union (Zollverein), he acted in 1851 as one of its commissioners
at the great industrial exhibition at London, and published
an elaborate report on the woollen goods. Three years later
he was president of the committee of judges at the similar
exhibition at Munich, and the report of its proceedings was
drawn up by him. In 1855 he became councillor of state, the
highest honour in the service. From 1835 to 1847 he contributed
a long series of reviews, mainly of works on economical subjects,
to the Münchener gelehrte Anzeigen and also wrote for Rau’s
Archiv der politischen Ökonomie and the Augsburger allgemeine
Zeitung. As head of the bureau of statistics he published a
series of valuable annual reports (Beiträge zur Statistik des
Königreichs Bayern, Hefte 1-17, 1850–1867). He was engaged
at the time of his death, on the 23rd of November 1868, upon
a second edition of his Staatswirthschaftliche Untersuchungen,
which was published in 1870.
Hermann’s rare technological knowledge gave him a great advantage in dealing with some economic questions. He reviewed the principal fundamental ideas of the science with great thoroughness and acuteness. “His strength,” says Roscher, “lies in his clear, sharp, exhaustive distinction between the several elements of a complex conception, or the several steps comprehended in a complex act.” For keen analytical power his German brethren compare him with Ricardo. But he avoids several one-sided views of the English economist. Thus he places public spirit beside egoism as an economic motor, regards price as not measured by labour only but as a product of several factors, and habitually contemplates the consumption of the labourer, not as a part of the cost of production to the capitalist, but as the main practical end of economics.
See Kautz, Gesch. Entwicklung d. National-Ökonomik, pp. 633-638; Roscher, Gesch. d. Nat.-Ökon. in Deutschland, pp. 860-879.
HERMANN, JOHANN GOTTFRIED JAKOB (1772–1848),
German classical scholar and philologist, was born at Leipzig on
the 28th of November 1772. Entering the university of his
native city at the age of fourteen, Hermann at first studied law,
which he soon abandoned for the classics. After a session at
Jena in 1793–1794, he became a lecturer on classical literature in
Leipzig, in 1798 professor extraordinarius of philosophy in the
university, and in 1803 professor of eloquence (and poetry, 1809).
He died on the 31st of December 1848. Hermann maintained
that an accurate knowledge of the Greek and Latin languages was
the only road to a clear understanding of the intellectual life of the
ancient world, and the chief, if not the only, aim of philology.
As the leader of this grammatico-critical school, he came into
collision with A. Böckh and Otfried Müller, the representatives of
the historico-antiquarian school, which regarded Hermann’s view
of philology as inadequate and one-sided.
Hermann devoted his early attention to the classical poetical metres, and published several works on that subject, the most important being Elementa doctrinae metricae (1816), in which he set forth a scientific theory based on the Kantian categories. His writings on Greek grammar are also valuable, especially De emendanda ratione Graecae grammaticae (1801), and notes and excursus on Viger’s treatise on Greek idioms. His editions of the classics include several of the plays of Euripides; the Clouds of Aristophanes (1799); Trinummus of Plautus (1800); Poëtica of Aristotle (1802); Orphica (1805); the Homeric Hymns (1806); and the Lexicon of Photius (1808). In 1825 Hermann finished the edition of Sophocles begun by Erfurdt. His edition of Aeschylus was published after his death in 1852. The Opuscula, a collection of his smaller writings in Latin, appeared in seven volumes between 1827 and 1839.
See monographs by O. Jahn (1849) and H. Köchly (1874); C. Bursian, Geschichte der klassischen Philologie in Deutschland (1883); art. in Allgem. deutsche Biog.; Sandys, Hist. Class. Schol. iii.
HERMANN, KARL FRIEDRICH (1804–1855), German classical
scholar and antiquary, was born on the 4th of August 1804, at
Frankfort-on-Main. Having studied at the universities of
Heidelberg and Leipzig, he went for a tour in Italy, on his return
from which he lectured as Privatdozent in Heidelberg. In 1832
he was called to Marburg as professor ordinarius of classical
literature; and in 1842 he was transferred to Göttingen to the
chair of philology and archaeology, vacant by the death of
Otfried Müller. He died at Göttingen on the 31st of December
1855. His knowledge of all branches of classical learning was
profound, but he was chiefly distinguished for his works on Greek
antiquities and ancient philosophy. Among these may be
mentioned the Lehrbuch der griechischen Antiquitäten (new ed.,
1889) dealing with political, religious and domestic antiquities;
the Geschichte und System der Platonischen Philosophie (1839),
unfinished; an edition of the Platonic Dialogues (6 vols., 1851–1853);
and Culturgeschickte der Griechen und Römer (1857–1858),
published after his death by C. G. Schmidt. He also
edited the text of Juvenal and Persius (1854) and Lucian’s
De conscribenda historia (1828). A collection of Abhandlungen
und Beiträge appeared in 1849.
See M. Lechner, Zur Erinnerung an K. F. Hermann (1864), and article by C. Halm in Allgemeine deutsche Biographie, xii. (1880).
HERMAPHRODITUS, in Greek mythology, a being, partly male,
partly female, originally worshipped as a divinity. The conception
undoubtedly had its origin in the East, where deities of a similar
dual nature frequently occur. The oldest traces of the cult in
Greek countries are found in Cyprus. Here, according to
Macrobius (Saturnalia, iii. 8) there was a bearded statue of a
male aphrodite, called Aphroditos by Aristophanes (probably in
his Νίοβος, a similar variant). Philochorus in his Atthis (ap.
Macrobius loc. cit.) further identified this divinity, at whose
sacrifices men and women exchanged garments, with the moon.
This double sex also attributed to Dionysus and Priapus—the
union in one being of the two principles of generation and conception—denotes
extensive fertilizing and productive powers.
This Cyprian Aphrodite is the same as the later Hermaphroditos,
which simply means Aphroditos in the form of a herm
(see Hermae), and first occurs in the Characteres (16) of
Theophrastus. After its introduction at Athens (probably in the
5th century B.C.), the importance of this being seems to have
declined. It appears no longer as the object of a special cult, but
limited to the homage of certain sects, expressed by superstitious
rites of obscure significance. The still later form of the legend, a
product of the Hellenistic period, is due to a mistaken etymology
of the name. In accordance with this, Hermaphroditus is the son
of Hermes and Aphrodite, of whom the nymph of the fountain of
Salmacis in Caria became enamoured while he was bathing. When
her overtures were rejected, she embraced him and entreated
the gods that she might be for ever united with him. The result
was the formation of a being, half man, half woman. This story
is told by Ovid (Metam. iv. 285) to explain the peculiarly enervating
qualities of the water of the fountain. Strabo (xiv. p. 656)
attributes its bad reputation to the attempt of the inhabitants of
the country to find some excuse for the demoralization caused by
their own luxurious and effeminate habits of life. There was a
famous statue of Hermaphroditus by Polycles of Athens, probably
the younger of the two statuaries of that name. In later Greek
art he was a favourite subject.
See articles in Daremberg and Saglio, Dictionnaire des antiquités, and Roscher’s Lexikon der Mythologie; and for art, A. Baumeister, Denkmäler des klassischen Altertums (1884–1888).
HERMAS, SHEPHERD OF, one of the works representing the
Apostolic Fathers (q.v.), a hortatory writing which “holds the
mirror up” to the Church in Rome during the 3rd Christian
generation. This is the period indicated by the evidence of the
Muratorian Canon, which assigns it to the brother of Pius,
Roman bishop c. 139–154. Probably it was not the fruit of a
single effort of its author. Rather its contents came to him
piecemeal and at various stages in his ministry as a Christian
“prophet,” extending over a period of years; and, like certain
Old Testament prophets, he shows us how by his own experiences
he became the medium of a divine message to his church and to
God’s “elect” people at large.
In its present form it falls under three heads: Visions, Mandates, Similitudes. But these divisions are misleading. The personal and preliminary revelation embodied in Vision i. brings the prophet a new sense of sin as essentially a matter of the heart,
