Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/437

Rh nERMOTIMUS. nERMON CEpfj-uu) is described by Thucydides ns commander of the detachment of ir^piiroKoi^ or frontier guards, stationed at Munychia, and as taking in this capacity a prominent part in the sedition against the Four Hundred which Thera- menes and Aristocrates excited in Peiraeeus, B. c. 411. Thucydides had just mentioned the assassi- nation of Phrynichus by one of the irepliroAoi, and from a confusion perhaps of the two passages comes the statement of Plutarch {Alcib. c. 25), that the assassin was Hermon, and that he received a crown ia honour of it. Such a supposition is wholly inconsistent alike with the historian's narrative and the facts mentioned by the orators. (Lys. c. Ayorat. p. 492; Lycurgus, ad Leocr. p. 217.) It is hardly even a plausible hypothesis to identify him with the commander of the TvepitToKoi^ at whose house, it appeared by the confession of an accomplice, secret meetings had been held. (Thuc. viii, 92.) But he is probably the same who is men- tioned in the inscription (IBiickh, Inscr. Graec. i. p. 221), which records the monies paid by the keepers of the treasury of Athena in the Acropolis during the year beginning at Midsunnner b. c. 410. One of the earliest items is "to Hermon for his command at Pylos." The place was taken no long time after, probably in the next winter but one. [A. H.C.]_ HERMON (^Epixoov)^ or, as some write it, HERMONAX, a Greek grammarian, who made the dialect spoken in the island of Crete his parti- cular study, and wrote a dictionary (KpTjrtKal yXciiTaai), in which he explained the words pecu- liar to that dialect, as well as those which were used by the Cretans in a peculiar sense. The work is often referred to by Athenaeus, who some- times calls the author Hermon (iii. p. 81, vi. p. 267), and sometimes Hermonax (ii. p. 53, iii. p. 76, xi. p, 502), but which of the two forms of the name is the correct one is uncertain. (Comp. Fis- clier, Animadv. in Welleri Grammat. Graec. i. p. 49.) Lucian {Conviv. s. Lapith. 6) mentions an Epicurean philosopher of the name of Hermon, who is otherwise unknown. [L. S.] HERMON {"Epficov.) Artists. 1. A statuary of Troezen, who made a statue of Apollo and wooden images of the Dioscuri in the temple of Apollo at Troezen. He seems to belong to a very ancient period. (Paus. ii. 31. $ 9.) 2. An architect. [Pvrrhus.] 3. An artist, who is said to have invented a sort of masks, which were called after him 'EpfxcS- nia. {Etym. Mag. s. v.) Probably the name is merely mythical. [P. S.] HERMO'NYMUS, GEO'RGIUS (T^tip-yios 'EpixoivviJios), a Byzantine scholar who contributed much to the revival of Greek learning in Italy, where he fled after the conquest of Constantinople, but whose literary activity became only conspicuous in the time after that event. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. xi. p. 635.) [W. P.] HERMO'PHILUS, a blind philosopher, who, according to Claudianus Mamertus (de IStatu Anim. iii. 9 ),instnictedTheopompus in geometry. [C.P.M.] HERMOTI'MUS ('Ep^c^rjiuos), of Pedasa in Caria, fell, when a boy, into the hands of Panio- nius, a Chian, who made him a eunuch, and sold him to the Persians at Sardis. He was sent thence to Susa as a present to the king, and rose high in favour with Xerxes, whose sons he was commis- sioned to conduct back to Asia after the battle of HERODES. 423 Salamis. Some time before this, when Xerxes whs at Sardis, and preparing to invade Greece, Hermo- timus went to Atameus in Mysia, where Panio- nius was ; and having decoyed both him and his sons into his power, took cruel vengeance on them for the injury he had received. (Herod, viii. 104 —106.) [E. E.] HERMOTI'MUS {'EpfiSrifxas). 1. A Stoic philosopher, son of Menecrates, who is introduced by Lucian as one of the speakers in the dialogue entitled 'Ep/xorijuos, 7 ircpX aipecncov. Some sup- pose that he is merely a fictitious personage. 2. A native of Colophon, a learned geometer mentioned by Proclus. {Comment, ad Euclid, lib. i. p. 19. ed. Basil.) He was one of the immediate predecessors of Euclid, and the discoverer of several geometrical propositions. [C. P. M.] HERMOTI'MUS ('Ep/xoVi^uos), of Clazomenae, called by Lucian a Pythagorean, had the reputa- tion, according to Aristotle, of being the first to suggest the idea which Anaxagoras is commonly said to have originated : that mind ( vovs) was the cause of all things. Accordingly, Sextus Empiricus places him with Hesiod, Parmenides, and Empedocles, as belonging to that class of philosophers who held a dualistic theory of a material and an active principle being together the origin of the universe. Other notices that remain of him represent him, like Epimenides and Aristaeus, as a mysterious person, gifted with a supernatural power, by which his soul, apart from the body, wandered from place to place, bringing tidings of distant events in incredibly short spaces of time. At length his enemies burned his body, in the absence of the soul, which put an end to his wanderings. The story is told in Pliny and Lucian. (Plin. H. N. vii. 42 ; Lucian, Encom. Muse. 7 ; Arist. Metaph. i. 3 ; Sext. Empir. adv. Math, ix., ad Phys. i. 7 ; Diog. Laert. viii. 5 ; Denzinger, De Hermotim. Clazomen. Commentatio., Leodii, 1825.) [C. E. P.] HERO ("Hpw), the name of three mythical per- sonages, one a daughter of Danaus (Hygin. Fah. 170), the second a daughter of Priam (Hygin. Fah. 90), and respecting the third, see Lean- DER. [L. S.] HERO. [Heron.] HERO'DES ('Hpw87js),an ancient Greek Iambic poet, a contemporary and rival, as it seems, of Hip- ponax, though there is some doubt about the true reading of the line in which Hipponax mentions him. The ancient writers quote several choliambic lines of Herodes, who also wrote mimes in Iambic verse. ( Welcker, Hipponact. Fragm. pp. 87 — 89 ; Knocke, A uct. qui CJioliambis usi sunt Graec. Reliq. Fasc. i. 1842, 8vo. ; Meineke and Lachmann, Choliambica Poesis Graecorum, pp. 148 — 152, Be- rol. 1845, 8vo.) [P. S.] HERO'DES I. ('HptJSTjs), sumamed the Great, king of the Jews. He was the second son of Antipater, and consequently of Idumaean origin. [See Vol. I. p. 202.] When, in B. c. 47, his fa- ther was appointed by Julius Caesar procurator of Judaea, the young Herod, though only fifteen years of age, obtained the important post of governor of Galilee. In this situation he quickly gave proof of his energetic and vigorous character, by repressing the bands of robbers which at that time infested the province, the leaders of whom he put to death. But the distinction he thus obtained excited the envy of the opposite party, and he was brought to trial before the sanliedrira, for having put to death £ £ 4