Hellas, an ancient name for Greece.

Hero, a beautiful woman of Sestos, in Thrace, and priestess of Venus;
Leander, of Abydos, loved her so tenderly, that he swam over the
Hellespont every night to see her, and was at last drowned in his
passage across.

Alone, by night, his watery way he took;
About him, and above, the billows broke;
The sluices of the sky were open spread,
And rolling thunder rattled o'er his head.
The raging tempests called him back in vain,
And every boding omen of the main:
Nor could his kindred, nor the kindly force
Of weeping parents, change his fatal course;
No not the dying maid, who must deplore
His floating carcase on the Sestian shore.

VIRGIL.

Harpies, three winged monsters-Aello, Celano, and Ocypete; they had the faces of women, the bodies of vultures, and claws upon their hands. They are sometimes called Stymphalides.

Halimede, one of the Nereides.

Halimede, with her sea-green wreath.

HESIOD.

Hellespont, a famous strait, separating Europe from Asia, and opening a passage from the Archipelago to the Propontis, or sea of Marmora. On the Asiatic side, near the shore, the far-famed Troy was situate, and, at no great distance, were pointed out the tombs of Patroclus and Achilles.

Here young Leander perished in the flood,

And here the tower of mournful Hero stood:
Here, with a narrow stream, the flowing tide
Europe from wealthy Asia does divide.
From hence the curious victor passing o'er,
Admiring, sought the famed Sigæan shore:
There might the tombs of Grecian chiefs behold,
Renowned in sacred verse by bards of old;
There the long ruins of the walls appeared,
Once by great Neptune and Apollo reared.

LUCAN.

Heliades, the daughters of Apollo and Clymene, and sisters of Phæton; their names were Lampetia, Phætusa, and Lampethusa. From their excessive grief at the loss of their brother, the gods transformed them into poplars, and their tears became amber.

Hersilia, the wife of Romulus: after the apotheosis of her lord, mythologists feign that she rejoined him under the name of Ora.

Hamadryades, wood nymphs; the date of their existence is said to have commenced and terminated with that of the trees they cherished: the oak was peculiarly favoured by them.

Hesperides, daughters of Hesperus-named Egle, Arethusa, and Hesperathusa: they were appointed to take charge of the golden apples, presented by Juno to Jupiter on the day of their nuptials: the garden in which they resided was guarded by a dragon, which was slain by Hercules, when he obtained the fruit.

Th' Hesperian maids,

Whose charge o'ersees the fruits of blooming gold,
Beyond the sounding ocean, the fair trees

Of golden fruitage.

Hecate, the name by which Diana was known in hell.

HESIOD.

Hora, or the Hours, were three daughters of Jupiter and Themis, and are represented by the poets as keeping the gates of heaven.

Heaven's golden gates kept by the winged hours;
Commissioned in alternate watch they stand,
The sun's bright portals and the skies' command,
Involve in clouds th' eternal gates of day,

Or the dark barrier roll with ease away.

HOMER,

Hyacinth, a beautiful youth, beloved, and accidentally killed, by Apollo;

he was changed into the flower which bears his name.

Hybla, a famous mountain in Sicily.

Hell, the Tartarus of the ancients.

There, lasting night no beamy dawning knows,
No light but such as magic flames disclose;
Heavy, as in Tænarian caverns, there
In dull stagnation sleeps the lazy air.
There meet the boundaries of life and death,
The borders of our world, and that beneath.

LUCAN.

Hymettus, a mountain near Athens, celebrated for its quarries of marble,

and its fine honey.

Hesperus, poetically the evening star.

Hesperus displayed

His golden circlet in the western shade.

HOMER.

Hœmus, a mountain situated between Thrace and Thessaly, named by Ovid, as

Hæmus' mountain, bleak with northern blasts.

Ilion, a name for Troy.

Idya, a sea nymph, styled by Hesiod—

Idya,

Cheek-blooming, nymph of ocean's perfect stream.

Ilyssus, a river in Attica; there was a temple on its banks, dedicated to the muses.

Ino, a daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia: she nursed Bacchus. To avoid the fury of Juno, Ino threw herself into the sea, with her infant Melicerta in her arms, and they became sea deities.

Ida, a famous mountain near Troy, frequented by the gods; the rivers Scamander, Granicus, Æsepus, and Simois, have their source in it.

Ida, wood embosomed, many valed.

L

HESIOD.

Iphigenia, a daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. To avert the fury of the gods, Iphigenia was devoted as a sacrifice to Diana, but the goddess, touched with pity, substituted a beautiful goat for the destined victim, and appointed her one of her priestesses in Taurica.

Fair Iphigenia, the devoted maid,

Was by the weeping priests in linen robes arrayed;
All mourn her fate; but no relief appeared:

The royal victim bound, the knife already reared:
When that offended power, who caused their woe,

Relenting, ceased her wrath, and stopped the coming blow.
A mist before the ministers she cast,

And in the virgin's room a hind she placed.

The oblation slain, and Phoebe reconciled,

The storm was hushed, and dimpled ocean smiled.

Irene, one of the Hours; her sisters were Dia and Eunomia.

OVID.

Isis, the name under which Diana was worshipped by the Egyptians. Italia, a beautiful country in the south of Europe, famed both in ancient and modern history; from its fertility it has been styled the "garden of Europe."

A land there is, Hesperia called of old,
The soil is fruitful, and the people bold.
Th' Enotrians held it once, by later fame
Now called Italia, from the leader's name.

VIRGIL.

Jason, a Thessalian prince, who, with forty-nine companions, sailed to Colchis in search of the golden fleece; they were styled Argonauts from the name of their ship Argo.

With Jason's Argonauts they crossed the seas,
Embarked in quest of the famed golden fleece;
There, with the rest, the first frail vessel tried,
And boldly ventured on the swelling tide.

Junonalia, festivals celebrated at Rome in honour of Juno; they were the same as the Herea of the Greeks.

Junonia, a name of Carthage.

Juturna, a sister of Turnus, changed into a fountain near the Numicus,

and consecrated to Vesta.

Janitor and Junonius, names by which Janus is known.

Juno Inferna, a title of Proserpine as queen of hell.

Jupiter Infernus, or Stygius, titles of Pluto, as monarch of the infernal regions.

Japetus, a son of Cœlus and Terra; he was the father of Atlas, Prometheus, Epimetheus, and Menœtius: by the Greeks he was regarded as one of the most ancient of the gods.

Jupiter Secundus, a name by which Neptune was known amongst the ancients.

Juventa, tho goddess of youth: she was peculiarly worshipped at Rome.

Latona, the mother of Apollo and Diana.

The azure-robed Latona; ever mild;
Gracious to man and to immortal gods:
Mild from the first beginning of the world:
Gentlest of all within th' Olympian courts.

HESIOD.

Lethe, that famed river whose waters caused an oblivion of all past events.

Lethe's streams from secret springs below
Rise to the light; here, heavily and slow,
The silent, dull, forgetful waters flow.

LUCAN.

Lares, or Penates, household gods, sons of Mercury and Lara.

Lamiae, a name of the Gorgons.

Luna, Diana's name in heaven.