Roman

times; and in a time of trouble 300 citizens walked willingly into his fires, while 200 children of the best families were sacrificed to him. At Kades in Spain (‘the holy city”) pillars alone represented him, but Melikertes wore the golden belt of Teucer and Pugmalion—the circle which we so often see surrounding the winged archer sun god in Babylonia (Rivers of Life, i, p. 213; ii, p. 64). The Greeks and Romans might well say that in every land they found their Hercules, [He learned the lyre from Linos when young, that being the windy season. He made his famous choice between light and darkne . He conquered Kuknos (“the swan”), according to Euripi des, this being a common emblem of the snow cloud. He freed the sea from monsters —or storms—in summer. Hesiod says he freed Prométhe us—the fire. The poisoned garb was given him by his wife Deianeira (“husband destroyer”), whom he had rescued from the Kentaur cloud. She was jealous of Iolé, the violet sunset, whom he loved; and his charioteer is Iolaos. He takes part in the expedition of the Argo, to fetch the golden fleece: and wrestles with Antaios, the giant born _ of ocean and earth, as Gilgamas fights a giant also. He is called Daphne-phoros (“dawn bringer”), and above all Sotér, “ the saviour.” —Ep.] Hermes. The Greek god of stones, stone heaps, and boundaries, also the swift me enger. [Like the Vedik Sarama—the me enger dog—the word seems to come from sar “to go,” “to i ue,” and hence an “extent” or boundary—Ep.] The original Hermes was a heap or karn of stones, or an erect stone around which a karn was made by visitors, each leaving a stone as a memorial (see Gale’ed). He answered to the Latin Mercurius, and to other me enger gods such as Nebo, and had the winged hat and winged sandals, with the caduceus or snake rod, and the scrotum or bag, as he appears on a vase found by M. Clermont Ganneau at Jerusalem (Quarterly Stat. Pal. Expl. Fund., October 1874). He was naturally worshiped by all me engers and travellers, commercial agents, and those who went by sea. For he was the swift wind, and so the thief who stole light things, and thus the patron of thieves, holding the bag or purse. He is said to have been the thief Cacus (see Héraklés), and as the wind he was also a harper, having found the shell of a turtle whence he made the lyre. He is the soft breeze, and plays his lyre as he goes. But the Latins called him “the universal column supporting all things.” He answered, according to them, to the Teutonic Tuisko (see Rivers of Life, ii, pp. 219, 384; figs. 237, 281). He also © appears as Hermes Kriopheros, “the ram bearing Hermes”: for on his golden ram the twins fled (see Helle); and as such he became the type of Christ bearing the lamb, in catacomb pictures. Hertha. Aertha. The Teutonic earth gode specially worshiped at Shrove-tide when the ploughs were carried in proce ion (see Bertha). She was the mother of the gods (see Earth); and Tacitus visited her shrine in groves by the ocean (see Sir G. Cox, Ar. 260