Heracles \ , her-9-,klez\ Latin Hercules Legendary hero of ancient Greece and Rome. Known for his great strength, he was the son of Zeus and Alcmeme, the granddaughter of Perseus. Zeus’s jealous wife Hera sent two serpents to kill Heracles in his cradle, but the infant strangled them. He grew up to marry a princess, then killed her in a fit of rage sent by Hera and was forced to become the servant of Eurystheus, ruler of Greece. Eurystheus obliged Heracles to perform the famous 12 labors, including cleansing the Augean stables, fetching the golden apples of the Hes- perides, and descending into Hades to bring back the three-headed dog Cerberus. He married Deianeira, who later sent him a shirt smeared with poison, which she mistakenly believed was a love potion. In agony, Her¬ acles burned himself to death on a pyre, and his spirit ascended to heaven. He became an immortal and married Hebe. See photograph above.
heraldry Art and science of devising, displaying, and granting armo¬ rial insignia and of tracing and recording genealogies. The use of heral¬ dic symbols as a means of identification spread throughout the European nobility in the 13th century. The principal vehicle for displaying the heral¬ dic devices is the shield; in the full armorial achievement, the shield is augmented by the helmet, crest, mantling, crown, wreath, motto, com¬ partment (base), and supporters. Arms are hereditary; all male descendants of the first person to whom they were granted bear the arms. As insignia of honour, they are protected by law in the European monarchies, Ireland, Switzerland, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. See also coat of arms; eccle¬ siastical heraldry.
Heracles breaking the horns of the hind of Arcadia, flanked by Athena and Arte¬ mis, detail of a Greek vase painting, c. 540 bc; in the British Museum
COURTESY OF THE TRUSTEES OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM; PHOTOGRAPH, THE HAMLYN GROUP PICTURE LIBRARY
herb See SPICE AND HERB
herbal Ancient manual of plants used for medicinal purposes. Hundreds or thousands of medicinal plants were known in ancient India, China, and Greece and medieval Europe. In the late 16th century, European herb- als began to include plants from the Western Hemisphere. Their accuracy varies widely, but many of the plants in herbals later became sources for drugs (e.g., digitalis).
herbarium Collection of dried plant specimens mounted on sheets of paper, identified by experts and labeled by their proper scientific names, together with other informa¬ tion (where they were collected, how they grew, etc.). These specimens are filed in cases according to families and genera, available for ready ref¬ erence. Like botanical gardens and arboretums, herbaria are the “dictio¬ naries” of the plant kingdom, the ref¬ erence specimens essential to the proper naming of unknown plants.
Herbert, George (b. April 3,
1593, Montgomery Castle,
Wales—d. March 1, 1633, Bemerton, Wiltshire, Eng.) British Metaphysi¬ cal poet. He was elected orator of Cambridge University in 1620, a posi¬ tion that involved him with the royal court. He was later ordained and became a rector at a rural parish, to which he devoted himself unstint- ingly until his death. His poems, published only after his death in The Temple (1633), concern personal, doctrinal, and ritual matters, and they are noted for their mastery of metrical form, use of allegory and analogy, and religious devotion. Some are pattern poems, the lines forming a shape suggestive of the subject. (See also Metaphysical poetry.)
Herbert, Victor (August) (b. Feb. 1, 1859, Dublin, Ire.—d. May 26, 1924, New York, N.Y., U.S.) Irish-born U.S. composer. After his widowed mother married a German doctor, he was raised in Stuttgart, and he stud¬ ied at its conservatory. He married the soprano Therese Forrester in 1886, and they moved to the U.S., she to sing and he to play in the orchestra at the new Metropolitan Opera. He was soon active as a conductor, cellist, composer, and teacher. His solid training, orchestrating skill, and melodic gift found natural expression in more than 40 operettas, including Babes in Toyland (1903), Mile Modiste (1905), The Red Mill (1906), and Naughty Marietta (1910).
Watercolour illustration from the Badi- anus Manuscript, an Aztec herbal in Latin by Juan Badianus and Martinus de la Cruz, 1552; in the Vatican Library
COURTESY OF THE VATICAN LIBRARY, VATICAN CITY
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
866 I Herbert ► hermeneutics
Herbert, Zbigniew (b. Oct. 29, 1924, Lwow, Pol.—d. July 28, 1998, Warsaw) Polish poet and essayist. Herbert started writing at age 17 but published little before 1956. His poetry expresses an ironic morahsm in free verse laden with classical and other historical allusions. His most dis¬ tinguished collection of poetry, Elegy for an Exit, was published in 1990. His essays, published in volumes such as Barbarian in the Garden (1962) and The King of the Ants (1999), are also memorable.
herbicide Agent, usually chemical, for killing or inhibiting the growth of unwanted plants (weeds). Modern weed killers are put in two catego¬ ries, selective (affecting specific plant species) and nonselective (affect¬ ing plants generally). These in turn are classified as foliage-applied and soil herbicides. Contact herbicides (e.g., sulfuric acid, diquat, paraquat) kill only the plant organs with which they are in contact. Translocated her¬ bicides (e.g., amitrole, picloram, 2,4-D) are effective against roots or other organs, to which they are transported from aboveground treated surfaces (soil). See also defoliant.
herbivore Var-bo-.vorV Animal adapted to subsist solely on plant tissues. Herbivores range from insects (e.g., aphids) to large mammals (e.g., elephants), but the term is most often applied to ungulates. Adaptations for a herbivorous diet include the four-chambered stomach of ruminants, the ever-growing incisor teeth of rodents, and the specialized grinding molars of cattle, sheep, and goats. Certain herbivores eat only one type of food (e.g., the koala), but most have at least moderate variety in their diet.
Herblock orig. Herbert Lawrence Block (b. Oct. 13, 1909, Chi¬ cago, Ill., U.S.—d. Oct. 7, 2001, Washington, D.C.) U.S. editorial car¬ toonist. He first published his cartoons in the Chicago Daily News (1929). Later he worked for the Newspaper Enterprise Association (1933—43) and the Washington Post (from 1946). A leading spokesman for liberalism, he attacked injustices in politics, big business, industry, labour, and econom¬ ics throughout his 70-year career. He is best known for his 1950s car¬ toons attacking Senator Joseph McCarthy. The winner of three Pulitzer Prizes (1942, 1954, 1979), Herblock received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994.
Herculaneum \,h9r-kyu- , la-ne-9m\ Ancient city, Campania, Italy. Located at the northwestern foot of Vesuvius, it was destroyed, together with Pompeii and Stabiae, by the eruption of ad 79. It was buried under a mass of tufa about 50 to 60 ft (15 to 18 m) deep, which made excavation difficult but preserved many fragile items. Excavation began in the 18th century and uncovered numerous artifacts, including paintings and furni¬ ture. Later work uncovered the palaestra (sports ground) and a vast cen¬ tral swimming pool.
Hercules See Heracles
Herder, Johann Gottfried von (b. Aug. 25, 1744, Mohrungen, East Prussia—d. Dec. 18, 1803, Weimar, Saxe-Weimar) German critic and philosopher. Trained in theology and literature, he initially worked as a teacher and preacher at Riga. As court preacher at Biickeburg, he pro¬ duced works, including Plastik (1778) and Essay on the Origin of Lan¬ guage (1772), that made him the leading figure of the Sturm und Drang literary movement. In 1770 he met Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who would be his associate for many years and with whom he would help lay the groundwork for German Romanticism. With Goethe’s help, he received an appointment at Weimar in 1776; his Sporadic Papers (1785-97) and the unfinished Outlines of a Philosophy of the History of Man (1784-91), attempting to show that nature and history obey one system of laws, mark him as an innovator in the philosophy of history and an early proponent of the idea that a common culture, rather than political boundaries, defines a people. His later estrangement from Goethe resulted in a bitter enmity toward the whole Classical movement in German poetry and philosophy.