Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/430

416 the same person as the poet, we may be sure that Pausanias would have said so.

HERMI'NIA GENS, a very ancient patrician house at Rome, which appears in the first Etruscan war with the republic, 506, and vanishes from history in  448. The name Herminius occurs only twice in the Fasti, and has only one cognomen,. [.] Whether this gens were of Oscan, Sabellian, or Etruscan origin, is doubtful. An Herminius defends the sublician bridge against an Etruscan army, and probably represents in that combat one of the three tribes of Rome. Horatius Cocles, as a member of a lesser gens, the Horatian, is the symbol of the Luceres; and therefore Herminius is the symbol either of the Ramnes or the Titienses. Probably of the latter, since the Titienses were the Sabine tribe, and the syllable Her is of frequent occurrence in Sabellian names — Her-ennius, Her-ius, Her-nicus, Her-silia, &c. (Comp. Müller, Etrusc. vol. i. p. 423.) But, on the other hand, the nomen of one of the Herminii is Lar, Larius, or Larcius (Li v. iii. 65; Dionys. xi. 51; Diod. xii. 27), and the Etruscan origin of Lar is unquestionable. (Müller, Ib. p. 408.) It is remarkable, that the first Herminius, cos. 506, in his consulate, on the bridge, and at the "Battle of Regillus," is coupled with Sp. Larcius. (Liv. ii. 10, 21; Dionys. V. 22.) The Roman antiquaries regarded the Herminii as an Etruscan family (Val. Max. de Praenom. 15); and Silius Italicus gives a North-Etruscan fisherman the name of Herminius. (Punic. V. 580.) In the diverging dialects of the West-Caucasian languages, Arminius, the Cheruscan name (Tac. Ann. ii,), and Herminius, are perhaps cognate appellations.

 HERMI'NUS, a Peripatetic philosopher, a contemporary of Demonax (called by Porphyrius, Vit. Plot. 20, a stoic). He appears to have written commentaries on most of the works of Aristotle. Simplicius (ad Arist. de Caelo, ii. 23, fol. 105) says he was the instructor of Alexander of Aphrodisias. His writings, of which nothing now remains, are frequently referred to by Boëthius, who mentions a treatise by him,, as also Analytica and Topica. (Lucian, Demon. §56; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. iii. p. 495.)

 HE'RMION, a son of Europs, and grandson of Phoroneus, was, according to a tradition of Hermione, the founder of that town on the south-east coast of Peloponnesus. (Paus, ii. 34. §5.)

 HERMI'ONE, the only daughter of Menelaus and Helena, and beautiful, like the golden Aphrodite. (Hom. Od. iv. 14, Il. iii. 175). As she was a grand- daughter of Leda, the mother of Helena, Virgil (Aen. iii. 328) calls her Ledaea. During the war against Troy, Menelaus promised her in marriage to Neoptolemus (Pyrrhus); and after his return he fulfilled his promise. (Od. iv. 4, &c.) This Homeric tradition differs from those of later writers. According to Euripides (Androm. 891, &c. ; comp. Pind. Nem. vii. 43; Hygin. Fab. 123), Menelaus, previous to his expedition against Troy, had promised Hermione to Orestes. After the return of Neoptolemus, Orestes informed him of this, and claimed Hermione for himself; but Neoptolemus haughtily refused to give her up. Orestes, in revenge, incited the Delphians against him, and Neoptolemus was slain. In the meantime Orestes carried off Hermione from the house of Peleus, and she, in remembrance of her former love for Orestes, followed him. She had also reason to fear the revenge of Neoptolemus, for she had made an attempt to murder Andromache, whom Neoptolemus seemed to love more than her, but had been prevented from committing the crime. According to others, Menelaus betrothed her at Troy to Neoptolemus; but in the meantime her grandfather, Tyndareus, promised her to Orestes, and actually gave her in marriage to him. Neoptolemus, on his return, took possession of her by force, but was slain soon after either at Delphi or in his own home at Phthia. (Virg. Aen. iii. 327, xi. 264; Sophocl. ap. Eustath. ad Hom. p. 1479.) Hermione had no children by Neoptolemus (Eurip. Androm. 33; Paus, i. 11. §1; Schol. ad Pind. Nem. vii. 58), but by Orestes, whose wife she ultimately became, she was the mother of Tisamenus. (Paus, i, 33, §7, ii. 18. §5.) The Lacedaemonians dedicated a statue of her, the work of Calamis, at Delphi. (Paus. x. 16. §2.) A scholiast on Pindar (Nem. x. 12) calls her the wife of Diomedes, and Hesychius (s. v.) states that Hermione was a surname of Persephone at Syracuse.

 HERMIPPUS. 1. An Athenian comic poet of the old comedy, was the son of Lysis and the brother of the comic poet Myrtilus. He was a little younger than Telecleides, but older than Eupolis and Aristophanes (Suid. s.v.). He vehemently attacked Pericles, especially on the occasion of Aspasia's acquittal on the charge of, and in connection with the beginning of the Peloponnesian war. (Plut. Peric. 32, 33,) He also attacked Hyperbolas, (Aristoph. Nub. v. 553, and Schol,) According to Suidas, he wrote forty plays, and his chief actor was Simermon (Schol. in Aristoph. Nub. 535, 537, 542). There are extant of his plays several fragments and nine titles; viz. . The statement of Athenaeus (xv. p. 699, a.) that Hermippus also wrote parodies, seems to refer not to any separate works of his, but to parodies contained in his plays, of which there are examples in the extant fragments, as well as in the plays of other comic poets. Besides the comedies of Hermippus, several of the ancient writers quote his Iambics, Trimeters, and Tetrameters. Meineke's analysis of these quotations leaves little room to doubt that Hermippus published scurrilous poems, like those of the old iambic poets, partly in Iambic trimeters, and partly in trochaic tetrameters. (Meineke, Frag. Com. Graec. vol, i. pp. 90 — 99, vol, ii. pp. 380 — 417; Bergk, Comment. de Reliq. Com. Att. Ant. c. 3.)

 2. Of Smyrna, a distinguished philosopher, surnamed by the ancient writers the Callimacheian. From this title it may be inferred that he was a disciple of Callimachus about the middle of the third century, while the fact of his having written the life of Chrysippus proves that he lived to about the end of the century. His writings seem to have been of very great importance and value. (Joseph. c. Apion. i. 22; Hieronym. de Vir. Illustr. Praef.) They are repeatedly referred to by the ancient writers, under many titles, of which, however, most, if not all, seem to have been chapters of his great biographical work, which is often quoted under the title 