HEMIOPIA 



HEIIA. 



light cannot be borne, as well as of those conditions in which great 

 dilatation of the pupil is requisite for vision, an in commencing cataract, 

 .city of the centre of the lens or it* capsule. 



II KM IV) PI A (from fcJ, "half," and &f, " the eye") is a disease in 

 which the patient sees only a part of the object he looks at ; the middle 



rt, or more commonly 

 some cases it arises 

 as when part of the 

 transparent tissues of the eye become opaque, or when the upper eye- 

 lid falls over half the pupil. But more frequently it is the result of a 

 morbid and partial insensibility of the retina, produced by the excessive 

 stimulus of a bright light, and will cease after a night's rest ; some- 

 times it is a consequence of disordered digestion ; and sometimes a 

 symptom of commencing amaurosis, or gutta serena, and terminates in 

 complete blindness. 



A very interesting account of this disease U given in the ' Philo- 

 sophical Transactions,' for 1824, by Dr. Wollaston, who himself 

 suffered from it on two occasions. He endeavoured to explain it by 

 the semi-decussation of the optic nerves [EYE] ; and it is remarkable 

 that the appearances found in his brain after death were such as on 

 that theory might have been anticipated. But in a large proportion of 

 the cases the affection is too transient to admit of the supposition of 

 any organic disease. 



HEMIPINIC ACID (C_H fo O M + 4 aq.) is formed by the higher 

 oxidisement of opianic acid, one equivalent of which, by the addition 

 of two equivalents of oxygen, gives rise to one equivalent of hemipinic 

 acid ; this addition is effected by heating either opianic acid or narcotine 

 with dilute sulphuric acid and binoxide of lead, care being taken not 

 to decompose the hemipinic acid as it is formed. 



Hemipinic acid crystallises in colourless quadrilateral prisms. The 

 crystals contain four equivalents of water, which are expelled below 

 212 Fahr. It has a slight taste, is soluble in water, melts in 356, 

 and sublimes like benzoic acid in shining laminm It is bibaic, and 

 forms with ammonia a readily soluble and crystalline salt ; with oxide 

 of silver it forms an insoluble, white, pulverulent powder, the com- 

 position of which is represented by CjoH.O,,,, 2AgO. 



HEMIPLEGIA. [APOPLEXY.] 



HEMISPHERE. [SPHERE.] 



HKMITONE, an interval in ancient music, the ratio of which 



;- . 



HEMP. [LIKEN.] 



HENDECAGON, a figure of eleven sides. For the regular hende- 

 cagon see REGULAR FIGURES. 



H KPATITIS. [LIVER, DISEASES OF THE.] 



II r.I'H .KSTL'S (VHcfKucrroi) of the Greeks, Vulcajius of the Romans, 

 the god of fire, especially so far as it manifests itself as one of the 

 elementary powers of nature in volcanic districts, and so far as it is 

 an indispensable means for the working in metal and prosecuting the 

 pursuits of industry in general. According to Homer, Hephicstus 

 was the son of Zeus and Hera, and was from his birth so weakly and 

 ugly, that his mother, wishing to get rid of him, dropped him from 

 Olympus. But Thetis and Eurynome, two marine divinities, received 

 him falling, and with them he dwelled concealed for nine years, during 

 which period he made various beautiful ornaments for the two god- 

 desses. Whenever he remembered the cruel act of his mother, he felt 

 indignant at her shameful treatment, and it was in revenge of this act 

 that he made the golden chair, from which, when she sat in it, she was 

 unable to rise, and from which he would not release her until Dionysus 

 interceded for her ; but otherwise he was kind and obedient to her, 

 and on one occasion when he took her part against his father, Zeus 

 seized him by the foot and hurled him from Olympus. He feU for 

 a whole day, nnd came down on the island of Lemnos, where he was 

 kindly received by the Sintians. He afterwards returned to Olympus, 

 where he inhabited a palace built by himself, and which " immortal, 

 starry, brazen," outvied the abodes of the other immortals (' II.' xviii). 

 Here he had his workshop with its anvil and twenty bellows which 

 worked at his bidding, and he produced the most exquisite specimens 

 of art both for gods and men. His wife is called in the ' Iliad ' Charis, 

 but in the ' Odyssey ' it is Aphrodite, who however is faithless to him. 

 She favoured Ares, and Hephtestus being informed of it by Helios 

 (the Sun), caught the lovers together in a net, and called all the 

 gods together to witness the spectacle. At the request of Poseidon, 

 however, he liberated them. In the Trojan war Hephaestus sided 

 with the Greeks, though he had a temple and priests at Troy also. 



This is an outline of the story of Hephaestus, as far as it can be 

 gathered from the Homeric poems. Other traditions mentioned by 

 later writers state that he had no father, and that he was born of 

 Hera without her having had any connection with a god or male 

 being, in the name manner as Zeus gave birth to Athene. Others 

 called Hephaestus a son of Talus, Coelus, Nilus, or Menanus, but these 

 are foreign traditions transferred into Greece. Some legends describe 

 Hephmtus as having become lame from his fall from Olympus upon 

 the island of Lemnos, whereas according to Homer he was weak and 

 lame from his birth. According to Virgil and other Latin writers, 

 Vulcan does not produce his wonderful works of art alone, but is 

 assisted by the Cyclopes, and hU workshop is not in Olympus, but in 

 some volcanic inland. 11 in favourite island was Lemnos, but other 

 vulcanic islands also, such as Lipara, Hiera, Imbros, and Mount .-Etna 



n Sieily, are described as places in which he lived and worked. 

 The ancient epic poets abound in descriptions of wondrous works of 

 art said to have been made by Hephicstus. Like Athene, he is the 

 divinity that gives skill to mortals, and teaches them the arts which 

 gladden and adorn human life. That both divinities were looked upon 

 as somewhat akin to each other, is clear not only from several legends, 

 but also from the fact that at Athens they had common festivals and 

 temples. The festivals celebrated at Athens in his honour were 

 Hephaestia and Chalcia, the former of which was particularly splendid 

 on account of the torch races (lampadephoria). 



The worship of Hephaestus seems to belong to the oldest religious 

 institutions of the ancient world, and undoubtedly arose from the 

 worship of fire, so common among uncivilised nations and in the East. 

 Later poets therefore, in applying the name of Hephaestus or Vulcan 

 to fire in general, returned in some manner to the original idea of the 

 god. In Samothrace, where remnants of the ancient Pelasgian religion 

 continued to exist long after the introduction of the Hellenic religion 

 into Greece, Hephaestus was the first among the Cabiri. In }'.- 

 he was one of the twelve great national gods ; and we find his worship 

 established at Rome from the earliest times. A temple of Vulcan, 

 situated close by the Comitium, is mentioned as early as the reign of 

 Romulus and Tatius, and from the stories and rites connected with 

 his worship at Rome, we must infer that his temple was viewed in a 

 similar light to that of Vesta, that is, as a place of union, or the central 

 point of the state. 



The Fornacalia (from furna.r, a furnace), which festival was cele- 

 brated at Rome on the 17th of February, was probably an ancient 

 festival of Vulcan ; his great festival, however, which was celebrated 

 every year on the 23rd of August, with games in the Circus Flaniiiiiu*, 

 was in later times the great festival of the god. The Romans often 

 dedicated to him the arms taken from an enemy : they were piled up 

 and burnt. The Romans frequently designate Vulcan by the name 

 Mulciber, which seems to have been given to him as a propitiating 

 name, that he might not destroy the habitations and property of men 

 by fire, but that he might be a beneficent and mild god, using his 

 powers only to serve the human race. Hephaestus was not unfre- 

 quently represented in works of art, the most ancient of which seem 

 to have been the dwarfish figures which were placed in private houses 

 near the hearth. When art had reached a maturer state, he was 

 represented as a man of full growth, at first as of youthful form, 

 later as a bearded and vigorous man. His most celebrated statue was 

 that by Alcamenes at Athens, representing the god in a standing 

 position, and slightly indicating his lameness. On vases and gems he 

 is frequently figured in connection with Aphrodite; as revenging him- 

 self on Ares; working in his smithy, Ac. His attributes are the in- 

 struments of the art of working in metal, as the hammer and the like, 

 the Saniothracian oral cap, and the chiton which leaves the right 

 shoulder and arm uncovered. 



(Jacobi, Handtedrtertiuch der driecfiitch. and R&m. MythiJogic, under 

 ' Heplucstus ; ' Hartung, Die Religion der BSmer, ii, p. 106, &c. ; Hirt, 

 MytltiiliigiKhtt JiUderlnKfi, p. 42, &c. ; Miiller, Archauluyie der Jiuntt, 

 366-8.) 



HEPTAGON, a figure of seven sides. For the regular heptagon, see 

 REGULAR FIGURES. 



HEPTYLENE. [CE.NAXTIIYI.KXE.] 



HERA ("Hpo) one of the twelve deities of the Greek Olympus, the 

 Juno of the Roman Mythology, was the eldest daughter of Kronos and 

 Rhca, the sister and wife of Zeus, the goddess of marriage and child- 

 birth, and the protectress of married women. Her worship was of very 

 great antiquity at Argus and throughout the whole of the Pelopon- 

 nesus. The Saimans, as well as the Spartans, are supposed to have 

 derived their knowledge of this deity from Argos (' Pans.,' iii. 13 ; vii. 

 4) ; and the same is said to have been the case with the inhabitants of 

 Epidaurus, ^Egina, and Byzantium (Miiller's ' Dorians.' i., p. llu, Eng. 

 transl.). Her name also occurs in the early mythology of Corinth. 



Although inferior in power to Zeus, Hera was treated with equal 

 honour by the other Olympian deities. The Homeric poems emit tin 

 but little of the mass of strange fiction attached to her in later times. 

 She is represented in the ' lUad ' as jealous, obstinate, quarrelsome, 

 and revengeful. Her disputes with her husband form a subject of 

 frequent reference. At one time she even conspired with Athene and 

 Poseidon to seize and bind the cloud-disjoin. Imt Thetis gave him 

 warning, and with the aid of Briareus freed him from his bonds, c 11.' 

 i. 899.) It was then, perhaps, that Zeus inflicted on her the punish- 

 ment he recals to her memory when angry with her for interfering 

 against Hector and the Trojans ; that, namely, of hanging her aloft in 

 the sky, with her hands manacled, and two anvils fastened to her feet. 

 (' 11.,' xv. 17, &c.) Hera seems always afterwards to have had a due 

 dread of openly braving the anger of the father of the gods ; but she was 

 not afraid to gain her ends, however opposed to his, by subtlety, of 

 which Homer records several instances. One of the most celebrated 

 of her contrivances was the borrowing the cestus of Aphrodite, in order 

 to stimulate the love of Zeus. (' II.,' xiv.) But though Homer speaks 

 much of the differences between them, he also shows that Zeus con- 

 fided his inmost purposes to his wife, and that she always reckons on 

 his confidence. The well-known story of her contention for the prize 

 of beauty with Aphrodite and Athene was told to account for In r 

 active interference against the Trojans. 



