Produced by Marius Masi, Don Kretz and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net Transcriber's notes: (1) Numbers following letters (without space) like C2 were originally printed in subscript. Letter subscripts are preceded by an underscore, like C_n. (2) Characters following a carat (^) were printed in superscript. (3) Side-notes were relocated to function as titles of their respective paragraphs. (4) Macrons and breves above letters and dots below letters were not inserted. (5) [root] stands for the root symbol; [alpha], [beta], etc. for greek letters. (6) The following typographical errors have been corrected: ARTICLE HERO: "... Arthur's foster-brother and seneschal, the type of the bluff and boastful warrior, and Bedivere (Bedwyr), ..." 'seneschal' amended from 'sensechal'. ARTICLE HERWEGH, GEORG: "He next studied law, but having gained the interest of August Lewald (1793-1871) by his literary ability, he returned to Stuttgart, where Lewald obtained for him a journalistic post." 'journalistic' amended from 'journalisitic'. ARTICLE HESSE-CASSEL: "The regent, without his father's coarseness, had a full share of his arbitrary and avaricious temper." 'arbitrary' amended from 'arbitary'. ARTICLE HIEL, EMMANUEL: "... Jakoba van Beieren ('Jacqueline of Bavaria,' a poetic drama, 1880); ..." 'Jacqueline' amended from 'Jacquelein'. ARTICLE HILL, JOHN: "Hill's botanical labours were undertaken at the request of his patron, Lord Bute, and he was rewarded by the order of Vasa from the king of Sweden in 1774." 'undertaken' amended from 'underaken'. ARTICLE HILLEL: "The duty of considering oneself part of common humanity, of not differing from others by any peculiarity of behaviour, he sums up in the words:" 'common' amended from 'comman'. ARTICLE HILLEL: "The almost mystical profundity of Hillel's consciousness of God is shown in the words spoken by him on the occasion of a feast in the Temple ..." 'consciousness' amended from 'conciousness'. ARTICLE HINDOSTANI: "In the article Prakrit it is shown that the same construction is obtained in that language." added 'is'. ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA A DICTIONARY OF ARTS, SCIENCES, LITERATURE AND GENERAL INFORMATION ELEVENTH EDITION VOLUME XIII, SLICE IV HERO to HINDU CHRONOLOGY ARTICLES IN THIS SLICE: HERO HIAWATHA HERO AND LEANDER HIBBING HERO OF ALEXANDRIA HIBERNACULUM HERO (the Younger) HIBERNATION HEROD HIBERNIA HERODAS HICKERINGILL, EDMUND HERODIANS HICKES, GEORGE HERODIANUS HICKOK, LAURENS PERSEUS HERODIANUS, AELIUS HICKORY HERODOTUS HICKS, ELIAS HÉROET, ANTOINE HICKS, HENRY HEROIC ROMANCES HICKS, WILLIAM HEROIC VERSE HIDALGO (state of Mexico) HÉROLD, LOUIS JOSEPH FERDINAND HIDALGO (Spanish title) HERON HIDALGO Y COSTILLA, MIGUEL HERPES HIDDENITE HERRERA, FERNANDO DE HIDE HERRERA, FRANCISCO HIEL, EMMANUEL HERRERA Y TORDESILLAS, ANTONIO DE HIEMPSAL HERRICK, ROBERT HIERAPOLIS HERRIES, JOHN CHARLES HIERARCHY HERRIES, JOHN MAXWELL HIERATIC HERRING HIERAX HERRING-BONE HIERO HERRINGS, BATTLE OF THE HIERO II. HERRNHUT HIEROCLES HERSCHEL, CAROLINE LUCRETIA HIEROCLES OF ALEXANDRIA HERSCHEL, SIR FREDERICK WILLIAM HIEROGLYPHICS HERSCHEL, SIR JOHN WILLIAM HIERONYMITES HERSCHELL, FARRER HERSCHELL HIERONYMUS OF CARDIA HERSENT, LOUIS HIERRO HERSFELD HIGDON, RANULF HERSTAL HIGGINS, MATTHEW JAMES HERTFORD, EARLS AND MARQUESSES OF HIGGINSON, THOMAS WENTWORTH HERTFORD (Hertfordshire, England) HIGHAM FERRERS HERTFORDSHIRE HIGHGATE HERTHA HIGHLANDS, THE HERTZ, HEINRICH RUDOLF HIGHNESS HERTZ, HENRIK HIGH PLACE HERTZBERG, EWALD FRIEDRICH HIGH SEAS HERTZEN, ALEXANDER HIGHWAY HERULI HIGINBOTHAM, GEORGE HERVÁS Y PANDURO, LORENZO HILARION, ST HERVEY, JAMES HILARIUS, ST (bishop of Pictavium) HERVEY DE SAINT DENYS, JEAN LÉON HILARIUS (bishop of Rome) HERVEY OF ICKWORTH, JOHN HERVEY HILARIUS (Latin poet) HERVIEU, PAUL HILARIUS, ST (bishop of Arles) HERWARTH VON BITTENFELD, EBERHARD HILDA, ST HERWEGH, GEORG HILDBURGHAUSEN HERZBERG (town in Hanover) HILDEBERT HERZBERG (town in Saxony) HILDEBRAND, LAY OF HERZL, THEODOR HILDEBRANDT, EDUARD HERZOG, HANS HILDEBRANDT, THEODOR HERZOG, JOHANN JAKOB HILDEGARD, ST HESEKIEL, JOHANN GEORG LUDWIG HILDEN HESILRIGE, SIR ARTHUR HILDESHEIM HESIOD HILDRETH, RICHARD HESPERIDES HILGENFELD, ADOLF BERNHARD CHRISTOPH HESPERUS HILL, AARON HESS (family of German artists) HILL, AMBROSE POWELL HESS, HEINRICH HERMANN JOSEF HILL, DANIEL HARVEY HESSE HILL, DAVID BENNETT HESSE-CASSEL HILL, GEORGE BIRKBECK NORMAN HESSE-DARMSTADT HILL, JAMES J. HESSE-HOMBURG HILL, JOHN HESSE-NASSAU HILL, MATTHEW DAVENPORT HESSE-ROTENBURG HILL, OCTAVIA and MIRANDA HESSIAN HILL, ROWLAND HESSUS, HELIUS EOBANUS HILL, SIR ROWLAND HESTIA HILL, ROWLAND HILL HESYCHASTS HILL (elevation) HESYCHIUS (Alexandrian grammarian) HILLAH HESYCHIUS OF MILETUS HILLARD, GEORGE STILLMAN HETAERISM HILLEBRAND, KARL HETEROKARYOTA HILLEL (Jewish rabbi) HETERONOMY HILLER, FERDINAND HETMAN HILLER, JOHANN ADAM HETTNER, HERMANN THEODOR HILLIARD, LAWRENCE HETTSTEDT HILLIARD, NICHOLAS HEUGLIN, THEODOR VON HILLSDALE HEULANDITE HILL TIPPERA HEUSCH, WILLEM HILTON, JOHN HEVELIUS, JOHANN HILTON, WILLIAM HEWETT, SIR PRESCOTT GARDNER HILVERSUM HEWITT, ABRAM STEVENS HIMALAYA HEWLETT, MAURICE HENRY HIMERA HEXAMETER HIMERIUS HEXAPLA HIMLY (LOUIS), AUGUSTE HEXAPODA HIMMEL, FREDERICK HENRY HEXASTYLE HINCKLEY HEXATEUCH HINCKS, EDWARD HEXHAM HINCKS, SIR FRANCIS HEYDEN, JAN VAN DER HINCMAR HEYLYN, PETER HIND HEYN, PIETER PIETERZOON HINDERSIN, GUSTAV EDUARD VON HEYNE, CHRISTIAN GOTTLOB HINDI, EASTERN HEYSE, PAUL JOHANN LUDWIG HINDI, WESTERN HEYSHAM HINDKI HEYWOOD, JOHN HINDLEY HEYWOOD, THOMAS HINDOSTANI HEYWOOD (Lancashire, England) HINDOSTANI LITERATURE HEZEKIAH HINDU CHRONOLOGY HIATUS HERO (Gr. [Greek: hêrôs]), a term specially applied to warriors of extraordinary strength and courage, and generally to all who were distinguished from their fellows by superior moral, physical or intellectual qualities. No satisfactory derivation of the word has been suggested. _Ancient Greek Heroes._ In ancient Greece, the heroes were the object of a special cult, and as such were intimately connected with its religious life. Various theories have been put forward as to the nature of these heroes. According to some authorities, they were idealized historical personages; according to others, symbolical representations of the forces of nature. The view most commonly held is that they were degraded or "depotentiated" gods, occupying a position intermediate between gods and men. According to E. Rohde (in _Psyche_) they are souls of the dead, which after separation from the body enter upon a higher, eternal existence. But it is only a select minority who attain to the rank of heroes after death, only the distinguished men of the past. The worship of these heroes is in reality an ancestor worship, which existed in pre-Homeric times, and was preserved in local cults. Instances no doubt occur of gods being degraded to the ranks of heroes, but these are not the real heroes, the heroes who are the object of a cult. The cult-heroes were all persons who had lived the life of man on earth, and it was necessary for the degraded gods to pass through this stage. They did not at once become cult-heroes, but only after they had undergone death like other mortals. Only one who has been a man can become a hero. The heroes are spirits of the dead, not demi-gods; their position is not intermediate between gods and men, but by the side of these they exist as a separate class. In Homer the term is applied especially to warrior princes, to kings and kings' sons, even to distinguished persons of lower rank, and free men generally. In Hesiod it is chiefly confined to those who fought before Troy and Thebes; in view of their supposed divine origin, he calls them demi-gods ([Greek: hêmitheoi]). This name is also given them in an interpolated passage in the _Iliad_ (xii. 23), which is quite at variance with the general Homeric idea of the heroes, who are no more than men, even if of divine origin and of superior strength and prowess. But neither in Homer nor in Hesiod is there any trace of the idea that the heroes after death had any power for good or evil over the lives of those who survived them; and consequently, no cult. Nevertheless, traces of an earlier ancestor worship appear, e.g. in funeral games in honour of Patroclus and other heroes, while the Hesiodic account of the five ages of man is a reminiscence of the belief in the continued existence of souls in a higher life. This pre-historic worship and belief, for a time obscured, were subsequently revived. According to Porphyry (_De abstinentia_, iv. 22), Draco ordered the inhabitants of Attica to honour the gods and heroes of their country "in accordance with the usage of their fathers" with offerings of first fruits and sacrificial cakes every year, thereby clearly pointing to a custom of high antiquity. Solon also ordered that the tombs of the heroes should be treated with the greatest respect, and Cleisthenes (q.v.) sought to create a pan-Athenian enthusiasm by calling his new tribes after Attic heroes and setting up their statues in the Agora. Heroic honours were at first bestowed upon the founders of a colony or city, and the ancestors of families; if their name was not known, one was adopted from legend. In many cases these heroes were purely fictitious; such were the supposed ancestors of the noble and priestly families of Attica and elsewhere (Butadae at Athens, Branchidae at Miletus Ceryces at Eleusis), of the eponymi of the tribes and demes. Again, side by side with gods of superior rank, certain heroes were worshipped as protecting spirits of the country or state; such were the Aeacidae amongst the Aeginetans, Ajax son of Oïleus amongst the Epizephyrian Locrians and Hector at Thebes. Neglect of the worship of these heroes was held to be responsible for pestilence, bad crops and other misfortunes, while, on the other hand, if duly honoured, their influence was equally beneficent. This belief was supported by the Delphic oracle, which was largely instrumental in promoting hero-worship and keeping alive its due observance. Special importance was attached to the grave of the hero and to his bodily remains, with which the spirit of the departed was inseparably connected. The grave was regarded as his place of abode, from which he could only be absent for a brief period; hence his bones were fetched from abroad (e.g. Cimon brought those of Theseus from Scyros), or if they could not be procured, at least a cenotaph was erected in his honour. Their relics also were carefully preserved: the house of Cadmus at Thebes, the hut of Orestes at Tegea, the stone on which Telamon had sat at Salamis (in Cyprus). Special shrines ([Greek: hêrôa]) were also erected in their honour, usually over their graves. In these shrines a complete set of armour was kept, in accordance with the idea that the hero was essentially a warrior, who on occasion came forth from his grave and fought at the head of his countrymen, putting the enemy to flight as during his lifetime. Like the gods, the cult heroes were supposed to exercise an influence on human affairs, though not to the same extent, their sphere of action being confined to their own localities. Amongst the earliest known historical examples of the elevation of the dead to the rank of heroes are Timesius the founder of Abdera, Miltiades, son of Cypselus, Harmodius and Aristogiton and Brasidas, the victor of Amphipolis, who ousted the local Athenian hero Hagnon. In course of time admission to the rank of a hero became far more common, and was even accorded to the living, such as Lysimachus in Samothrace and the tyrant Nicias of Cos. Antiochus of Commagene instituted an order of priests to celebrate the anniversary of his birth and coronation in a special sanctuary, and the kings of Pergamum claimed divine honours for themselves and their wives during their lifetime. The birthday of Eumenes was regularly kept, and every month sacrifice was offered to him and games held in his honour. In addition to persons of high rank, poets, legendary and others (Linus, Orpheus, Homer, Aeschylus and Sophocles), legislators and physicians (Lycurgus, Hippocrates), the patrons of various trades or handicrafts (artists, cooks, bakers, potters), the heads of philosophical schools (Plato, Democritus, Epicurus) received the honours of a cult. At Teos incense was offered before the statue of a flute-player during his lifetime. In some countries the honour became so general that every man after death was described as a hero in his epitaph--in Thessaly even slaves. The cult of the heroes exhibits points of resemblance with that of the chthonian divinities and of the dead, but differs from that of the ordinary gods, a further indication that they were not "depotentiated" gods. Thus, sacrifice was offered to them at night or in the evening; not on a high, but on a low altar ([Greek: eschara]), surrounded by a trench to receive the blood of the victim, which was supposed to make its way through the ground to the occupant of the grave; the victims were black male animals, whose heads were turned downwards, not upwards; their blood was allowed to trickle on the ground to appease the departed ([Greek: haimakouria]); the body was entirely consumed by fire and no mortal was allowed to eat of it; the technical expression for the sacrifice was not [Greek: thuein] but [Greek: enagizein] (less commonly [Greek: entemnein]). The chthonian aspect of the hero is further shown by his attribute the snake, and in many cases he appears under that form himself. On special occasions a sacrificial meal of cooked food was set out for the heroes, of which they were solemnly invited to partake. The fullest description of such a festival is the account given by Plutarch (_Aristides_, 21) of the festival celebrated by the Plataeans in honour of their countrymen who had fallen at the battle of Plataea. On the 16th of the month Maimacterion, a long procession, headed by a trumpeter playing a warlike air, set out for the graves; wagons decked with myrtle and garlands of flowers followed, young men (who must be of free birth) carried jars of wine, milk, oil and perfumes; next came the black bull destined for the sacrifice, the rear being brought up by the archon, who wore the purple robe of the general, a naked sword in one hand, in the other an urn. When he came near the tombs, he drew some water with which he washed the gravestones, afterwards anointing them with perfume; he then sacrificed the bull on the altar calling upon Zeus Chthonios and Hermes Psychopompos, and inviting them in company with the heroes to the festival of blood. Finally, he poured a libation of wine with the words: "I drink to those who died for the freedom of the Hellenes." See especially E. Rohde, _Psyche_ (1905) and in _Rheinisches Museum_, li. (1895), 28; P. Stengel, _Die griechischen Kultusaltertümer_ (Munich, 1898), p. 124; G. F. Schömann, _Griechische Altertümer_, ii. (1897), 159; J. Wassner, _De heroum apud Graecos cultu_ (Kiel, 1883); article by F. Deneken in Roscher's _Lexikon der Mythologie_, in which a large amount of material is accumulated; J. A. Hild, _Étude sur les démons_ (1881) and article in Daremberg and Saglio's _Dictionnaire des antiquités_. _Teutonic Legend._ Many of the chief characteristics of the ancient Greek heroes are reproduced in those of the Teutonic North, the parallel being in some cases very striking; Siegfried, for instance, like Achilles, is vulnerable only in one spot, and Wayland Smith, like Hephaestus, is lame. Superhuman qualities and powers, too, are commonly ascribed to both, an important difference, however, being that whatever worship may have been paid to the Teutonic heroes never crystallized into a cult. This applies equally to those who have a recognized historical origin and to those who are regarded as purely mythical. Of the latter the number has tended to diminish in the light of modern scholarship. The fashion during the 19th century set strongly in the other direction, and the "degraded gods" theory was applied not only to such conspicuous heroes as Siegfried, Dietrich and Beowulf, but to a host of minor characters, such as the good marquis Rüdeger of the Nibelungenlied and our own Robin Hood (both identified with Woden Hruodperaht). The reaction from one extreme has, indeed, tended to lead to another, until not only the heroes, but the very gods themselves, are being traced to very human, not to say commonplace, origins. Thus M. Henri de Tourville, in his_ Histoire de la formation particulariste_ (1903), basing his argument on the _Ynglinga Saga_, interpreted in the light of "Social Science," reveals Odin, "the traveller," as a great "caravan-leader" and warrior, who, driven from Asgard--a trading city on the borders of the steppes east of the Don--by "the blows that Pompey aimed at Mithridates," brought to the north the arts and industries of the East. The argument is developed with convincing ingenuity, but it may be doubted whether it has permanently "rescued Odin from the misty dreamland of mythology and restored him to history." It is now, however, admitted that, whatever influence the one may have from time to time exercised on the other, Teutonic myth and Teutonic heroic legend were developed on independent lines. The Teutonic heroes are, in the main, historical personages, never gods; though, like the Greek heroes, they are sometimes endowed with semi-divine attributes or interpreted as symbolical representations of natural forces. The origin of Teutonic heroic saga, which may be regarded as including that of the Germans, Goths, Anglo-Saxons and Scandinavians, is to be looked for in the period of the so-called migration of nations (A.D. 350-650). It consequently rests upon a distinct basis of fact, the saga (in the older and wider sense of any story said or sung) being indeed the oldest form of historical tradition; though this of course does not exclude the probability of the accretion of mythical elements round persons and episodes from the very first. As to the origin of the heroic sagas as we now have them, Tacitus tells us that the deeds of Arminius were still celebrated in song a hundred years after his death (_Annals_, ii. 88) and in the _Germania_ he speaks of "old songs" as the only kind of "annals" which the ancient Germans possessed; but, whatever relics of the old songs may be embedded in the Teutonic sagas, they have left no recognizable mark on the heroic poetry of the German peoples. The attempt to identify Arminius with Siegfried is now generally abandoned. Teutonic heroic saga, properly so-called, consists of the traditions connected with the migration period, the earliest traces of which are found in the works of historical writers such as Ammianus Marcellinus and Cassiodorus. According to Jordanes (the epitomator of Cassiodorus's _History of the Goths_) at the funeral of Attila his vassals, as they rode round the corpse, sang of his glorious deeds. The next step in the development of epic narrative was the single lay of an episodic character, sung by a single individual, who was frequently a member of a distinguished family, not merely a professional minstrel. Then, as different stories grew up round the person of a particular hero, they formed a connected cycle of legend, the centre of which was the person of the hero (e.g. Dietrich of Bern). The most important figures of these cycles are the following. (1) Beowulf, king of the Geatas (Jutland), whose story in its present form was probably brought from the continent by the Angles. It is an amalgamation of the myth of Beowa, the slayer of the water-demon and the dragon, with the historical legend of Beowulf, nephew and successor of Hygelac (Chochilaicus), king of the Geatas, who was defeated and slain (c. 520) while ravaging the Frisian coast. The water-demon Grendel and the dragon (probably), by whom Beowulf is mortally wounded, have been supposed to represent the powers of autumn and darkness, the floods which at certain seasons overflow the low-lying countries on the coast of the North Sea and sweep away all human habitations; Beowulf is the hero of spring and light who, after overcoming the spirit of the raging waters, finally succumbs to the dragon of approaching winter. Others regard him as a wind-hero, who disperses the pestilential vapours of the fens. Beowulf is also a culture-hero. His father Sceaf-Scyld (i.e. Scyld Scefing, "the protector with the sheaf") lands on the Anglian or Scandinavian coast when a child, in a rudderless ship, asleep on a sheaf of grain, symbolical of the means whereby his kingdom shall become great; the son indicates the blessings of a fixed habitation, secured against the attacks of the sea. (2) Hildebrand, the hero of the oldest German epic. A loyal supporter of Theodoric, he follows his master, when threatened by Odoacer, to the court of Attila. After thirty years' absence, he returns to his home In Italy; his son Hadubrand, believing his father to be dead, suspects treachery and refuses to accept presents offered by the father in token of good-will. A fight takes place, in which the son is slain by the father. In a later version, recognition and reconciliation take place. Well-known parallels are Odysseus and Telegonis, Rustem and Sohrab. (3) Ermanaric, the king of the East Goths, who according to Ammianus Marcellinus slew himself (c. 375) in terror at the invasion of the Huns. With him is connected the old German Dioscuri myth of the Harlungen. (4) Dietrich of Bern (Verona), the legendary name of Theodoric the Great. Contrary to historical tradition, Italy is supposed to have been his ancestral inheritance, of which he has been deprived by Odoacer, or by Ermanaric, who in his altered character of a typical tyrant appears as his uncle and contemporary. He takes refuge in Hungary with Etzel (Attila), by whose aid he finally recovers his kingdom. In the later middle ages he is represented as fighting with giants, dragons and dwarfs, and finally disappears on a black horse. Some attempts have been made to identify him as a kind of Donar or god of thunder. (5) Siegfried (M.H. Ger. Sîvrit), the hero of the _Niebelungenlied_, the Sigurd of the related northern sagas, is usually regarded as a purely mythical figure, a hero of light who is ultimately overcome by the powers of darkness, the mist-people (Niebelungen). He is, however, closely associated with historical characters and events, e.g. with the Burgundian king Gundahari (Gunther, Gunnar) and the overthrow of his house and nation by the Huns; the scholars have exercised considerable ingenuity in attempting to identify him with various historical figures. Theodor Abeling (_Das Nibelungenlied_, Leipzig, 1907) traces the Nibelung sagas to three groups of Burgundian legends, each based on fact: the Frankish-Burgundian tradition of the murder of Segeric, son of the Burgundian king Sigimund, who was slain by his father at the instigation of his stepmother; the Frankish-Burgundian story, as told by Gregory of Tours (iii. 11), of the defeat of the Burgundian kings Sigimund and Godomar, and the captivity and murder of Sigimund, by the sons of Clovis, at the instigation of their mother Chrothildis, in revenge for the murder of her father Chilperich and of her mother, by Godomar; the Rhenish-Burgundian story of the ruin of Gundahari's kingdom by Attila's Huns. Herr Abeling identifies Siegfried (Sigurd) with Segeric, while--according to him--the heroine of the Nibelung sagas, Kriemhild (Gudrun), represents a confusion of two historical persons: Chrothildis, the wife of Clovis, and Ildico (Hilde), the wife of Attila. (See also the articles KRIEMHILD, NIBELUNGENLIED). (6) Hugdietrich, Wolfdietrich and Ortnit, whose legend, like that of Siegfried, is of Frankish origin. It is preserved in four versions, the best of which is the oldest, and has an historical foundation. Hugdietrich is the "Frankish Dietrich" (= Hugo Theodoric), king of Austrasia (d. 534), who like his son and successor Theodebert, was illegitimate; both had to fight for their inheritance with relatives. The transference of the scene to Constantinople is a reminiscence of the events of the Crusades and Theodebert's projected campaign against that city. The version in which Hugdietrich gains access to his future wife by disguising himself as a woman has also a foundation in fact. As the myth of the Harlungen is connected with Ermanaric, so another Dioscuri myth (of the Hartungen) is combined with the Ortnit-Wolfdietrich legend. The Hartungen are probably identical with the divine youths (mentioned in Tacitus as worshipped by the Vandal Naharvali or Nahanarvali), from whom the Vandal royal family, the Asdingi, claimed descent. Asdingi ([Greek: Astiggoi]) would be represented in Gothic by Hazdiggos, "men with women's hair" (cf. _muliebri ornatu_ in Tacitus), and in middle high German by Hartungen. (7) Rother, king of Lombardy. Desiring to wed the daughter of Constantine, king of Constantinople, he sends twelve envoys to ask her in marriage. They are arrested and thrown into prison by the king. Rother, who appears under the name of Dietrich, sets out with an army, liberates the envoys and carries off the princess. One version places the scene in the land of the Huns. The character of Constantine in many respects resembles that of Alexius Comnenus; the slaying of a tame lion by one of the gigantic followers of Rother is founded on an incident which actually took place at the court of Alexius during the crusade of 1101 under duke Welf of Bavaria, when _King Rother_ was composed about 1160 by a Rhenish minstrel. Rother may be the Lombard king Rothari (636-650), transferred to the period of the Crusades. (8) Walther of Aquitaine, chiefly known from the Latin poem _Waltharius_, written by Ekkehard of St Gall at the beginning of the 10th century, and fragments of an 8th-century Anglo-Saxon Epic _Waldere_. Walther is not an historical figure, although the legend undoubtedly represents typical occurrences of the migration period, such as the detention and flight of hostages of noble family from the court of the Huns, and the rescue of captive maidens by abduction. (9) Wieland (Volundr), Wayland the Smith, the only Teutonic hero (his original home was lower Saxony) who firmly established himself in England. There is absolutely no historical background for his legend. He is a fire-spirit, who is pressed into man's service, and typifies the advance from the stone age to a higher stage of civilization (working in metals). As the lame smith he reminds us of Hephaestus, and in his flight with wings of Daedalus escaping from Minos. (10) Högni (Hagen) and Hedin (Hetel), whose personalities are overshadowed by the heroines Hilde and Gudrun (Kudrun, Kutrun). In one version occurs the incident of the never-ending battle between the forces of Hagen and Hedin. Every night Hilde revives the fallen, and "so will it continue till the twilight of the gods." The battle represents the eternal conflict between light and darkness, the alternation of day and night. Hilde here figures as a typical Valkyr delighting in battle and bloodshed, who frustrates a reconciliation. Hedin had sent a necklace as a peace-offering to Hagen, but Hilde persuades her father that it is only a ruse. This necklace occurs in the story of the goddess Freya (Frigg), who is said to have caused the battle to conciliate the wrath of Odin at her infidelity, the price paid by her for the possession of the necklace Brisnigamen; again, the light god Heimdal is said to have fought with Loki for the necklace (the sun) stolen by the latter. Hence the battle has been explained as the necklace myth in epic form. The historical background is the raids of the Teutonic maritime tribes on the coasts of England and Ireland. Famous heroes who are specially connected with England are Alfred the Great, Richard Coeur-de-Lion, King Horn, Havelok the Dane, Guy of Warwick, Sir Bevis of Hampton (or Southampton), Robin Hood and his companions. _Celtic Heroes._ The Celtic heroic saga in the British islands may be divided into the two principal groups of Gaelic (Irish) and Brython (Welsh), the first, excluding the purely mythological, into the Ultonian (connected with Ulster) and the Ossianic. The Ultonianis grouped round the names of King Conchobar and the hero Cuchulainn, "the Irish Achilles," the defender of Ulster against all Ireland, regarded by some as a solar hero. The second cycle contains the epics of Finn (Fionn, Fingal) mac Cumhail, and his son Oisin (Ossian), the bard and warrior, chiefly known from the supposed Ossianic poems of Macpherson. (See CELT, sec. _Celtic Literature_.) Of Brython origin is the cycle of King Arthur (Artus), the adopted national hero of the mixed nationalities of whom the "English" people was composed. Here he appears as a chiefly mythical personality, who slays monsters, such as the giant of St Michel, the boar Troit, the demon cat, and goes down to the underworld. The original Welsh legend was spread by British refugees in Brittany, and was thus celebrated by both English and French Celts. From a literary point of view, however, it is chiefly French and forms "the matter of Brittany." Arthur, the leader (_comes Britanniae, dux bellorum_) of the Siluri or Dumnonii against the Saxons, flourished at the beginning of the 6th century. He is first spoken of in Nennius's _History of the Britons_ (9th century), and at greater length in Geoffrey of Monmouth's _History of the Kings of Britain_ (12th century), at the end of which the French Breton cycle attained its fullest development in the poems of Chrétien de Troyes and others. Speaking generally, the Celtic heroes are differentiated from the Teutonic by the extreme exaggeration of their superhuman, or rather extra-human, qualities. Teutonic legend does not lightly exaggerate, and what to us seems incredible in it may be easily conceived as credible to those by whom and for whom the tales were told; that Sigmund and his son Sinfiotli turned themselves into wolves would be but a sign of exceptional powers to those who believed in werewolves; Fafnir assuming the form of a serpent would be no more incredible to the barbarous Teuton than the similar transformation of Proteus to the Greek. But in the characterization of their heroes the Celtic imagination runs riot, and the quality of their persons and their acts becomes exaggerated beyond the bounds of any conceivable probability. Take, for instance, the description of some of Arthur's knights in the Welsh tale of _Kilhwch and Olwen_ (in the _Mabinogion_). Along with Kai and Bedwyr (Bedivere), Peredur (Perceval), Gwalchmai (Gawain), and many others, we have such figures as Sgilti Yscandroed, whose way through the wood lay along the tops of the trees, and whose tread was so light that no blade of grass bent beneath his weight; Sol, who could stand all day upon one leg; Sugyn the son of Sugnedydd, who was "broad-chested" to such a degree that he could suck up the sea on which were three hundred ships and leave nothing but dry land; Gweyyl, the son of Gwestad, who when he was sad would let one of his lips drop beneath his waist and turn up the other like a cap over his head; and Uchtry Varyf Draws, who spread his red untrimmed beard over the eight-and-forty rafters of Arthur's hall. Such figures as these make no human impression, and criticism has busied itself in tracing them to one or other of the shadowy divinities of the Celtic pantheon. However this may be, remnants of their primitive superhuman qualities cling to the Celtic heroes long after they have been transfigured, under the influence of Christianity and chivalry, into the heroes of the medieval Arthurian romance, types--for the most part--of the knightly virtues as these were conceived by the middle ages; while shadowy memories of early myths live on, strangely disguised, in certain of the episodes repeated uncritically by the medieval poets. So Merlin preserves his diabolic origin; Arthur his mystic coming and his mystic passing; while Gawain, and after him Lancelot, journey across the river, as the Irish hero Bran had done before them to the island of fair women--the Celtic vision of the realm of death. The chief heroes of the medieval Arthurian romances are the following. Arthur himself, who tends however to become completely overshadowed by his knights, who make his court the starting-point of their adventures. Merlin (Myrddin), the famous wizard, bard and warrior, perhaps an historical figure, first introduced by Geoffrey of Monmouth, originally called Ambrose from the British leader Ambrosius Aurelianus, under whom he is said to have first served. Perceval (Parzival, Parsifal), the Welsh Peredur, "the seeker of the basin," the most intimately connected with the quest of the Grail (q.v.). Tristan (Tristram), the ideal lover of the middle ages, whose name is inseparably associated with that of Iseult. Lancelot, son of Ban king of Brittany, a creation of chivalrous romance, who only appears in Arthurian literature under French influence, known chiefly from his amour with Guinevere, perhaps in imitation of the story of Tristan and Iseult. Gawain (Welwain, Welsh Gwalchmai), Arthur's nephew, who in medieval romance remains the type of knightly courage and chivalry, until his character is degraded in order to exalt that of Lancelot. Among less important, but still conspicuous, figures may be mentioned Kay (the Kai of the _Mabinogion_), Arthur's foster-brother and seneschal, the type of the bluff and boastful warrior, and Bedivere (Bedwyr), the type of brave knight and faithful retainer, who alone is with Arthur at his passing, and afterwards becomes "a hermit and a holy man." (See ARTHUR, MERLIN, PERCEVAL, TRISTAN, LANCELOT, GAWAIN.) _Heroes of Romance._ Another series of heroes, forming the central figures of stories variously derived but developed in Europe by the Latin-speaking peoples, may be conveniently grouped under the heading of "romance." Of these the most important are Alexander of Macedon and Charlemagne, while alongside of them Priam and other heroes of the Trojan war appear during the middle ages in strangely altered guise. Of all heroes of romance Alexander has been the most widely celebrated. His name, in the form of Iskander, is familiar in legend and story all over the East to this day; to the West he was introduced through a Latin translation of the original Greek romance (by the pseudo-Callisthenes) to which the innumerable Oriental versions are likewise traceable (see ALEXANDER III., KING OF MACEDON; sec. _The Romance of Alexander_). More important in the West, however, was the cycle of legends gathering round the figure of Charlemagne, forming what was known as "the matter of France." The romances of this cycle, of Germanic (Frankish) origin and developed probably in the north of France by the French (probably in the north of France) contain reminiscences of the heroes of the Merovingian period, and in their later development were influenced by the Arthurian cycle. Just as Arthur was eclipsed by his companions, so Charlemagne's vassal nobles, except in the _Chanson de Roland_, are exalted at the expense of the emperor, probably the result of the changed relations between the later emperors and their barons. The character of Charlemagne himself undergoes a change; in the _Chanson de Roland_ he is a venerable figure, mild and dignified, while later he appears as a cruel and typical tyrant (as is also the case with Ermanaric). The basis of his legend is mainly historical, although the story of his journey to Constantinople and the East is mythical, and incidents have been transferred from the reign of Charles Martel to his. Charlemagne is chiefly venerated as the champion of Christianity against the heathen and the Saracens. (See CHARLEMAGNE, _ad fin._ "The Charlemagne Legends.") The most famous heroes who are associated with him are Roland, praefect of the marches of Brittany, the Orlando of Ariosto, slain at Roncevaux (Roncevalles) in the Pyrenees, and his friend and rival Oliver (Olivier); Ogier the Dane, the Holger Danske of Hans Andersen, and Huon of Bordeaux, probably both introduced from the Arthurian cycle; Renaud (Rinaldo) of Montauban, one of the four sons of Aymon, to whom the wonderful horse Bayard was presented by Charlemagne; the traitor Doon of Mayence; Ganelon, responsible for the treachery that led to the death of Roland; Archbishop Turpin, a typical specimen of muscular Christianity; William Fierabras, William au court nez, William of Toulouse, and William of Orange (all probably identical), and Vivien, the nephew of the latter and the hero of Aliscans. The late Charlemagne romances originated the legends, in English form, of _Sowdone of Babylone_, _Sir Otnel_, _Sir Firumbras_ and _Huon of Bordeaux_ (in which Oberon, the king of the fairies, the son of Julius Caesar and Morgan the Fay, was first made known to England). The chief remains of the Spanish heroic epic are some poems on the Cid, on the seven Infantes of Lara, and on Fernán Gonzalez, count of Castile. The legend of Charlemagne as told in the _Crónica general_ of Alfonso X. created the desire for a national hero distinguished for his exploits against the Moors, and Roland was thus supplanted by Bernardo del Carpio. Another famous hero and centre of a 14th-century cycle of romance was Amadis of Gaul; its earliest form is Spanish, although the Portuguese have claimed it as a translation from their own language. There is no trace of a French original. _Slavonic Heroes._--The Slavonic heroic saga of Russia centres round Vladimir of Kiev (980-1015), the first Christian ruler of that country, whose personality is eclipsed by that of Ilya (Elias) of Mourom, the son of a peasant, who was said to have saved the empire from the Tatars at the urgent request of his emperor. It is not known whether he was an historical personage; many of the achievements attributed to him border on the miraculous. A much-discussed work is the _Tale of Igor_, the oldest of the Russian medieval epics. Igor was the leader of a raid against the heathen Polovtsi in 1185; at first successful, he was afterwards defeated and taken prisoner, but finally managed to escape. Although the Finns are not Slavs, on topographical grounds mention may here be made of Wainamoinen, the great magician and hero of the Finnish epic _Kalevala_ ("land of heroes"). The popular hero of the Servians and Bulgarians is Marko Kralyevich (q.v.), son of Vukashin, characterized by Goethe as a counterpart of the Greek Heracles and the Persian Rustem. For the Persian, Indian, &c., heroes see the articles on the literature and religions of the various countries. AUTHORITIES.--On the subject generally, see J. G. T. Grässe, _Die grossen Sagenkreise des Mittelalters_ (Dresden, 1842), forming part of his _Lehrbuch einer Literärgeschichte der berühmtesten Völker des Mittelalters_; W. P. Ker, _Epic and Romance_ (2nd ed., 1908). TEUTONIC.--B. Symons, "Germanische Heldensage" in H. Paul's _Grundris der germanischen Philologie_, iii. (Strassburg, 1900), 2nd revised edition, separately printed (_ib._, 1905); W. Grimm, _Die deutsche Heldensage_ (1829, 3rd ed., 1889), still one of the most important works; W. Müller, _Mythologie der deutschen Heldensage_ (Heilbronn, 1886) and supplement, _Zur Mythologie der griechischen und deutschen Heldensage_ (_ib._, 1889); O. L. Jiriczek, _Deutsche Heldensagen_, i. (Strassburg, 1898) and _Die deutsche Heldensage_ (3rd revised edition, Leipzig, 1906); Chantepie de la Saussaye, _The Religion of the Teutons_ (Eng. tr., Boston, U.S.A., 1902); J. G. Robertson, _History of German Literature_ (1902). See also HELDENBUCH. CELTIC.--M. H. d'Arbois de Jubainville, _Cours de littérature celtique_ (12 vols., 1883-1902), one vol. trans. into English by R. I. Best, _The Irish Mythological Cycle and Celtic Mythology_ (1903); L. Petit de Julleville, _Hist. de la langue et de la litt. française_, i. _Moyen âge_ (1896); C. Squire, _The Mythology of the British Isles: an Introduction to Celtic Myth and Romance_ (1905); J. Rhys, _Celtic Britain_ (3rd ed., 1904). SLAVONIC.--A. N. Rambaud, _La Russie épique_ (1876); W. Wollner, _Untersuchungen über die Volksepik der Grossrussen_ (1879); W. R. Morfill, _Slavonic Literature_ (1883). HERO AND LEANDER, two lovers celebrated in antiquity. Hero, the beautiful priestess of Aphrodite at Sestos, was seen by Leander, a youth of Abydos, at the celebration of the festival of Aphrodite and Adonis. He became deeply enamoured of her; but, as her position as priestess and the opposition of her parents rendered their marriage impossible they agreed to carry on a clandestine intercourse. Every night Hero placed a lamp in the top of the tower where she dwelt by the sea, and Leander, guided by it, swam across the dangerous Hellespont. One stormy night the lamp was blown out and Leander perished. On finding his body next morning on the shore, Hero flung herself into the waves. The story is referred to by Virgil (_Georg._ iii. 258), Statius (_Theb._ vi. 535) and Ovid (_Her._ xviii. and xix.). The beautiful little epic of Musaeus has been frequently translated, and is expanded in the _Hero and Leander_ of C. Marlowe and G. Chapman. It is also the subject of a ballad by Schiller and a drama by F. Grillparzer. See M. H. Jellinek, _Die Sage von Hero und Leander in der Dichtung_ (1890), and G. Knaack "Hero und Leander" in _Festgabe für Franz Susemihl_ (1898). A careful collection of materials will be found in F. Köppner, _Die Sage von Hero und Leander in der Literatur und Kunst des Altertums_ (1894). HERO OF ALEXANDRIA, Greek geometer and writer on mechanical and physical subjects, probably flourished in the second half of the 1st century. This is the more modern view, in contrast to the earlier theory most generally accepted, according to which he flourished about 100 B.C. The earlier theory started from the superscription of one of his works, [Greek: Hêrônos Ktêsibiou belopoiïka], from which it was inferred that Hero was a pupil of Ctesibius. Martin, Hultsch and Cantor took this Ctesibius to be a barber of that name who lived in the reign of Ptolemy Euergetes II. (d. 117 B.C.) and is credited with having invented an improved water-organ. But this identification is far from certain, as a Ctesibius _mechanicus_ is mentioned by Athenaeus as having lived under Ptolemy II. Philadelphus (285-247 B.C.). Nor can the relation of master and pupil be certainly inferred from the superscription quoted (observe the omission of any article), which really asserts no more than that Hero re-edited an earlier treatise by Ctesibius, and implies nothing about his being an _immediate_ predecessor. Further, it is certain that Hero used physical and mathematical writings by Posidonius, the Stoic, of Apamea, Cicero's teacher, who lived until about the middle of the 1st century B.C. The positive arguments for the more modern view of Hero's date are (1) the use by him of Latinisms from which Diels concluded that the 1st century A.D. was the earliest possible date, (2) the description in Hero's _Mechanics_ iii. of a small olive-press with one screw which is alluded to by Pliny (_Nat. Hist._ viii.) as having been introduced since A.D. 55, (3) an allusion by Plutarch (who died A.D. 120) to the proposition that light is reflected from a surface at an angle equal to the angle of incidence, which Hero proved in his _Catoptrica_, the words used by Plutarch fitting well with the corresponding passage of that work (as to which see below). Thus we arrive at the latter half of the 1st century A.D. as the approximate date of Hero's activity. The geometrical treatises which have survived (though not interpolated) in Greek are entitled respectively _Definitiones_, _Geometria_, _Geodaesia_, _Stereometrica_ (i. and ii.), _Mensurae_, _Liber Geoponicus_, to which must now be added the _Metrica_ recently discovered by R. Schöne in a MS. at Constantinople. These books, except the _Definitiones_, mostly consist of directions for obtaining, from given parts, the areas or volumes, and other parts, of plane or solid figures. A remarkable feature is the bare statement of a number of very close approximations to the square roots of numbers which are not complete squares. Others occur in the _Metrica_ where also a method of finding such approximate square, and even approximate cube, roots is shown. Hero's expressions for the areas of regular polygons of from 5 to 12 sides in terms of the squares of the sides show interesting approximations to the values of trigonometrical ratios. Akin to the geometrical works is that _On the Dioptra_, a remarkable book on land-surveying, so called from the instrument described in it, which was used for the same purposes as the modern theodolite. It is in this book that Hero proves the expression for the area of a triangle in terms of its sides. The _Pneumatica_ in two books is also extant in Greek as is also the _Automatopoietica_. In the former will be found such things as siphons, "Hero's fountain," "penny-in-the-slot" machines, a fire-engine, a water-organ, and arrangements employing the force of steam. Pappus quotes from three books of _Mechanics_ and from a work called _Barulcus_, both by Hero. The three books on _Mechanics_ survive in an Arabic translation which, however, bears a title "On the lifting of heavy objects." This corresponds exactly to _Barulcus_, and it is probable that _Barulcus_ and _Mechanics_ were only alternative titles for one and the same work. It is indeed not credible that Hero wrote two separate treatises on the subject of the mechanical powers, which are fully discussed in the _Mechanics_, ii., iii. The _Belopoiica_ (on engines of war) is extant in Greek, and both this and the _Mechanics_ contain Hero's solution of the problem of the two mean proportionals. Hero also wrote _Catoptrica_ (on reflecting surfaces), and it seems certain that we possess this in a Latin work, probably translated from the Greek by Wilhelm van Moerbeek, which was long thought to be a fragment of Ptolemy's _Optics_, because it bore the title _Ptolemaei de speculis_ in the MS. But the attribution to Ptolemy was shown to be wrong as soon as it was made clear (especially by Martin) that another translation by an Admiral Eugenius Siculus (12th century) of an optical work from the Arabic was Ptolemy's _Optics_. Of other treatises by Hero only fragments remain. One was four books on _Water Clocks_ ([Greek: Peri hydriôn horoskopeiôn]), of which Proclus (_Hypotyp. astron._, ed. Halma) has preserved a fragment, and to which Pappus also refers. Another work was a commentary on Euclid (referred to by the Arabs as "the book of the resolution of doubts in Euclid") from which quotations have survived in an-Nairizi's commentary. The _Pneumatica_, _Automatopoietica_, _Belopoiica_ and _Cheiroballistra_ of Hero were published in Greek and Latin in Thévenot's _Veterum mathematicorum opera graece et latine pleraque nunc primum edita_ (Paris, 1693); the first important critical researches on Hero were G. B. Venturi's _Commentari sopra la storia e la teoria dell'ottica_ (Bologna, 1814) and H. Martin's "Recherches sur la vie et les ouvrages d'Héron d'Alexandrie disciple de Ctésibius et sur tous les ouvrages mathématiques grecs conservés ou perdus, publiés ou inédits, qui ont été attribués à un auteur nommé Héron" (_Mém. presentés à l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres_, i. série, iv., 1854). The geometrical works (except of course the _Metrica_) were edited (Greek only) by F. Hultsch (_Heronis Alexandrini geometricorum et stereometricorum reliquiae_, 1864), the _Dioptra_ by Vincent (_Extraits des manuscrits relatifs à la géométrie pratique des Grecs, Notices et extraits des manuscrits de la Bibliothèque Impériale_, xix. 2, 1858), the treatises on _Engines of War_ by C. Wescher (_Poliorcétique des Grecs_, Paris, 1867). The _Mechanics_ was first published by Carra de Vaux in the _Journal asiatique_ (ix. série, ii., 1893). In 1899 began the publication in Teubner's series of _Heronis Alexandrini opera quae supersunt omnia_. Vol. i. and Supplement (by W. Schmidt) contains the _Pneumatica_ and _Automata_, the fragment on _Water Clocks_, the _De ingeniis spiritualibus_ of Philon of Byzantium and extracts on Pneumatics by Vitruvius. Vol. ii. pt. i., by L. Nix and W. Schmidt, contains the _Mechanics_ in Arabic, Greek fragments of the same, the _Catoptrica_ in Latin with appendices of extracts from Olympiodorus, Vitruvius, Pliny, &c. Vol. iii. (by Hermann Schöne) contains the _Metrica_ (in three books) and the _Dioptra_. A German translation is added throughout. The approximation to square roots in Hero has been the subject of papers too numerous to mention. But reference should be made to the exhaustive studies on Hero's arithmetic by Paul Tannery, "L'Arithmétique des Grecs dans Héron d'Alexandrie" (_Mém. de la Soc. des sciences phys. et math. de Bordeaux_, ii. série, iv., 1882), "La Stéréométrie d'Héron d'Alexandrie" and "Études Héroniennes" (_ibid._ v., 1883), "Questions Héroniennes" (_Bulletin des sciences math._, ii. série, viii., 1884), "Un Fragment des Métriques d'Héron" (_Zeitschrift für Math. und Physik_, xxxix., 1894; _Bulletin des sciences math._, ii. série, xviii., 1894). A good account of Hero's works will be found in M. Cantor's _Geschichte der Mathematik_, i.² (1894), chapters 18 and 19, and in G. Loria's studies, _Le Scienze esatte nell' antica Grecia_, especially libro iii. (Modena, 1900), pp. 103-128. (T. L. H.) HERO, THE YOUNGER, the name given without any sufficient reason to a Byzantine land-surveyor who wrote (about A.D. 938) a treatise on land-surveying modelled on the works of Hero of Alexandria, especially the _Dioptra_. See "Géodésie de Héron de Byzance," published by Vincent in _Notices et extraits des manuscrits de la Bibliothéque Impériale_, xix. 2 (Paris, 1858), and T. H. Martin in _Mémoires présentés à l' Académie des Inscriptions_, 1st series, iv. (Paris, 1854). HEROD, the name borne by the princes of a dynasty which reigned in Judaea from 40 B.C. HEROD (surnamed THE GREAT), the son of Antipater, who supported Hyrcanus II. against Aristobulus II. with the aid first of the Nabataean Arabs and then of Rome. The family seems to have been of Idumaean origin, so that its members were liable to the reproach of being half-Jews or even foreigners. Justin Martyr has a tradition that they were originally Philistines of Ascalon (_Dial._ c. 52), and on the other hand Nicolaus of Damascus (_apud_ Jos. _Ant._ xiv. 1. 3) asserted that Herod, his royal patron, was descended from the Jews who first returned from the Babylonian Captivity. The tradition and the assertion are in all probability equally fictitious and proceed respectively from the foes and the friends of the Herodian dynasty. Antipas (or Antipater), the father of Antipater, had been governor of Idumaea under Alexander Jannaeus. His son
{'title': 'Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Hero" to "Hindu Chronology" by Various', 'source': 'Project Gutenberg', 'lang': 'en'}