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HILAROTRAGCEDIA——HIMERIUS.
Hflarotragoedia (lit. " gay and lively tragedy "). A species of comedy invented by Rhinthon of Tarentum, and consisting of a travesty of tragic themes. (See rhinthon.)
Hildesheim, the Treasure of. A number of drinking vessels, plates, and cooking ntensils of silver, most of them embossed in high relief, found at Hildesheim in 1868. These important products of Roman art, of the time of Augustus, are now among the chief attractions of the Berlin Museum. They probably belonged to the table service of some wealthy Roman, and had been hidden in the ground by Germans who had taken them as the spoils of victory. Artistically the most important pieces are a bowl shaped like a bell, and gracefully decorated externally with arabesques and figures of children (see cut), and four magnificent saucers decorated with a gilt Minerva seated on a rock, and half-length figures of the young Hercules slaying the serpents, and of Cybgle and of Attis; also two cups
ROMAN MIXING-BOWL. (Pound at Hildesbeim, now in Berlin Museum.)
adorned with masks and all kinds of emblems of the worship of Bacchus.
Himatldn. Part of the outdoor dress of Greeks of free birth, worn over the cMton, and reaching at least as far as the knees. It was an oblong piece of drapery, one end of which was first thrown over the left shoulder, then brought forward and held fast by the left arm; the garment was then drawn over the shoulder to the right side in such a manner that the right side was completely covered up to the shoulder, according to the more elegant fashion (fig. 1). Otherwise it went on under the
(1) From a vase-paint-
inK (Gerhard, Arch. Z«,!un», 1848, taf. 1111.)
right arm, and left the right shoulder exposed. Women wore the Jiimation in the same manner, but some drew it over their
(8) Tetia-ctitta in Stuclrelberj’s Gr&ber d. Hellenen, taf. Ixvii.
head, so as to leave only the face visible (fig. 2). See chlamts and tribon.
Himerlus. A Greek Sophist, born at Prusa in Bithynia, about 315 a.d., and educated at Athens, where, after extending his knowledge by travelling, he became a teacher of rhetoric. As such, he was so successful that he received the rights of citizenship, and became a member of the Areopagus. Among his pupils were Basil the Great and Gregory of Nazianzus; for, although himself a pagan, nevertheless, like Libanius, he exhibited no animosity against Christians. He was summoned to Antioch by Julian, and appointed his private secretary. On the emperor’s death (363), he returned to his earlier occupation at Athens, and there died, after becoming blind in his old age, about 386. Of his speeches and declamations twenty-four exist in a complete form, ten in fragments, and thirty-six in the summaries and excerpts preserved by Photius. His style is ornate, turgid, and overladen with erudition. He owes his special importance solely to the fact that his
