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HEROICAL EPISTLE HERRERA TORDESILLAS. 



guished for wNdom, strength, or courage. They 

 formed an intermediate link between men and gods. 

 They were demigods, whose mortal nature only was 

 destroyed by death, while the immortal ascended to 

 the gods. In mythology, these demigods are styled 

 heroes in a peculiar sense. The heroic age of Greece 

 terminated with the return of the Heraclidae into the 

 Peloponnesus (B. C. 1100), and forms the transition 

 from the brazen to the iron age. We find the follow- 

 ing heroic races : 1. the Prometheides, from Prome- 

 theus, called also the Deucalionides, from Deucalion ; 

 2. the Inachides, from Inachus ; 3. the Agenorides, 

 from Agenor; 4. the Danaides, from Danaus ; 5. 

 the Pelopides, or Tantalides, from Pelops or Tan- 

 talus ; 6. Uie Cecropides, from Cecrops. Individual 

 families, as, for instance, the jEacidee, Persidae, 

 Atridae, Heraclidae, belong to one or another of these 

 races. The heroic age is the age of romantic cour- 

 nge, of adventure and wonders. The heroes are 

 distinguished into those who flourished before the 

 Argonautic expedition, and those who flourished 

 after it. The most distinguished among the latter 

 are the heroes of the Trojan war. Those of the for- 

 mer class are more illustrious than those of the latter ; 

 for the remoter events afforded greater scope for the 

 embellishments of the imagination. The heroic age, 

 therefore, properly ends where the poetical traditions 

 of history cease. But the later heroes, removed by 

 time to a greater distance, survived in poetry, and 

 became clothed with godlike attributes ; yet hardly 

 any of them received the same homage which was 

 paid to the earlier race. Great sacrifices were not 

 offered to the heroes, as they were to the Olympian 

 deities ; but groves were consecrated to them, and 

 libations poured out on their sepulchres. According 

 to Plutarch, the Greeks worshipped the gods on the 

 day of the new moon, and the heroes on the day 

 after, and the second cup was always mingled in 

 honour of them. The residence assigned to them 

 after death is different. Bacchus, Hercules, Pollux, 

 and some others, entered the abodes of the eternal 

 gods ; others inhabited the islands of the blest ; and 

 others were placed among the constellations. The 

 ideas relative to this part of the heroic history, how- 

 ever, have continually varied. The heroes of the 

 G reeks corresponded to the lares of the Romans. 



HEROICAL EPISTLE, or HEROID ; a lyric 

 poem in the epistolary form, supposed to contain the 

 sentiments of some hero or heroine of history or fable, 

 on some interesting occasion. Ovid is considered as 

 the author of this kind of poetry, and, from his pro- 

 ductions, some critics have asserted that the heroid 

 belongs to the elegy. But though it may breathe 

 elegiac feeling, it may also adopt the high tragic 

 tone, as in Pope's Epistle of Eloisa to Abelard. No 

 nation has more works of this sort than the French ; 

 among whom Colardeau, Blin de St More, Dorat, 

 Pezay, Laharpe, deserve particular consideration. 



HERON (ardea, L.). This tribe of birds is very 

 numerous, and is almost universally spread over the 

 globe. It is distinguished by having a long bill, 

 cleft beneath the eyes, a compressed body, long 

 slender legs, and moderate wings. The tail is short, 

 rounded, and composed of ten or twelve feathers. 

 They are dull, inanimate birds, and are generally 

 seen either perched on trees near the water, or wad- 

 ing in search of food. They feed exclusively on 

 animals, particularly fish and reptiles. The common 

 heron of Europe (A. major) is about three feet two 

 inches in length, and five feet three inches in breadth 

 from tip to tip ; the body is exceedingly small, 

 weighing scarcely more than three pounds and a half. 

 It always has a lean and starved look, and, accord- 

 ing to Buffon, presents the image of suffering anxiety 

 and indigence. From this appearance of the bird 



the ancients drew some curious inferences ; thus 

 Pliny says, " Hi in coitu anguntur. Mares yuidem, 

 cum vocifcratu sanguinem etiam ex oculis profun- 

 dunt." This assertion, as might be supposed, is 

 wholly without foundation. Though in times of 

 frost and scarcity, herons can exist for a long time 

 with a very scanty supply of food, in favourable 

 weather they gorge themselves with insatiable vor- 

 acity. They are very expert fishers, and take prey 

 either by wading after it where the water is shallow, 

 or by diving from the air, when the object of their 

 pursuit appears near the surface of the water. They 

 digest an enormous load of food in a short time, and 

 again return to their destructive occupation with new 

 vigour and appetite. VVilloughby asserts, that ;. 

 single heron will destroy 15,000 carp in half a year. 

 Notwithstanding their size and powerful beak, herons 

 will fly from the smallest of the falcon tribe. The 

 flesh of the young heron was formerly a dish in high 

 repute. The most remarkable of the European 

 herons are the egrets (A. alba, which is found in 

 America, and A. gazetta). These are distinguished 

 by a large bunch of soft feathers rising from the 

 shoulders, and hanging down over the back and sides. 

 These feathers were formerly worn by knights in their 

 helmets, and still form a decoration for ladies' head- 

 dresses. In general habits, the American species 

 closely resemble those of Europe. They are dull 

 birds, and generally to be seen sitting on trees in the 

 neighbourhood of water. They build socially on high 

 trees, laying about four eggs. All the species fly 

 gracefully, with the neck Dent backwards, and the 

 head resting against the back. The females resemble 

 the males. The young differ from the adult, not ob- 

 taining their full plumage until after the third year. 

 They moult annually, when the long slender feathers 

 are also shed, and not renewed for some time. 



HEROSTRATUS, or ERATOSTRATUS ; a 

 citizen of Ephesus, who set fire to the splendid temple 

 of Diana, between the city and the port of Ephesus, 

 in order to transmit his name to posterity. Nothing 

 but the walls and a few columns of this exquisite 

 piece of architecture were left standing. The roof 

 and all the ornaments in the interior were totally 

 destroyed. The incendiary expiated his crime by a 

 miserable death. The assembly of the lonians 

 ordained that the name of Herostratus should be 

 consigned to eternal oblivion. But this decree 

 served to perpetuate his memory ; and Theopompus, 

 in liis history of Greece, satisfied the wishes of the 

 incendiary. Alexander the Great was born on the 

 night of this conflagration. 



HERRERA TORDESILLAS, ANTONIO DE ; a 

 Spanish historian, whose father's name was Torde- 

 sillas, but who adopted that of Herrera, from his 

 mother. He was born at Cuellar, in Segovia, in 

 1559. After finishing his education, he went to 

 Italy, when about twenty years old, and became 

 secretary to Vespasiano Gonzaga, brother to the duke 

 of Mantua, and went back with him to Spain, when 

 Gonzaga became viceroy of Navarre and Valencia. 

 The latter recommended him in his will to Philip II. 

 of Spain, and Herrera was appointed coronista mayor 

 de las Indias, and retained that post under Philip II., 

 III. and IV. He died in 1625, having been made, 

 shortly before his death, member of the council of 

 Philip IV. His works are all written in Spanish. 

 Nicolas Antonio mentions ten of a historical nature. 

 His principal work is Historia general de los Hechos 

 de los Cagtellanos en las Islas y Tierra Firms del 

 Mar Oceano (first edit. 1601, also 1615, folio). It 

 gives the history of the discoveries from 1492 to 

 1553. It is dedicated to Philip III., who had ordered 

 it to be written. Herrera states in the beginning, that 

 his object is to clear the character of his countrymen 



