HEPH^STION. 787 cheiridio-n peri metron) , which is still extant, is supposed to have been liis tiual abridgment. Though it gives merely a bare sketch of prosody, ■without any theoretical explanation of the facts, it is of great value; it is the only treatise on Greek prosody preserved complete from an- tiquity, and contains quotations from many lost poets. An incomplete treatise on the different forms of poetry and composition is appended to it. The manual has been edited by Gaisford (Oxford, 1810) and liy Westphal in his Scrip- iorcs Mctrici (Irccci {Leipzig, 1806). HEPHAESTUS, he-fes'tus. See Vulcan. HEP'TAGON (from Gk. iirTdyavos, hepta- gOnoK, seven-cornered, from cirTd, luptti, seven -f- yoipla, gonia, angle). A plane geometric figure of seven sides. It has especial interest because the regular heptagon cannot be constructed by elementary geometry. See Polygon. HEPTAM'ERON (Gk. iTrra-^/xepov, hcptae- meroii, from e?rTd, hepta, seven -f- iifi^pa, hctnera, day). The name of a collection of tales made by several writers at the Court of JIarguerite d'e Valois. Le ilagon, at the Queen's behest, translated Boccaccio's Decameron in 1445. The Decameron inspired the form and other elements of the Beptaineron. The ten story-tellers of Boccaccio fled from pest-stricken Florence to a beautiful villa, where ten stories are told every day for ten days. In the Heptameron five elegant men and women, being caught by a storm at the foot of the Pyrenees, determine to while away the time by having each of the company tell a story every day for ten days. But Jlar- guerite left only seven days and two stories of the eighth day. The Joycux Devi: of Bonaventure des Periers continues the tradition of the old French fabliaux and farces, whereas the Heptam- eron, as has been shown, is Italian in genesis and in tone. The body of the work is, like the old fabliaux, cynical and often licentious; but the Hcptan^eron ' ^iovis more feeling for natural beauty, and there is an occasional touch of altruistic devotion and even of lyric passion. Thus the Heptameron introduces into French fiction an element of emotional psy- chology. It makes of a story designed to amuse an instrument of observation and a method of description of human passion. It transfers the interest, rarely and tentatively, yet really, from act to motive — bearing witness to the keener psy- chology that resulted from the Protestant train- ing in controversial dialectics, universal in the Court circle of Marguerite, to whom the editing at least of the Heptameron is to bo attributed. The Heptameron was first published in 1558. There are many later editions of textual ac- curacy, and there is a partial and rmfaithful English version. HEPTAN'OMIS. A name given by the Greeks to the interior of Egypt from 30° "to 27° N., which comprised nearly all the greatest Egyptian cities and monuments. HEPTARCHY (from Gk. iwri, hepta, seven -l" apxv, arrhr. kingdom, from dpxuv, archein, to rule). The name formerly given to the king- doms established by the Angles and Saxons in England. It was believed that there were seven kingdoms, which were contemporaneous and well established, but all that can be safely asserted is that England before the beginning of the ninth century was peopled by various tribes, HEPTATEUCH. which were constantly at war with each other, and that sometimes one tribe wa.s conquered, and sometimes another. At no time was there a counterpoise of j)ower among seven of them, so that they could be said to have a separate, much less an independent, existence. Still, seven names do survive. Occasionally the King who was most powerful for the time being was styled Bretwalda, but in most instances the power of this supposed ruler, beyond the limits of his own territory, must have been very small. The hege- mon}- among the Saxon States generally rested with one of the three great frontier kingdoms, Northumbria, ilercia, and Wessex. The su- premacy of Nortliumbria was established by Ed- win (q.v.), who fell in battle against I'enda, King of Mercia, in G33. Under Egbert (802-39) Wessex rose to be su])reme. and virtually swal- lowed up the others. The following are the seven kingdoms commonly said to have formed the heptai'ohy: Kent, Sussex, Wessex, Essex. North- umbria, East Anglia, and Wercia. Consult: Ramsay, The Foundations of England, vol. i. (London, 1898) ; Green, The Making of England (London and New York, 1881). See Anglo- Saxons ; also the articles under the seven names mentioned. HEP'TASOPHS, lMPRo'En Order of. A fra- ternal association in the United States, organ- ized in 1878, as an offshoot from the Order of Heptasophs (q.v.), from which it ditTered by the adoption of death benefits as one of its fea- tures. The ritual, governing principles, condi- tions of membership, and methods of business are identical with the original order. At the close of 1902 the order had 722 conclaves, repre- senting a membership of 52.825; had paid dur- ing the last fiscal year $944,615 in death benefits, and claimed to have disbursed since its organ- isation the sum of $0,970,010. HEPTASOPHS, Oroer of. A benevolent fra- ternal order in the LTnited States, founded in New Orleans in April, 1852, by Alexander Leon- ard Saunders and several prominent Free JIasons. It was originally called the order of "Seven Wise Men," but the title was later changed to the Greek form. The ritual is verj' elaborate, and much significance is attached to the number seven, the membership in each chap- ter being either seven or a multiple of that num- ber. After 1872 the adoption of a death benefit system was agitated, but aroused great opposi- tion, leading in 1878 to the secession of the Zeta Conclave of Baltimore, which organized the Im- proved Order of Heptasophs. {See Heptasophs, I.MPROVED Order of.) In 1880 the order finally adopted the benefit feature. Mcmbersbi]) is con- fined exclusively to white male persons, and a belief in the existence of a Sui)reme Being is required. In 1891 the membership in 18 States was about 4000. HEPTATEUCH, hep'tA-tfik (from Gk. iirrd, hepta, seven + TfOxof, tcnrhoft, tool, book). A word formed on the analogy of Pentateuch, mean- ing the first seven books of the Bible. It is ap- plied particularlv to an abridgment and transla tion of these books, with the Book of Job, into Anglo-Saxon, made by .Elfric the Grammarian (q.v.) in the tenth century. There are copies of it in the British Museum and the Bodleian Library. It was first printed in 1698 by Edward Thwaites.
