HEBKON. 708 HECKER. HEBBON. A city and the county-seat of Thayer County, Neb., 65 miles southwest of Lin- coln ; on tile Little Blue Kiver, and on the Bur- lington and Jlissouri Kiver and the Chicago, Kock Island and Pacific railroads (Map: Ne- braska, G 3 ) . It is the commercial centre for a farming and stock-raising district. Population, in 1S90, 1502; in 1900, loll. HEBRUS, he'brus. The ancient name of the river Mantza (q.v.). HEC'AT^'US (Lat., from Gk. 'E/cotows, Hckalaios) . The most important of the Greek logographers (q.v.), son of Hegesander of Mile- tus. He flourished about B.C. 500. At the time of the Ionian revolt (c.501-493 B.C.) he strove in vain to keep his countrymen from entering upon the war with Persia, and after their defeat he went as an ambassador to Artaphemes. the Per- sian satrap, and induced him to treat the lonians kindly. Like most of the logographers, he was an extensive traveler; to judge from the frag- ments of his work, he must have visited Greece, Thrace, the countries bordering on the Euxine, a great part of Persia, Africa, and possibly Italy and Spain. He wrote a work called Genealogies (Teveaf-oylat), which was little more than a prose version of the poetical legends of the Greeks. His Tour of the World {Ueplodos P-^s), in two books^ is interesting from the fact that it- was accompanied by a map, probably based upon that of Anaximander ( q.v. ) . The fragments of these two works are published by Miiller, Frag- meiita Historicorum (lr(Fcoriiin, i. and iv. (Paris, 1841-70). Consult, also: Atenstadt, De Hecatcei Milesii Fragiiientis quce ad Hispaniam et Galliam Pertinent, Leipziger Stitdien, xiv. (1891); Tro- pea, Erateo da Mileto ed i frammenti della periegesis (estratto degli Atti dell' Aead. Pelor- mitana. 1890-97). HECATE, hgk'a-te (Lat., from Gk. 'E/cdr^, He- katc, the far-working goddess, from fiac, tiekas, afar). An anciint moon goddess, as is clear, not only from her functions, but from the direct statements of the ancients. She is first men- tioned by Hesiod, as the only daughter of the Titan Perses, and of Asteria, or night. The poet praises her as a mighty goddess ruling earth, heaven, and sea. the helper of hunters and fisher- men, giver of victory in battle and council. Like other moon goddesses, she appears as helper of women in their confinement, guardian of children, and a goddess of marriage; she also possesses the power of purifying from sin. like Apollo. Mys- teries were celebrated in her honor at ^-Egina, and in canjunction with the Corybantes in the Zeryn- thian cave of Samothrace. The special seats of her worship are found in Asia Minor and on the east coast of Greece, though in later times she was widely honored. Hecate in the general be- lief of antiquity was associated with the guard- ianship of doors and roads, and her sanctuaries seem in general to have been little more than wayside shrines. A statue of the triple Hecate by Alcamenes stood near the entrance to the Acropolis of Athens, and she was worshiped in private houses. The crossroads were under her special protection, and at them sacrifices, especial- ly of dogs, were oflFered. At each new moon, also, the rich set out in her honor food, which was eaten by the poor. As a goddess of the night Hecate is also associated with the lower world, a companion of Persephone, and guardian of her door. She had control of the spirits of the dead, goblins, and spectres, her coming was greeted by the howling of dogs, and she was invoked .by magicians and witches. From these varied func- tions, it is not strange that she became closely connected with I'ersephone, and especially with Artemis. In art she was at first represented as a maiden carrying torches, and this type persisted through the classical period. The common type, however, derived probably from her epithet Tp'o(Sir(f (Lat. Trivia, "where three roads meet'), was that of three bodies, joined so as to face in three directions. In the frieze of the great altar at Pergamum, Hecate is shown as having three heads and six arms, but a single body, and this type appears occasionally in later works. Con- sult: Preller-Robert, Griechische Mythologie (Berlin, 1894), and especially Roscher, "Hekate," in Lvxikon der griechischen und romischen My- Iholuyie (Leipzig, 1886-90). HECATOMB (Lat. hecatomhe, from Gk. eKarSfi^ri, hckatombc, from iKarbv, hekaton, hundred + /Sous, bous, ox). Strictly, a sacrifice of 100 oxen, but even in the Homeric poems a term for any sacrifice of a large number of ani- mals; thus we hear of a hecatomb of 12 oxen or of 50 rams. The belief that the favor of the gods was dependent upon the size of the offering probably was one factor in inducing such large numbers of victims ; but a powerful influence was also exerted by the desire to feed the popu- lace, since only a small part of each victim was actually consumed upon the altar. See also S.CRIFICE. HECK, B.VBBABA (1734-1804). One of the founders of the Methodist Church in America. She was born, of German parentage, in Bally- garry County, Limerick, Ireland, a district which early felt the influence of Wesley's preaching. She and her husband, Paul, came to America in 1760, and in 1766, with Philip Embury, organized a Methodist society in New York Cit}'. The building of the famous old John Street Methodist Church was due, in great part, to her tireless energ%'. During the Revolution the Hecks re- tired to northern New York, and finally to Cana- da, to be among Loyalists. They founded the earliest Methodist society in Canada. HECK'ER, Friedrich Isarl Franz (1811- 81). A German revolutionist and American sol- dier. He was born at Eichtersheini. in Baden, September 28, 1811, and after studying law in Heidelberg became, m 1838, advocate of the Su- preme Court in Mannheim. Elected, in 1842, a member of the second Chamber in Baden, he aban- doned his profession for political life, and .soon grew popular among the more advanced elements of the opposition. He sat and voted with the Ex- treme Left, and his influence helped to oust the Blittersdorf Ministry from office. In 1845, in con- junction with Itzstein. he conducted a democratic campaign in Gennany, during which he was ar- rested at Berlin and expelled from Prussia. In 1848 he employed his eloquence in revolutionary agitation, and he and Struve became leaders of the advanced Revolutionary party. When the preliminary convention of the German nation i.Das Vorparlament) met at Frankfort. Hecker endeavored, with the influence of his whole party, to constitute it into a permanent republican assembly. The frustration of this effort led him to attempt to surprise the smaller governments
