Chapter Hero and Leander to Hexameter Verse of H by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Hero and Leander to Hexameter Verse

Hero and Leander The tale is that Hero, a priestess of Venus, fell in love with Leander, who swam across the Hellespont every night to visit her. One night he was drowned, and heart-broken Hero drowned herself in the same sea.

Hero Children Children of whom legend relates, that being deserted by their parents, they were suckled by wild beasts, brought up by herdsmen, and became national heroes.

Heroes scratched off Church-doors Militia officers were so called by Sheridan. The Militia Act enjoined that a list of all persons between eighteen and forty-five years of age must be affixed to the church door of the parish in which they reside three days before the day of appeal, Sunday being one. Commission officers who had served four years in the militia being exempt, their names "were scratched off."

Heroic Age That age of a nation which comes between the purely mythical period and the historic. This is the age when the sons of the gods take unto themselves the daughters of men, and the offspring partake of the twofold character.

Heroic Medicines Those which either kill or cure.

Heroic Size in sculpture denotes a stature superior to ordinary life, but not colossal.

Heroic Verse That verse in which epic poetry is generally written. In Greek and Latin it is hexameter verse, in English it is ten-syllable iambic verse, either in rhymes or not; in Italian it is the ottava rima. So called because it is employed to celebrate heroic exploits.

Herod A child-killer; from Herod the Great, who ordered the massacre of the babes in Bethlehem. (Matt. ii. 16).
   To out-herod Herod. To out-do in wickedness, violence, or rant, the worst of tyrants. Herod, who destroyed the babes of Bethlehem, was made (in the ancient mysteries) a ranting, roaring tyrant; the extravagance of his rant being the measure of his bloody-mindedness. (See Pilate.)

"Oh, it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious, periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings ... it out-herods Herod." - Shakespeare: Hamlet, iii. 2.

Herod's Death (Acts xii. 23). The following died of a similar disease [phthiriasis]: L. Sylla; Pherecydes the Syrian (the preceptor of Pythagoras); the Greek poet Alcmæon, and Philip II. of Spain.
   Phthiriasis is an affection of the skin in which parasites are engendered so numerously as to cover the whole surface of the body. The vermin lay their eggs in the skin and multiply most rapidly.

Herodotus of Old London (The). John Stow, author of the Survey of London (1525-1605).

Heron-crests The Uzbeg Tartars wear a plume of white heron feathers in their turbans.

Herostratos or Erostratos. An Ephesian who set fire to the temple of Ephesus in order that his name might be perpetuated. The Ephesians made it penal to mention the name, but this law defeated its object (B. C. 356).

Herring Dead as a shotten herring. The shotten herring is one that has shot off or ejected its spawn. This fish dies the very moment it quits the water, from want of air. Indeed, all the herring tribe die very soon after they are taken from their native element. (See Battle.)

"By gar de herring is no dead so as I vill kill him.' - Shakespeare: Merry Wives of Windsor, ii.2.

   Neither barrel the better herring. Much of a muchness; not a pin to choose between you; six of one and half a dozen of the other. The herrings of both barrels are so much alike that there is no choice whatever. In Spanish: "Qual mas qual menos, toda la lana es pelos."

"Two feloes being like flagicious, and neither barell better herring, accused either other, the kyng Philippus ... sitting in judgment vpon them ... condemned both the one and the other with banishmente." - Erasmus: Apophthegmes.