Part 1

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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 HEROET, ANTOINE HICKS, HENRY HEROIC ROMANCES HICKS, WILLIAM HEROIC VERSE HIDALGO (state of Mexico) HEROLD, 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 HERVAS Y PANDURO, LORENZO HILARION, ST HERVEY, JAMES HILARIUS, ST (bishop of Pictavium) HERVEY DE SAINT DENYS, JEAN LEON 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: heros]), 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: hemitheoi]). 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 Oileus 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: heroa]) 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 Kultusaltertumer_ (Munich, 1898), p. 124; G. F. Schomann, _Griechische Altertumer_, 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, _Etude sur les demons_ (1881) and article in Daremberg and Saglio's _Dictionnaire des antiquites_.

_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 Rudeger 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. Sivrit), 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).