HERMAS, one of the Apostolic Fathers of the Church; wrote a work in Greek called the “Shepherd of Hermas,” extant in Latin, and treating of Christian duties.

HERMES, the Mercury of the Romans; in the Greek mythology the herald of the gods and the god of eloquence and of all kinds of cunning and dexterity in word and action; invented the lyre, the alphabet, numbers, astronomy, music, the cultivation of the olive, &c.; was the son of Zeus and Maia; wore on embassy a winged cap, winged sandals, and carried a herald’s wand as symbol of his office.

HERMES TRISMEGISTUS, or the Thrice-greatest, an Egyptian or Egyptian god to whose teachings or inspirations the Neo-Platonists ascribed the great body of their peculiar doctrines, and whom they regarded as an incarnation or impersonation of the Logos.

HERMI`ONE, the beautiful daughter of Menelaus and Helen; married to Pyrrhus, son of Achilles, but carried off by Orestes, her first love.

HERMODEUS, a son of Odin and messenger of the Norse gods.

HERNIA, the name given to the protrusion of an internal organ, specially a part of the intestines.

HERO, a priestess of Venus at Sestos, in Thrace, beloved by Leander of Abydos, on the opposite shore, who swam the Hellespont every night to visit her, but was drowned one stormy evening, whereupon at sight of his dead body on the beach she threw herself into the sea.

HERO, a mathematician, born at Alexandria in the first half of the 2nd century; celebrated for his experiments on condensed air, and his anticipation of the pressure of steam.

HERO, a name given by the Greeks to human beings of such superhuman faculties as to be regarded the offspring of some god, and applied in modern times to men of an intellect and force of character of such transcendent nature as to inspire ordinary mortals with something like religious regard.

HEROD, the name of a family of Idumaean origin but Jewish creed, who rose into power in Judea shortly prior to the dissolution of the Jewish nationality; the chief members of which were HEROD THE GREAT, king of the Jews by favour of the Romans, who made away with all his rivals, caused his own children to be strangled on suspicion of their conspiring against him, and died a painful death; who massacred the Innocents about Bethlehem, and whose death took place 4 B.C., the true date of the Nativity of Christ:  and HEROD ANTIPAS, his son, tetrarch of Galilee, who beheaded John the Baptist, and to whom Christ was remitted by Pilate for examination, and who died in exile at Lyons.

HERODIANS, a party in Judea who from motives of self-interest supported the dynasty of the Herods.

HERODOTUS, the oldest historian of Greece, and the “Father of History,” born at Halicarnassus, in Caria, between 490 and 480 B.C.; travelled over Asia Minor, Egypt, and Syria as far as Babylon, and in his old age recorded with due fidelity the fruits of his observations and inquiries, the main object of his work being to relate the successive stages of the strife between the free civilisation of Greece and the despotic barbarism of Persia for the sovereignty of the world, an interest in which Alexander the Great drew sword in the century following (484-408 B.C.).