form, eremite, of the Gr. ἐρεμίτης, a solitary, from ἐρημία, a desert. The English form “eremite,” which was used, according to the New English Dictionary, quite indiscriminately with “hermit” till the middle of the 17th century, is now chiefly used in poetry or rhetorically, except with reference to the early hermits of the Libyan desert, or sometimes to such particular orders as the eremites of St Augustine (see [Augustinian Hermits]). Another synonym is “anchoret” or “anchorite.” This comes through the French and Latin forms from the Gr. ἀναχωρητής, from ἀναχωρεῖν, to withdraw. A form nearer to the Greek original, “anachoret,” is sometimes used of the early Christian recluses in the East.
HERMOGENES, of Tarsus, Greek rhetorician, surnamed Ξυστήρ (the polisher), flourished in the reign of Marcus Aurelius (A.D. 161-180). His precocious ability secured him a public appointment as teacher of his art while as yet he was only a boy; but at the age of twenty-five his faculties gave way, and he spent the remainder of his long life in a state of intellectual impotence. During his early years, however, he had composed a series of rhetorical treatises, which became popular text-books, and the subject of subsequent commentaries. Of his Τέχνη ῥητορική we still possess the sections Περὶ τῶν στάσεων (on legal issues), Περὶ εὑρέσεως (on the invention of arguments), Περὶ ἰδεῶν (on the various kinds of style), Περὶ μεθόδου δεινότητος (on the method of speaking effectively), and Προγυμνάσματα (rhetorical exercises).
Editions by C. Walz (1832), and by L. Spengel (1854), in their Rhetores Graeci; bibliographical note on the commentaries in W. Christ, Geschichte der griechischen Literatur (1898).
HERMON, the highest mountain in Syria (estimated at 9050 to 9200 ft.), an outlier of the Anti-Lebanon. As the Hebrew name (חרמון, “belonging to a sanctuary,” “separate”) shows, it was always a sacred mountain. The Sidonians called it Sirion, and the Amorites Shenir (Deut. iii. 9). According to one theory it is the “high mountain” near Caesarea Philippi, which was the scene of the Transfiguration (Mark ix. 2). A curious reference in Enoch vi. 6, says that in the days of Jared the wicked angels descended on the summit of the mountain and named it Hermon. The modern name is Jebel es-Sheikh, or “mountain of the chief or elder.” It is also called Jebel eth-Thelj, “snowy mountain.” The ridge of Hermon, rising into a dome-shaped summit, is 20 m. long, extending north-east and south-west. The formation of the lower part is Nubian sandstone, that of the upper part is a hard dark-grey crystalline limestone belonging to the Neocomian period, and full of fossils. The spurs consist in some cases of white chalk covering the limestone, and on the south there are several basaltic outbreaks. The view from Hermon is very extensive, embracing all Lebanon and the plains east of Damascus, with Palestine as far as Carmel and Tabor. On a clear day Jaffa also may be seen. The mountain in spring is covered with snow, but in autumn there is occasionally none left, even in the ravines. To the height of 500 ft. it is clothed with oaks, poplars and brush, while luxuriant vineyards abound. Foxes, wolves and Syrian bears are not infrequently met with, and there is a heavy dew or night mist. Above the snow-limit the mountain is bare and covered with fine limestone shingle. The summit is a plateau from which three rocky knolls rise up, that on the west being the lowest, that on the south-east the highest. On the south slope of the latter are remains of a small temple or sacellum described by St Jerome. A semicircular dwarf wall of good masonry runs round this peak, and a trench excavated in the rock may perhaps indicate the site of an altar. On the plateau is a cave about 25 ft. sq. with the entrance on the east. A rock column supports the roof, and a building (possibly a Mithraeum) once stood above. Other small temples are found on the sides of Hermon, of which twelve in all have been explored. They face the east and are dated by architects about A.D. 200. The most remarkable are those of Deir el ‘Ashaiyir, Hibbariyeh, Hosn Niha and Tell Thatha. At the ruined town called Rukleh on the northern slopes are remains of a temple, the stones of which have been built into a church. A large medallion, 5 ft. in diameter, with a head supposed to represent the sun-god, is built into the wall. Several Greek inscriptions occur among these ruins. In the 12th century Psalm lxxxix. 12 was supposed to indicate the proximity of Hermon to Tabor. The conical hill immediately south of Tabor was thus named Little Hermon, and is still so called by some of the inhabitants of the district.
HERMSDORF, a village of Germany, in the Prussian province of Silesia. Pop. (1900) 10,975. There are coal and iron mines and lime quarries in the vicinity, and in the town there are large iron-works. Hermsdorf is known as Niederhermsdorf to distinguish it from other places of the same name. Perhaps the most noteworthy of these is a village in Silesia at the foot of the Riesengebirge, chiefly famous for the ruins of the castle of Kynast. This castle, formerly the seat of the Schaffgotsch family, was destroyed by lightning in 1675. A third Hermsdorf is a village in Saxe-Altenburg, where porcelain is made.