Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 11.djvu/759

are in themselves sufficient to show that the library belonged to a person whose principal study was the Epicurean philosophy. But of the great mas- ter of this school only a few works have been Of his treatise into 37 books, it is known that there were three copies in the library (Coll. alé., vi.). Quite recently Professor Comparetti, studying the first fasciculus of volume xi. of the same new collection, recognized most important fragments of the Ethics of Epicurus, and these he published in 1879 in Nos. ix. and xi. of the Rivista di Filologia cd Istru- stone classica, Turin. Even the other authors above mentioned are but poorly represented, with the exception of Philodemus, of whom 26 different’ treatises have been recognized. But all these philosophic discussions, belonging for the most part to an author less than secondary among the Epicureans, fall short of the high expectations excited by the first discovery of the library. Among the many volumes unrolled only a few are of historical importance,—that edited by Biicheler, which treats of the philosophers of the academy (Acad. phil. index Hercul., Greifswald, 1859), and that edited by Comparetti, which deals with the Stoics (‘* Papiro ercolanese inedito,” in dtivista di Fil. cd Ist. class. anno iii., fasc. x.-xii.). To appreciate the value of the volumes unrolled but not yet published (for 146 vols. were only copied and not printed), the student must await the appearance of Comparctti’s paper, ‘‘Relazione sui papiri ercolanesi,” read in the Reale Accad. dei Lincei, which will appear in the ‘‘ Proceedings” of the academy for 1879. Contributions of some value have been made to the study of Herculaneum fragments by Spengel (‘‘ Die Hercul. Rollen,” in Philologus, 1868, suppl. vol.), and Gompertz (Hercul. Studien, Leipsic, 1865-66, cf. Zeitschr. f. dsterr. Gymn., 1867-1872). There are in the library some volumes written in Latin, which, according to Boot (Notice sur les manuscrits trouvés & Herculaneum, Amsterdam, 1845), were found tied up in a bundle apart. Of these we know 18, but they are all so damaged that hardly any of them can be deciphered. One with verses relating to the battle of Actium is believed to belong to a poem of Rabirius. The numerical preponderance of the works of Philodemus led some people to believe that this had been the library of that philosopher. But quite recently Professor Comparetti has come to the conclusion that the library was collected by Lucius Piso Cresoninus (see Pompei c la Regione Sotterrata dal Vesuvio, Naples, 1879, p. 159 sq.). A new support to the theory of Professor Comparetti is furnished by the epigraphic fragment edited by De Petra (7b., p. 251 sq.); but Dr Mau takes up a counter position,—he is the first to do so,—and shows that the fragment must have another interpretation (Bal. Inst. di Corr. Arch., 1880). Professor De Petra has also published the official notices upon the antiquities unearthed in the sumptuous villa, giving the plan executed by Weber and recovered by chance by the director of excavations, Michele Ruggiero. This plan, which is here reproduced from De Petra's monograph,^[1] is the only satisfactory document for the topography of Herculaneum ; for the plan of the theatre published in the Bullettino archcologico-italiano (Naples, 1861, i. p. 53, tab. iii.) was executed in 1747, when the excavations were not completed. And even for the history of the “finds” made in the Villa Suburbana the necessity for further studies makes itself felt, since there is a lack of agreement between the accounts given by Alcubierre and Weber and those communi- cated to the Philosophical Transactions (London, vol. x.) by Camillo Paderni, conservator of the Portici Museum. It is hoped, there- fore, that among the papers recovered by Ruggicro there may be others which will shed light on what remains dark in the topography of the buried city.

Plan of Villa Ercolanese, Herculaneum.

Among the older woiks relating to Herculaneum, in addition to those already quoted, may be mentioned De Brosses, Lettre sur Vétat actuel de la ville smuiterraine d Heracléa, Paris, 1750 ; Seigneux de Correvon, Lettre sur la découverte de Vancicnne ville d Herceulane, Yverdon, 1770; David, Les antiquités @ Herculaneum, Paris, 1780 ; D’Ancora Gaetano, Prospetto storico-fisico degli scavit a Ercolano e di Fompei, Naples, 1803 ; Venuti, Prime Scoverte di Ereolano, Rome, 1748 ; and. Romanelli, Viaggio ad Ercolano, Naples, 1811. A full list will be found in vol. i. of dAfusco Borbonico, Naples, 1824, pp. 1-11.

(f. b.)

HERCULES (Old Latin, Hercoles, Tercles) is the Latinized form of the mythical Heracles, the chief national hero of Hellas, who has part in all the most important myths of the generation before that which embraces the Homeric warriors at Troy. The name “HpaxAjjs is com- pounded of J/era, the goddess, and the stem of kdées, “ olory.” The thoroughly national character of Heracles is shown by his being the mythical ancestor of the Dorian dynastic tribe, while revered by Ionian Athens, Lelegian Opus, and AXolo-Phcenician Thebes, and closely associated with the Achzan heroes Peleus and Telamon. The Perseid Alcmene, wife of Amphitryon of Tiryns, was Hercules’s mother, Zeus his father (see Alcmene). After his putative father he is often called Aminphitryoniades, and Alcides too, after the Perseid Alczus, father of Amphitryon. His mother and her husband lived at Thebes in exile as guests of King Creon. By the craft of Hera, his foe through life, his birth was delayed, and that of Eurystheus, son of Sthenelus of Argos, hastened, Zeus having in effect sworn that the elder of the two should rule the realm of Perseus. Hera sent two serpents to destroy the new-born Hercules, but he strangled them. He was trained in all manly ac- complishments by heroes of the highest renown in each, until he slew Linus, his instructor in music, with the lyre. Thereupon he was sent to tend Amphitryon’s oxen, and at this period slew the lion of Mount Cithzron. By the sub- jection of the Minyans of Orchomenus he won Creon’s

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1. The diagram shows the arrangement and proportions of the Villa Ercolanese, p indicating pictures, b bronzes, m marble statues or busts, pa papyri, and f fountains. The dotted lines show the course taken by the excavations, which began at the lower part of the plan.