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On this page: Hordicia – Hormos – Hortensius – Horus

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HOEDICIDIA——HORUS.

as handmaidens of Zeus, entrusted with the guarding of the gates of heaven and Olympus; in other words, with watching the clouds. Hesiod calls them the daughters of Zeus and Themis, who watch over the field operations of mankind ; their names are Eunijmm (Good Order), Dike (Justice), and Eirene (Peace), names which show that the divinities of the three ordinary seasons of the world of nature, Spring. Summer, and Winter, are also, as daughters of Themis, appointed to superintend the moral world of human life. This is especially the case with Dike, who is the goddess who presides over legal order, and, like Themis, is enthroned by the side of Zeus. According to Hesiod. she immediately acquaints him with all un­just judicial decisions, so that he may punish them. In the tragic poets she is mentioned with the Erinyes, and as a divinity who is relentless and stern in exacting punish­ment. (See astrjea.) At Athens, two ffora; were honoured: Thallo, the goddess of the flowers of spring; and Carps, the goddess of the fruits of summer. Nevertheless the Horse were also recognised as four in num­ber, distinguished by the attributes of the seasons. They were represented as delicate, joyous, lightly moving crea­tures, adorned with flowers and fruits, and, like the Graces, often associated with other divinities, such as Aphro­dite, Apollo, and Helios. As the Hora specially representing spring, we have Chloris, the wife of Zephyrus, and goddess of flowers, identified by the Romans with Flora (q.v.).

Hordlcidia. See fordicidia and tellus.

Hormos. A chain-dance (see dance).

Hortensius (Quintus; surnamed Hartalus). A distinguished Roman orator, b.c. 114-50. For a consider­able time he had no rival in the Forum, owing to his brilliant genius and his remarkably retentive memory. Possessing vast means, he gave him­self up to the enjoyments of life, and allowed his somewhat younger contem­porary, Cicero, completely to outstrip him. [Down to about 63 b.c. Horten-sius represented the nobiles, as against Cicero; but afterwards the two orators were generally on the same side.] He also tried his hand as a writer of history and as a poet. Of his writings we have onlv meagre notices. [Cio., Bruins, §§ 301-303.1

Hdrus (Egyptian Har). An Egyptian god, the son of Osiris and Isis. At the death of his father he was still a child. but when he had grown to be a stalwart youth (Harver, i.e. a " stronger Horns”), he overcame and captured Typhon, the murderer of his father, after a combat lasting over many days, and handed him over to Isis, who, however, let him go free. By the Egyptians he was deemed the victorious god of light (who overcame darkness, winter, and drought), and was identified with Apollo by the Greeks. He is often represented with the head of a hawk, which was sacred to him. He must be distinguished from a younger Horns. the Harpocrates o( the Greeks (in Egyptian Harpechntti, i.e. " Har the child "), who was received by Isis from Osiris in the under-world, and is the representative of the winter-sun, and also the image of early

* HOHTEXdlUS.

(Rome, Villa Albani.)

vegetation, and therefore identified with Priapus. Statues represent him as a naked boy with his finger on his mouth (see fig. 2, under Isis). Misunderstanding this symbol of childhood, the Greeks made him the god