HOUR IIOtlRIS. 



811 



unfortunately fall from the bench by accident, his com- 

 panions fly at him and worry him to death. The beagle 

 is the smallest of the dogs kept for the chase, and is 

 only used in hunting the hare, and, though far inferior 

 in speed to that animal, will follow, by its exquisite 

 scent, with wonderful perseverance, till it fairly tires 

 the hare. The harrier differs from the beagle in 

 being somewhat larger, as well as more nimble and 

 vigorous ; they are also used almost exclusively in 

 the chase of the hare. One of the most extraordin- 

 ary hunts of this animal took place in England some 

 years since, showing the perseverance of her pursuers. 

 After a hard chase of sixteen miles, the timid creature, 

 finding herself closely pushed by the dogs, took to 

 the sea, and, being followed by the whole pack, after 

 braving the ocean for near a quarter of a mile, fell a 

 sacrifice to her stanch pursuers, and was brought 

 safe on shore by one of them. 



HOUR ; the twenty-fourth part of a day (q. v.). 

 In many countries, the hours are counted from mid- 

 night, and twelve hours are twice reckoned. But in 

 some parts of Italy, twenty-four hours are counted, 

 beginning with sunset, so that noon and midnight 

 are every clay at different hours. Each hour is 

 divided into sixty minutes, these into sixty seconds, 

 these into sixty thirds, &c. Many nations are totally 

 unacquainted with the division of the day into twenty- 

 four equal parts ; with others, the hours of the 

 (natural) day are longer or shorter than those of the 

 night. (See Day, and Sidereal Time.) The fixed 

 stars complete their apparent revolution round the 

 earth in twenty-four hours of sidereal time, and 

 therefore pass through 360 degrees in twenty-four 

 hours, or fifteen degrees in one hour. If we suppose 

 two observers fifteen degrees of longitude distant 

 from each other, one of them has the fixed star one 

 hour of sidereal time, or the sun one hour of solar 

 time, later in his meridian than the other. Meridians 

 are thence called hour-circles, or horary circles, by 

 which name they are known in dialling. A horary 

 angle is that angle which any hour-circle makes with 

 the meridian of the observer. If, for instance, it is 

 10 o'clock A. M. according to the sundial at the 

 place of observation, and the sun is therefore two 

 hours distant from the meridian, its hour-circle makes 

 an angle of 30 with the meridian. See Dial. 



HOURS ; with Homer, goddesses of the air and 

 the winds, the portresses of heaven. The old 

 Ionic bard does not fix their number, nor assign 

 them names. But, according to an old tradition, the 

 Athenians knew two. Thallo, the goddess of blos- 

 soms and of spring, and Carpo, the goddess of fruit- 

 bearing autumn. We likewise find these two 

 mentioned as Graces (q. v.), who, for a long time, 

 were considered, if not the same with the Horae, at 

 least as very closely 'Mnnected with them. They 

 were not only portresses of heaven but goddesses of 

 the seasons: the idea of the Horae was therefore 

 changed, but not so much so that the latter representa- 

 tion may not be easily derived from the former. The 

 idea of the goddesses of beauty, which was afterwards 

 united with that of the Graces and Horae, was also 

 easily deduced from their original character. Hora 

 signifies 1. originally, the air ; with this idea is 

 connected 2. the idea of time, which occurs frequent- 

 ly in Homer (/wra, among the Romans, signified 

 hour) ; and from this 3. the year. It is not with 

 him, however, the expression for any particular 

 season : when he wished to designate these, he added 

 the term spring, winter, &c. We then find, in a 

 narrower sense 4. Aora, the season of spring or 

 summer ; and, because this is the most beautiful 

 season -5. the time of the bloom of man, of youth, 

 beauty. Why the Hours and Graces should be con. 

 sidered as goddesses of the seasons is not difficult to 



be understood, when we remember that the Graces 

 (according to the etymology of the name, Charites) 

 were the givers of joy. We here speak not of the 

 later Graces, but of the early Attic Hegemone, the 

 governess of the year, and Auxo, the giver of increase. 

 With these two, the Attic Hours were often con- 

 founded, and they were afterwards distinguished by 

 making the Hours bring in the seasons, and repre- 

 senting the Graces as rendering them agreeable. 

 Thus iar, the difficulty of explaining this fable is not 

 very great ; but it increases, when we consider the 

 later representation of the Hours in Hesiod. Accord- 

 ing to this poet, there are three Horae, daughters of 

 Themis, whose names are Dike (Justice), Eunomia 

 (Order) and Eirene (Peace). It is obvious that these 

 have nothing in common with the portresses of heaven 

 or the goddesses of the seasons ; a physical idea 

 lying at the foundation of the latter, and a moral 

 idea forming the foundation of the former. The 

 Hours experienced the same changes as the Graces. 

 As the idea of the latter was transferred from the 

 physical pleasure to moral beauty, so in the former, 

 there was a transition from the physical to moral 

 order, while they still continued the goddesses of 

 beauty and loveliness. But how happened it that 

 three political, moral abstractions, such as the Hours, 

 could so supplant the goddesses of time and of the 

 year, that the latter should almost sink into forget- 

 fulness ? Without doubt, Themis, was here the 

 turning point of the transition. The Hours, as god- 

 desses of time, were the daughters of Themis, as 

 she was at first conceived of as the goddess of 

 physical order, particularly in regard to time. These 

 daughters may have had in the beginning, entirely 

 different names. When Themis is afterwards con- 

 sidered as moral order, these moral abstractions are 

 attributed to her as daughters, and these supplant 

 either the early Attic, or the still earlier nameless 

 Homeric goddesses. In this way beauty is also 

 again received as the quality of the Horae, so that 

 the goddesses of beauty are looked upon as god- 

 desses of law and order. That all these ideas were 

 often confounded together, and thus rendered the 

 mythology of the Horae very complicated, appears 

 from the double list of them in Hyginus, who twice 

 names eleven Hours. All these names are significant, 

 and, in the first catalogue, we find merely the daughters 

 of Themis as seasons and authors of civil prosperity ; 

 but, in the second, they appear in a narrower signifi- 

 cation, as divisions of the day and of life. According 

 to the usual accounts, however, there are three 

 Horse, who, in the words of Hesiod, bring to perfec- 

 tion all the undertakings of men. Statuary, in the 

 earliest times, represents only two ; for example, on 

 the throne at Amyclae. On the other hand, there 

 were three on the throne of the Olympian Jupiter. 

 On a candelabrum in the villa Albani, they are 

 represented in the attitude of dancers, with their 

 robes gathered up by a loop fixed on the side. The 

 first figure bears in her hand a fruit-dish, and near 

 her lie fruits, a symbol of autumn ; the other two 

 hold nothing in their hands, but at the feet of one 

 burns, upon an elevated stone, a fire, the emblem of 

 winter, and at the side of the third is placed a flower, 

 the emblem of spring. Their heads are crowned 

 with garlands of leaves. On a candelabrum in the 

 Farnese palace, there are four figures ; those on a 

 sarcophagus in the villa Albani are remarkably 

 beautiful and expressive. 



HOUR1S ; virgins who, in Mohammed's paradise, 

 are one of the rewards of the blest. According to 

 the description of the Koran, they surpass, in their 

 dazzling beauty, both pearls and rubies ; they are sub- 

 ject to no impurity, and reserve the languishing 

 glances cf their dark black eyes for individual 



