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HERMAEA.
The Hermae of all kinds were in great request among the wealthy Romans, for the decoration of their houses and villas. It is also stated that they used them as posts for ornamental railings to a garden, in which case they were commonly decorated with the busts of philosophers and eminent men, some of which may be seen at the Vatican and other museums, with the square holes in their shoulders into which the transverse rail was inserted. This square hole, however, is also seen in Hermae of old Greek workmanship, in which cases they were probably the sockets of the projections, above mentioned, for hanging garlands on.
The existing remains of ancient art are rich in terminal statues of all the classes which have been described ; and specimens of nearly all may be seen in the British Museum, and in engravings in Mliller’s Denkmaler der alien Kunst (vol. i. pi. i. Nos. 3, 4, 5, vol. ii. pi. xxviii. Nos. 299, 300, 303, pi. xxxi. No. 341, pi. xxxiii. Nos. 376, 386, 387, pi. xxxvi. Nos. 428, 429, pi. xlii. No. 526). The first two examples in M tiller are very interesting : the one is a bas-relief, exhibiting a Hermes decorated with garlands and surrounded with the implements of his worship, as shown in the following engraving ; the other is also a bas-relief, in which
we see a terminal bust of Dionysus washed and de corated by a man and three women. Respecting the Hermae on coins, see Rasche, Lex Univ. Rei Num. s. vv. Her ma, Hermatkene, Hermes. [P. S.]
HERMAEA ("E^cua), festivals of Hermes, celebrated in various parts of Greece. As Hermes was the tutelary deity of the gymnasia and palaestrae, the boys at Athens celebrated the Hermaea in the gymnasia. They were on this occasion dressed in their best, offered sacrifices to the god, and amused themselves with various games and sports, which were probably of a more free and unrestrained character than usual. Hence the gym-nasiarch was prohibited by a law of Solon (Aeschin. c. Timarcli. p. 38) from admitting any adults on the occasion. This law, however, was afterwards neglected, and in the time of Plato (Lysis, p. 206, d. &c.) we find the boys celebrating the Hermaea in a palaestra, and in the presence of persons of all ages. (Becker, Charikles, vol. i. p. 335, &c.; compare gymnasium, p. 580, b.)
Hermaea were also celebrated in Crete, where, on this occasion, the same custom prevailed which was observed at Rome during the Saturnalia ; for the day was a season of freedom and enjoyment for the slaves, and their masters waited upon them at their repasts. (Athen. xiv. p. 639.)
HETAERAE.
The town of Pheneos, in Arcadia, of which Hermes was the principal divinity, likewise cele brated Hermaea with games and contests. (Pans, viii. 14. § 7.) A festival of the same kind was celebrated at Pellene. (Schol. ad Find. Ol. vii. 156, and Nem. x. 82.) Tanagra, in Boeotia (Pans. ix. 22. § 2), and some other places, likewise cele brated festivals of Hermes, but particulars are not known. [L. S.]
HERMATHENA. [hermae.]
I-IERMERACLAE. [hermae.]
HERONES, baskets or crates of sedge, which were employed, when filled with chalk, for making a foundation in the water (Vitruv. v. 12. § 5). Pliny states that the architect of the temple of Diana, at Ephesus, raised to their places immense blocks, which formed the architrave, by means of an inclined plane, constructed of herones filled with sand (ff. N. xxxvi. 14. s. 21). In these and the few other passages where it occurs, the readings of the word are very various. Different modern scholars have adopted one of the three forms, aerones, erones, or lierones. (See Schneider, ad Vitruv. L c.) [P. S.]
HEROON ("fipyov) [apotheosis ; fun us, pp. 556, b., 557, a.]
HESTIA (Iffri’a) [Focus.]
HESTIASIS (eo-TtWts), was a species of liturgy, and consisted in giving a feast to one of the tribes at Athens (rfy (pvXyv kcrnav, Dem. c. MeicL p. 565. 10 ; Pollux, iii. 67.) Tt was provided for each tribe at the expense of a person belonging to that tribe, who ‘was called IffTtctrcop. (Dem. c. Boeot. p. 996, 24.) Harpocration (s.v. ‘Ec-ncmo^) states on the authority of the speech of Demosthenes against Meidias, that this feast was sometimes provided by persons voluntarily, and at other times by persons appointed by lot ; but as Bockh remarks, nothing of this kind occurs in the speech, and no burthen of this description could have been imposed upon a citizen by lot. The ecmaTopss were doubtless appointed, like all persons serving liturgies, according to the amount of their property in some regular succession. These banquets of the tribes, called fyvAerz/ca Se’iirva by Athenaeus (v. p. 185, d), were introduced for sacred purposes, and for keeping up a friendly intercourse between persons of the same tribe, and must be distinguished from the great feastings of the people, which were defrayed from the Theorica. (Bockh, PuH. Econ. of Athens, p. 452, 2nd. eel. ; Wolf, Proleg. ad Dem. Le.ptin. p. Ixxxvii. note 60.)
HETAERAE (traipou). The word eraipa originally signified a friend or companion, but at Athens, and in other towns of Greece, it was afterwards used as a euphemistic name for iropvrj., that is, a prostitute, or mistress. (Pint. Solon, c. 15 ; Athen. xiii. p. 571.) As persons of this class acted a much more prominent and influential part in some of the Greek states than in any of the most demoralized capitals of modern times, we cannot avoid hi this work stating their position and their relations to other classes of society. But as their conduct, manners, ensnaring artifices, and impositions, have at all times and in all countries been the same, we shall confine ourselves to those points which were peculiar to the hetaerae in Greece.
First we may mention that the young men at Athens, previous to their marriage, spent a great part of their time in the company of hetaerae without its being thought blamable in any respect
