Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/504

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490
HIPPOLYTUS.
HIPPOLYTUS.

the island of Cos. (Thessali Orat. ad Aram, in Hippocr. Opera, vol. iii. p. 840.)


HIPPO′LYTE (Ἱππολύτη). 1. A daughter of Ares and Otrera, was queen of the Amazons, and a sister of Antiope and Melanippe. She wore, as an emblem of her dignity, a girdle given to her by her father; and when Heracles, by the command of Eurystheus, came to fetch this girdle, Hippolyte was slain by Heracles. (Heracles; Hygin. Fab. 30.) According to another tradition, Hippolyte, with an army of Amazons, marched into Attica, to take vengeance on Theseus for having carried off Antiope; but being conquered by Theseus, she fled to Megara, where she died of grief, and was buried. Her tomb, which was shown there in later times, had the form of an Amazon's shield. (Paus. i. 41. §7; Plut. Thes. 27; Apollod. ii. 5. §9; Apollon. Rhod. ii. 968.) In some accounts Hippolyte is said to have been married to Theseus instead of Antiope. Euripides, in his Hippolytus, makes her the mother of Hippolytus.

2. The wife of Acastus, according to Pindar (Nem. iv. 57, v. 26); but Apollodorus calls her Astydameia. [Acastus.]


HIPPO′LYTUS (Ἱππόλυτος). 1. One of the giants who was killed by Hermes. (Apollod. i. 6. §2.)

2. A son of Theseus by Hippolyte or Antiope. (Schol. ad Aristoph. Ran. 873; Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 449, 1329, 1332; Eurip. Hippol.) After the death of the Amazon, Theseus married Phaedra, who fell desperately in love with Hippolytus; but as the passion was not responded to by the step-son, she brought accusations against him before Theseus, as if he had made improper proposals to her. Theseus thereupon cursed his son, and requested his father (Aegeus or Poseidon) to destroy him. (Cic. de Nat. Deor. iii. 31, de Off. i. 10; Serv. ad Aen. vi. 445, vii. 761.) Once therefore, when Hippolytus was riding in his chariot along the sea-coast, Poseidon sent a bull forth from the water. The horses were frightened, upset the chariot, and dragged Hippolytus till he was dead. Theseus afterwards learned the innocence of his son, and Phaedra, in despair, made away with herself. Asclepius restored Hippolytus to life again, and, according to Italian traditions, Artemis placed him, under the name of Virbius, under the protection of the nymph Egeria, in the grove of Aricia, in Latium, where he was honoured with divine worship. (Hygin. Fab. 47, 49; Apollod. iii. 10. §3; Ov. Met. xv. 490, &c., Fast. iii. 265, vi. 737; Horat. Carm. iv. 7. 25; comp. Virbius.) There was a monument of his at Athens, in front of the temple of Themis. (Paus. i. 22. §1.) At Troezene, where a tomb of Hippolytus was shown, there was a different tradition about him. (Paus. i. 22. §2; comp. Eurip. Hippolytus.)

There are two other mythical personages of this name. (Apollod. ii. 1. §5 ; Diod. iv. 31.)


HIPPO′LYTUS (Ἱππόλυτος). 1. An early ecclesiastical writer of considerable eminence, but whose real history is so uncertain, that almost every leading point of it is much disputed. He appears to have lived early in the third century; and the statement commonly received for a long time was, that he was bishop of Portus Romanus (the harbour of Rome), at the mouth of the Tiber (for which the Paschal Chronicle is one of the earliest authorities, if not the earliest), and that he suffered martyrdom under Alexander Severus, or about his time, being drowned in a ditch or pit full of water. That his learning was great, and his writings numerous, we have the testimony of Eu- sebius and .lerome, the earliest writers who speak of him. They both speak of him as a bishop, but without naming his see (for the passage in the Chronica of Eusebius, in which he is called iwicTKo- TTos UopTov Tou KUTci 'Pw/xTju, is evidently corrupt), and Jerome expressly asserts that he could not ascertain it. His episcopal dignity, in the common understanding of the word eTrlaKoiros, is disputed by C. A. Heumann, who contends that he was " praefectus " of the port of Ostia ; but we are not aware that this opinion has found any supporters. (Heumann, Primiiiae Gottivg. No. xvii. p. 239.)

As Eusebius thrice mentions Hippolytus, in im- mediate connection with Beryl! us, bishop of Bostra in Arabia, it is contended by Le Moyne, Asse- mani [Bibl. Orient, vol. iii. p. i. c. vii. p. 15), and others, that Hippolytus was also an Arabian bishop, and Le Moyne contends that he was a native of that country. In the treatise De Duahus Naturis, generally regarded as a work of pope Gelasius I. [Gelasius, No. 3], he is called " Arabiae Metro- polita," but this, so far as his metropolitan rank is concerned, is an error, the probable origin of which is pointed out by Basnage. The ignorance of Jerome as to his see, and the mistake of Gelasius as to his dignity, render it very ixnlikely that he was bishop of any place in the immediate neigh- bourhood of Rome, still less of Rome itself, as Le- ontius of Byzantium, and Anastasius Sinai ta, appear to have held. The fact of his works being in the Greek language increases the improbability of his being an Italian bishop, or of his belonging at all to the west of Europe ; though the instances of Clement of Rome and Irenaeus prevent this argu- ment from being quite conclusive. That he was an Arabian, at least an Eastern bishop, is most likely; but the opinion of Le Moyne and others, that he was bishop of the city in the territory of Adana, which was the great emporium of the Roman trade (Philostorg. H. E. iii. 4), and was therefore called Portus Romanus, is very questionable. Its only support is the subsequent currency of the belief that Hippolytus was bishop of the Portus Roma- nus, near Rome ; but this belief is more likely to have gained ground from the mouth of the Tiber, or its vicinity, being the scene of Hippolytus's martyrdom.

The time in which he lived is determined by Eusebius, who places him in the early part of the third century ; and whose statement leads us to reject the account of Palladius {Hist. Lausiac. c. 148, apud Bibl. Pair. vol. xiii. p. 104, ed. Paris, 1654) and Cyril of Scythopolis ( Vila S. Euthymii apud Cotelerius, Eccl. Graec. Monuni.yol.'w. p. 82) that he was acquainted with the apostles. Photius makes him a disciple of Irenaeus, which may be true ; the same may be said of the statement of Baronius, who " had read somewhere " that he was a disciple of Clement of Alexandria ; a statement repeated by some moderns (Semler, Hist. Eccles. Selevta Capita, vol. i. p. 73), but supported by no other appeal to ancient authority than tlie very in- distinct one of Baronius. Photius says that Hip- polytus was an intimate friend and admirer of Origen, whom he induced to become a comment- ator on the Scriptures, and for whose use he main- tained at his own cost seven amanuenses or clerks, to write from his dictation, Taxy7pu^o/, and aa