Chapter IV: Front Matter (4)

HIPPOCRATES, Greek philosopher and writer, termed the "Father of Medicine," was born, according to Soranus, in Cos, in the first year of the 80th Olympiad, i.e. in 460 B.C. He was a member of the family of the Asclepiadae, and was believed to be either the nineteenth or seventeenth in direct descent from Aesculapius. It is also claimed for him that he was descended from Hercules through his mother, Phaenarete. He studied medicine under Heraclides, his father, and Herodicus of Selymbria; in philosophy Gorgias of Leontini and Democritus of Abdera were his masters. His earlier studies were prosecuted in the famous Asclepion of Cos, and probably also at Cnidos. He travelled extensively, and taught and practised his profession at Athens, probably also in Thrace, Thessaly, Delos and his native island. He died at Larissa in Thessaly, his age being variously stated as 85, 90, 104 and 109. The incidents of his life are shrouded by uncertain traditions, which naturally sprang up in the absence of any authentic record; the earliest biography was by one of the Sorani, probably Soranus the younger of Ephesus, in the 2nd century; Suidas, the lexicographer, wrote of him in the 11th, and Tzetzes in the 12th century. In all these biographies there is internal evidence of confusion; many of the incidents related are elsewhere told of other persons, and certain of them are quite irreconcilable with his character, so far as it can be judged of from his writings and from the opinions expressed of him by his contemporaries; we may safely reject, for instance, the legends that he set fire to the library of the Temple of Health at Cnidos, in order to destroy the evidence of plagiarism, and that he refused to visit Persia at the request of Artaxerxes Longimanus, during a pestilential epidemic, on the ground that he would in so doing be assisting an enemy. He is referred to by Plato (_Protag._ p. 283; _Phaedr._ p. 211) as an eminent medical authority, and his opinion is also quoted by Aristotle. The veneration in which he was held by the Athenians serves to dissipate the calumnies which have been thrown on his character by Andreas, and the whole tone of his writings bespeaks a man of the highest integrity and purest morality.

Born of a family of priest-physicians, and inheriting all its traditions and prejudices, Hippocrates was the first to cast superstition aside, and to base the practice of medicine on the principles of inductive philosophy. It is impossible to trace directly the influence exercised upon him by the great men of his time, but one cannot fail to connect his emancipation of medicine from superstition with the widespread power exercised over Greek life and thought by the living work of Socrates, Plato, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Herodotus and Thucydides. It was a period of great intellectual development, and it only needed a powerful mind such as his to bring to bear upon medicine the same influences which were at work in other sciences. It must be remembered that his training was not altogether bad, although superstition entered so largely into it. He had a great master in Democritus, the originator of the doctrine of atoms, and there is every reason to believe that the various "asclepia" were very carefully conducted hospitals for the sick, possessing a curious system of case-books, in the form of votive tablets, left by the patients, on which were recorded the symptoms, treatment and result of each case. He had these records at his command; and he had the opportunity of observing the system of training and the treatment of injuries in the gymnasia. One of his great merits is that he was the first to dissociate medicine from priest-craft, and to direct exclusive attention to the natural history of disease. How strongly his mind revolted against the use of charms, amulets, incantations and such devices appears from his writings; and he has expressly recorded, as underlying all his practice, the conviction that, however diseases may be regarded from the religious point of view, they must all be scientifically treated as subject to natural laws (_De aere_, 29). Nor was he anxious to maintain the connexion between philosophy and medicine which had for long existed in a confused and confusing fashion.[1] His knowledge of anatomy, physiology and pathology was necessarily defective, the respect in which the dead body was held by the Greeks precluding him from practising dissection; thus we find him writing of the tissues without distinguishing between the various textures of the body, confusing arteries, veins and nerves, and speaking vaguely of the muscles as "flesh." But when we come to study his observations on the natural history of disease as presented in the living subject, we recognize at once the presence of a great clinical physician. Hippocrates based his principles and practice on the theory of the existence of a spiritual restoring essence or principle, [Greek: physis], the _vis medicatrix naturae_, in the management of which the art of the physician consisted. This art could, he held, be only obtained by the application of experience, not only to disease at large, but to disease in the individual. He strongly deprecated blind empiricism; the aphorism "[Greek: he peira sphalere, he krisis chalepe]" (whether it be his or not), tersely illustrates his position. Holding firmly to the principle, [Greek: nouson physies ietroi], he did not allow himself to remain inactive in the presence of disease; he was not a merely "expectant" physician; as Sydenham puts it, his practice was "the support of enfeebled and the coercion of outrageous nature." He largely employed powerful medicines and blood-letting both ordinary and by cupping. He advises, however, great caution in their application. He placed great dependence on diet and regimen, and here, quaint as many of his directions may now sound, not only in themselves, but in the reasons given, there is much which is still adhered to at the present day. His treatise [Greek: Peri aeron, hydaton, kai topon] (_Airs, Waters, and Places_) contains the first enunciation of the principles of public health. Although the treatises [Greek: Peri krisimon] cannot be accepted as authentic, we find in the [Greek: Prognostikon] evidence of the acuteness of observation in the manner in which the occurrence of critical days in disease is enunciated. His method of reporting cases is most interesting and instructive; in them we can read how thoroughly he had separated himself from the priest-physician. Laennec, to whom we are indebted for the practice of auscultation, freely admits that the idea was suggested to him by study of Hippocrates, who, treating of the presence of morbid fluids in the thorax, gives very particular directions, by means of succussion, for arriving at an opinion regarding their nature. Laennec says, "Hippocrate avait tente l'auscultation immediate." Although the treatise [Greek: Peri nouson] is doubtfully from the pen of Hippocrates, it contains strong evidence of having been the work of his grandson, representing the views of the Father of Medicine. Although not accurate in the conclusions reached at the time, the value of the method of diagnosis is shown by the retention in modern medicine of the name and the practice of "Hippocratic succussion." The power of graphic description of phenomena in the Hippocratic writings is illustrated by the retention of the term "facies Hippocratica," applied to the appearance of a moribund person, pictured in the _Prognostics_. In surgery his writings are important and interesting, but they do not bear the same character of caution as the treatises on medicine; for instance, in the essay _On Injuries of the Head_, he advocates the operation "of trephining" more strongly and in wider classes of cases than would be warranted by the experience of later times.

The _Hippocratic Collection_ consists of eighty-seven treatises, of
which a part only can be accepted as genuine. The collection has been
submitted to the closest criticism in ancient and modern times by a
large number of commentators (for full list of the early commentators,
see Adams's _Genuine Works of Hippocrates_, Sydenham Society, i. 27,
28). The treatises have been classified according to (1) the direct
evidence of ancient writers, (2) peculiarities of style and method,
and (3) the presence of anachronisms and of opinions opposed to the
general Hippocratic teaching--greatest weight being attached to the
opinions of Erotian and Galen. The general estimate of commentators is
thus stated by Adams: "The peculiar style and method of Hippocrates
are held to be conciseness of expression, great condensation of
matter, and disposition to regard all professional subjects in a
practical point of view, to eschew subtle hypotheses and modes of
treatment based on vague abstractions." The treatises have been
grouped in the four following sections: (1) genuine; (2) those
consisting of notes taken by students and collected after the death of
Hippocrates; (3) essays by disciples; (4) those utterly spurious.
Littre accepts the following thirteen as absolutely genuine: (1) _On
Ancient Medicine_ ([Greek: Peri archaies ietrikes]); (2) _The
Prognostics_ ([Greek: Prognostikon]); (3) _The Aphorisms_ ([Greek:
Aphorismoi]); (4) _The Epidemics_, i. and iii. ([Greek: Epidemion a'
kai g']); (5) _On Regimen in Acute Diseases_ ([Greek: Peri diaites
oxeon]); (6) _On Airs, Waters, and Places_ ([Greek: Peri aeron,
hydaton, kai topon]); (7) _On the Articulations_ ([Greek: Peri
arthron]); (8) _On Fractures_ ([Greek: Peri agmon]); (9) _The
Instruments of Reduction_ ([Greek: Mochlikos]); (10) _The Physician's
Establishment, or Surgery_ ([Greek: Kat' ietreion]); (11) _On Injuries
of the Head_ ([Greek: Peri ton en kephale tromaton]); (12) _The Oath_
([Greek: Horkos]); (13) _The Law_ ([Greek: Nomos]). Of these Adams
accepts as certainly genuine the 2nd, 6th, 5th, 3rd (7 books), 4th,
7th, 8th, 9th and 12th, and as "pretty confidently acknowledged as
genuine, although the evidence in their favour is not so strong," the
1st, 10th and 13th, and, in addition, (14) _On Ulcers_ ([Greek: Peri
helkon]); (15) _On Fistulae_ ([Greek: Peri syringon]); (16) _On
Hemorrhoids_ ([Greek: Peri haimorrhoidon]); (17) _On the Sacred
Disease_ ([Greek: Peri hieres nousou]). According to the sceptical and
somewhat subjective criticism of Ermerins, the whole collection is to
be regarded as spurious except _Epidemics_, books i. and iii. (with a
few interpolations), _On Airs, Waters, and Places_, _On Injuries of
the Head_ ("insigne fragmentum libri Hippocratei"), the former portion
of the treatise _On Regimen in Acute Diseases_, and the "obviously
Hippocratic" fragments of the _Coan Prognostics_. Perhaps also the
_Oath_ may be accepted as genuine; its comparative antiquity is not
denied. The _Aphorisms_ are certainly later and inferior. In the other
non-Hippocratic writings Ermerins thinks he can distinguish the hands
of no fewer than nineteen different authors, most of them anonymous,
and some of them very late.

The earliest Greek edition of the Hippocratic writings is that which
was published by Aldus and Asulanus at Venice in 1526 (folio); it was
speedily followed by that of Frobenius, which is much more accurate
and complete (fol., Basel, 1538). Of the numerous subsequent editions,
probably the best was that of Foesius (Frankfort, 1595, 1621, Geneva,
1657), until the publication of the great works of Littre, _Oeuvres
completes d'Hippocrate, traduction nouvelle avec le texte grec en
regard, collationnee sur les manuscrits et toutes les editions,
accompagnee d'une introduction, de commentaires medicaux, de
variantes, et de notes philologiques_ (10 vols., Paris, 1839-1861),
and of F. Z. Ermerins, _Hippocratis et aliorum medicorum veterum
reliquiae_ (3 vols., Utrecht, 1859-1864). See also Adams (as cited
above), and Reinhold's _Hippocrates_ (2 vols., Athens, 1864-1867).
Daremberg's edition of the _Oeuvres choisies_ (2nd ed., Paris, 1855)
includes the _Oath_, the _Law_, the _Prorrhetics_, book i., the
_Prognostics, On Airs, Waters, and Places, Epidemics_, books i. and
iii., _Regimen_, and _Aphorisms_. Of the separate works attributed to
Hippocrates the editions and translations are almost innumerable; of
the _Prognostics_, for example, seventy editions are known, while of
the _Aphorisms_ there are said to exist as many as three hundred. For
some notice of the Arabic, Syriac and Hebrew translations of works
professedly by Hippocrates (Ibukrat or Bukrat), the number of which
greatly exceeds that of the extant Greek originals, reference may be
made to Flugel's contribution to the article "Hippokrates" in the
_Encyklopadie_ of Ersch and Gruber. They have been partially
catalogued by Fabricius in his _Bibliotheca Graeca_. (J. B. T.)

FOOTNOTE:

[1] "Hippocrates Cous, primus quidem ex omnibus memoria dignus, ab
studio sapientiae disciplinam hanc separavit, vir et arte et facundia
insignis" (Celsus, _De medicina_).

HIPPOCRENE (the "fountain of the horse," [Greek: he hippou krene]), the spring on Mt Helicon, in Boeotia, which, like the other spring there, Aganippe, was sacred to the Muses and Apollo, and hence taken as the source of poetic inspiration. The spring, surrounded by an ancient wall, is now known as _Kryopegadi_ or the cold spring. According to the legend, it was produced by the stamping of the hoof of Bellerophon's horse Pegasus. The same story accounts for the Hippocrene in Troezen and the spring Peirene at Corinth.

HIPPODAMUS, of Miletus, a Greek architect of the 5th century B.C. It was he who introduced order and regularity into the planning of cities, in place of the previous intricacy and confusion. For Pericles he planned the arrangement of the harbour-town Peiraeus at Athens. When the Athenians founded Thurii in Italy he accompanied the colony as architect, and afterwards, in 408 B.C., he superintended the building of the new city of Rhodes. His schemes consisted of series of broad, straight streets, cutting one another at right angles.

HIPPODROME (Gr. [Greek: hippodromos], from [Greek: hippos], horse, and [Greek: dromos], racecourse), the course provided by the Greeks for horse and chariot racing; it corresponded to the Roman _circus_, except that in the latter only four chariots ran at a time, whereas ten or more contended in the Greek games, so that the width was far greater, being about 400 ft., the course being 600 to 700 ft. long. The Greek hippodrome was usually set out on the slope of a hill, and the ground taken from one side served to form the embankment on the other side. One end of the hippodrome was semicircular, and the other end square with an extensive portico, in front of which, at a lower level, were the stalls for the horses and chariots. The modern hippodrome is more for equestrian and other displays than for horse racing. The Hippodrome in Paris somewhat resembles the Roman amphitheatre, being open in the centre to the sky, with seats round on rising levels.

HIPPOLYTUS, in Greek legend, son of Theseus and Hippolyte, queen of the Amazons (or of her sister Antiope), a famous hunter and charioteer and favourite of Artemis. His stepmother Phaedra became enamoured of him, but, finding her advances rejected, she hanged herself, leaving a letter in which she accused Hippolytus of an attempt upon her virtue. Theseus thereupon drove his son from his presence with curses and called upon his father Poseidon to destroy him. While Hippolytus was driving along the shore at Troezen (the scene of the _Hippolytus_ of Euripides), a sea-monster (a bull or _phoca_) sent by Poseidon emerged from the waves; the horses were scared, Hippolytus was thrown out of the chariot, and was dragged along, entangled in the reins, until he died. According to a tradition of Epidaurus, Asclepius restored him to life at the request of Artemis, who removed him to Italy (see VIRBIUS). At Troezen, where he had a special sanctuary and priest, and was worshipped with divine honours, the story of his death was denied. He was said to have been rescued by the gods at the critical moment, and to have been placed amongst the stars as the Charioteer (Auriga). It was also the custom of the Troezenian maidens to cut off a lock of their hair and to dedicate it to Hippolytus before marriage (see Frazer on Pausanias ii. 32. 1). Well-known classical parallels to the main theme are Bellerophon and Antea (or Stheneboea) and Peleus and Astydamia. The story was the subject of two plays by Euripides (the later of which is extant), of a tragedy by Seneca and of Racine's _Phedre_. A trace of it has survived in the legendary death of the apocryphal martyr Hippolytus, a Roman officer who was torn to pieces by wild horses as a convert to Christianity (see J. J. Dollinger, _Hippolytus and Callistus_, Eng. tr. by A. Plummer, 1876, pp. 28-39, 51-60).

According to the older explanations, Hippolytus represented the sun, which sets in the sea (cf. the scene of his death and the story of Phaethon), and Phaedra the moon, which travels behind the sun, but is unable to overtake it. It is more probable, however, that he was a local hero famous for his chastity, perhaps originally a priest of Artemis, worshipped as a god at Troezen, where he was closely connected and sometimes confounded with Asclepius. It is noteworthy that, in a speech put into the mouth of Theseus by Euripides, the father, who of course believes his wife's story and regards Hippolytus as a hypocrite, throws his son's pretended misogyny and asceticism (Orphism) in his teeth. This seems to point to a struggle between a new ritual and that of Poseidon, the chief deity of Troezen, in which the representative of the intruding religion meets his death through the agency of the offended god, as Orpheus (q.v.) was torn to pieces by the votaries of the jealous Dionysus. According to S. Reinach (_Archiv fur Religionswissenschaft_, x., 1907, p. 47), the Troezenian Hippolytus was a horse, the hypostasis of an equestrian divinity periodically torn to pieces by the faithful, who called themselves, and believed themselves to be, horses. Death was followed by resuscitation, as in the similar myths of Adonis (the sacred boar), Orpheus (the fox), Pentheus (the fawn), Phaethon (the white sun-horse).

See Wilamowitz-Mollendorff's Introduction to his German translation of
Euripides' _Hippolytus_ (1891); A. Kalkmann, _De Hippolytis
Euripideis_ (Bonn, 1882); and (for representations in art) "Uber
Darstellung der Hippolytussage" in _Archaologische Zeitung_ (xli.
1883); J. E. Harrison, _Mythology and Monuments of Ancient Athens_
(1890), cl.

HIPPOLYTUS, a writer of the early Church. The mystery which enveloped the person and writings of Hippolytus,[1] one of the most prolific ecclesiastical writers of early times, had some light thrown upon it for the first time about the middle of the 19th century by the discovery of the so-called _Philosophumena_ (see below). Assuming this writing to be the work of Hippolytus, the information given in it as to the author and his times can be combined with other traditional dates to form a tolerably clear picture. Hippolytus must have been born in the second half of the 2nd century, probably in Rome. Photius describes him in his _Bibliotheca_ (cod. 121) as a disciple of Irenaeus, and from the context of this passage it is supposed that we may conclude that Hippolytus himself so styled himself. But this is not certain, and even if it were, it does not necessarily imply that Hippolytus enjoyed the personal teaching of the celebrated Gallic bishop; it may perhaps merely refer to that relation of his theological system to that of Irenaeus which can easily be traced in his writings. As a presbyter of the church at Rome under Bishop Zephyrinus (199-217), Hippolytus was distinguished for his learning and eloquence. It was at this time that Origen, then a young man, heard him preach (Hieron. _Vir. ill._ 61; cp. Euseb. _H.E._ vi. 14, 10). It was probably not long before questions of theology and church discipline brought him into direct conflict with Zephyrinus, or at any rate with his successor Calixtus I. (q.v.). He accused the bishop of favouring the Christological heresies of the Monarchians, and, further, of subverting the discipline of the Church by his lax action in receiving back into the Church those guilty of gross offences. The result was a schism, and for perhaps over ten years Hippolytus stood as bishop at the head of a separate church. Then came the persecution under Maximinus the Thracian. Hippolytus and Pontius, who was then bishop, were transported in 235 to Sardinia, where it would seem that both of them died. From the so-called chronograph of the year 354 (_Catalogus Liberianus_) we learn that on the 13th of August, probably in 236, the bodies of the exiles were interred in Rome and that of Hippolytus in the cemetery on the Via Tiburtina. So we must suppose that before his death the schismatic was received again into the bosom of the Church, and this is confirmed by the fact that his memory was henceforth celebrated in the Church as that of a holy martyr. Pope Damasus I. dedicated to him one of his famous epigrams, and Prudentius (_Peristephanon_, 11) drew a highly coloured picture of his gruesome death, the details of which are certainly purely legendary: the myth of Hippolytus the son of Theseus was transferred to the Christian martyr. Of the historical Hippolytus little remained in the memory of after ages. Neither Eusebius (_H.E._ vi. 20, 2) nor Jerome (_Vir. ill._ 61) knew that the author so much read in the East and the Roman saint were one and the same person. The notice in the _Chronicon Paschale_ preserves one slight reminiscence of the historical facts, namely, that Hippolytus's episcopal see was situated at Portus near Rome. In 1551 a marble statue of a seated man was found in the cemetery of the Via Tiburtina: on the sides of the seat were carved a paschal cycle, and on the back the titles of numerous writings. It was the statue of Hippolytus, a work at any rate of the 3rd century; at the time of Pius IX. it was placed in the Lateran Museum, a record in stone of a lost tradition.

Hippolytus's voluminous writings, which for variety of subject can be compared with those of Origen, embrace the spheres of exegesis, homiletics, apologetics and polemic, chronography and ecclesiastical law. His works have unfortunately come down to us in such a fragmentary condition that it is difficult to obtain from them any very exact notion of his intellectual and literary importance. Of his exegetical works the best preserved are the _Commentary on the Prophet Daniel_ and the _Commentary on the Song of Songs_. In spite of many instances of a want of taste in his typology, they are distinguished by a certain sobriety and sense of proportion in his exegesis. We are unable to form an opinion of Hippolytus as a preacher, for the _Homilies on the Feast of Epiphany_ which go under his name are wrongly attributed to him. He wrote polemical words directed against the pagans, the Jews and heretics. The most important of these polemical treatises is the _Refutation of all Heresies_, which has come to be known by the inappropriate title of the _Philosophumena_. Of its ten books, the second and third are lost; Book i. was for a long time printed (with the title _Philosophumena_) among the works of Origen; Books iv.-x. were found in 1842 by the Greek Minoides Mynas, without the name of the author, in a MS. at Mount Athos. It is nowadays universally admitted that Hippolytus was the author, and that Books i. and iv.-x. belong to the same work. The importance of the work has, however, been much overrated; a close examination of the sources for the exposition of the Gnostic system which is contained in it has proved that the information it gives is not always trustworthy. Of the dogmatic works, that on _Christ and Antichrist_ survives in a complete state. Among other things it includes a vivid account of the events preceding the end of the world, and it was probably written at the time of the persecution under Septimius Severus, i.e. about 202. The influence of Hippolytus was felt chiefly through his works on chronographic and ecclesiastical law. His chronicle of the world, a compilation embracing the whole period from the creation of the world up to the year 234, formed a basis for many chronographical works both in the East and West. In the great compilations of ecclesiastical law which arose in the East since the 4th century (see below: also APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTIONS) much of the material was taken from the writings of Hippolytus; how much of this is genuinely his, how much of it worked over, and how much of it wrongly attributed to him, can no longer be determined beyond dispute even by the most learned investigation.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--The edition of J. A. Fabricius, _Hippolyti opera graece
et latine_ (2 vols., Hamburg, 1716-1718, reprinted in Gallandi,
_Bibliotheca veterum patrum_ (vol. ii., 1766), and Migne, _Cursus
patrol. ser. Graeca_, vol. x.) is out of date. The preparation of a
complete critical edition has been undertaken by the Prussian Academy
of Sciences. The task is one of extraordinary difficulty, for the
textual problems of the various writings are complex and confused: the
Greek original is extant in a few cases only (the _Commentary on
Daniel_, the _Refutation, on Antichrist_, parts of the _Chronicle_,
and some fragments); for the rest we are dependent on fragments of
translations, chiefly Slavonic, all of which are not even published.
Of the Academy's edition one volume was published at Berlin in 1897,
containing the _Commentaries on Daniel_ and on the _Song of Songs_,
the treatise on _Antichrist_, and the _Lesser Exegetical_ and
_Homiletic Works_, edited by Nathanael Bonwetsch and Hans Achelis. The
_Commentary on the Song of Songs_ has also been published by Bonwetsch
(Leipzig, 1902) in a German translation based on a Russian translation
by N. Marr of the Grusian (Georgian) text, and he added to it
(Leipzig, 1904) a translation of various small exegetical pieces,
which are preserved in a Georgian version only (_The Blessing of
Jacob_, _The Blessing of Moses_, _The Narrative of David and
Goliath_). A great part of the original of the _Chronicle_ has been
published by Adolf Bauer (Leipzig, 1905) from the _Codex Matritensis
Graecus_, 221. For the _Refutation_ we are still dependent on the
editions of Miller (Oxford, 1851), Duncker and Schneidewin (Gottingen,
1859), and Cruice (Paris, 1860). An English translation is to be found
in the _Ante-Nicene Christian Library_ (Edinburgh, 1868-1869).

See Bunsen, _Hippolytus and his Age_ (1852, 2nd ed., 1854; Ger. ed.,
1853); Dollinger, _Hippolytus und Kallistus_ (Regensb. 1853; Eng.
transl., Edinb., 1876); Gerhard Ficker, _Studien zur Hippolytfrage_
(Leipzig, 1893); Hans Achelis, _Hippolytstudien_ (Leipzig, 1897); Karl
Johannes Neumann, _Hippolytus von Rom in seiner Stellung zu Staat und
Welt_, part i. (Leipzig, 1902); Adhemar d'Ales, _La Theologie de Saint
Hippolyte_ (Paris, 1906). (G. K.)

FOOTNOTE:

[1] According to the legend St Hippolytus was a Roman soldier who was
converted by St Lawrence.

HIPPOLYTUS, THE CANONS OF. This book stands at the head of a series of Church Orders, which contain instructions in regard to the choice and ordination of Christian ministers, regulations as to widows and virgins, conditions of reception of converts from heathenism, preparation for and administration of baptism, rules for the celebration of the eucharist, for fasting, daily prayers, charity suppers, memorial meals, first-fruits, &c. We shall give (1) a description of the book as we have it at present; (2) a brief statement of its relation to allied documents; (3) some remarks on the evidence for its date and authorship.

1. We possess the _Canons of Hippolytus_ only in an Arabic version, itself made from a Coptic version of the original Greek. Attention was called to the book by Wansleben and Ludolf towards the end of the 17th century, but it was only in 1870 that it was edited by Haneberg, who added a Latin translation, and so made it generally accessible. In 1891 H. Achelis reproduced this translation in a revised form, embodying it in a synopsis of allied documents. He suspected much interpolation and derangement of order, and consequently rearranged its contents with a free hand. In 1900 a German translation was made by H. Riedel, based on fresh MSS. These showed that the book, as hitherto edited, had been thrown into disorder by the displacement of two pages near the end; they also removed other difficulties upon which the theory of interpolation had been based. Further discoveries, to be spoken of presently, have added to our materials for the study of the book.

The book is attributed to "Hippolytus, the chief of the bishops of
Rome," and is divided into thirty-eight canons, to which short
headings are prefixed. This division is certainly not original, but it
is convenient for purposes of reference. Canon 1 is prefatory; it
contains a brief confession of faith in the Trinity, and especially in
the Word, the Son of God; and it speaks of the expulsion of heretics
from the Church. Canons 2-5 give regulations for the selection and
ordination of bishops, presbyters and deacons. The bishop is chosen by
the whole congregation: "one of the bishops and presbyters" is to lay
hands upon him and say a prayer which follows (3): he is at once to
proceed with "the offering," taking up the eucharistic service at the
point where the _sursum corda_ comes in. A presbyter (4) is to be
ordained with the same prayer as a bishop, "with the exception of the
word bishop"; but he is given no power of ordination (this appears to
be inconsistent with c. 2). The duties of a deacon are described, and
the prayer of his ordination follows (5). Canons 6-9 deal with various
classes in the Church. One who has suffered punishment for the faith
(6) is to be counted a presbyter without ordination: "his confession
is his ordination." Readers and sub-deacons (7) are given the Gospel,
but are not ordained by laying-on of hands. A claim to ordination on
the ground of gifts of healing (8) is to be admitted, if the facts are
clear and the healing is from God. Widows are not ordained (9):
"ordination is for men only." Canons 10-15 describe conditions for the
admission of converts. Certain occupations are incompatible with
Christian life: only under compulsion may a Christian be a soldier.
Canons 16-18 deal chiefly with regulations concerning women. Canon 19
is a long one dealing with catechumens, preparation for baptism,
administration of that sacrament, and of the eucharist for the newly
baptized. The candidate is twice anointed: first, with the oil of
exorcism, after he has said, with his face westward, "I renounce thee,
O devil, and all thy following"; and, again, immediately after the
baptism. As he stands in the water, he declares his faith in response
to an interrogatory creed; and after each of the three clauses he is
immersed. After the second anointing the bishop gives thanks "for that
Thou hast made them worthy that they should be born again, and hast
poured out Thy Holy Ghost upon them, so that they may belong, each one
of them, to the body of the Church": he signs them with the cross on
their foreheads, and kisses them. The eucharist then proceeds: "the
bishop gives them of the body of Christ and says, This is the body of
Christ, and they answer Amen"; and similarly for the cup. Milk and
honey are then given to them as being "born a second time as little
children." A warning is added against eating anything before
communicating. Canons 20-22 deal with fast-days, daily services in
church, and the fast of the passover-week. Canon 23 seems as if it
closed the series, speaking, as it does, of "our brethren the bishops"
who in their cities have made regulations "according to the commands
of our fathers the apostles": "let none of our successors alter them;
because it saith that the teaching is greater than the sea, and hath
no end." We pass on, however, to regulations about the sick (24) who
are to be visited by the bishop, "because it is a great thing for the
sick that the high-priest should visit them (for the shadow of Peter
healed the sick)." Canons 25-27 deal again with prayers and
church-services. The "seven hours" are specified, with reasons for
their observance (25): attendance at sermons is urged (26), "for the
Lord is in the place where his lordship is proclaimed" (comp.
_Didache_ 4, part of the _Two Ways_). When there are no prayers in
church, reading at home is enjoined (27): "let the sun each morning
see the book upon thy knees" (comp. Ath. _Ad virg._, S 12, "Let the
sun when he ariseth see the book in thy hands"). Prayer must be
preceded by the washing of the hands. "No believer must take food
before communicating, especially on fast-days": only believers may
communicate (28). The sacred elements must be guarded, "lest anything
fall into the cup, and it be a sin unto death for the presbyters." No
crumb must be dropped, "lest an evil spirit get possession of it."
Canons 30-35 contain various rules, and specially deal with suppers
for the poor (i.e. _agapae_) and memorial feasts. Then we have a
prayer for the offering of first-fruits (36); a direction that
ministers shall wear fair garments at "the mysteries" (37); and a
command to watch during the night of the resurrection (38). The last
canon hereupon passes into a general exhortation to right living,
which forms a sixth part of the whole book. In Riedel's translation we
read this for the first time as a connected whole. It falls into two
parts, and describes, first, the true life of ordinary Christians,
warning them against an empty profession, and laying down many
precepts of morality; and then it addresses itself to the "ascete" who
"wishes to belong to the rank of the angels," and who lives a life of
solitude and poverty. He is encouraged by an exposition, on somewhat
strange lines, of the temptations of our Lord, and is specially warned
against spiritual pride and contempt of other men. The book closes
with an appeal for love and mutual service, based on the parables in
St Matthew xxv.

2. It is impossible to estimate the position of the Canons of Hippolytus without some reference to allied documents (see APOSTOLICAL CONSTITUTIONS). (a) The most important of these is what is now commonly called the _Egyptian Church Order_. This is preserved to us in Coptic and Aethiopic versions, of which Achelis, in his synopsis, gives German translations. The subject-matter and arrangement of these canons correspond generally to those of Hippolytus; but many of the details are modified to bring them into accord with a later practice. A new light was thrown on the criticism of this work by Hauler's discovery (1900) of a Latin version (of which, unfortunately, about half is missing) in the Verona palimpsest, from which he has also given us large Latin fragments of the _Didascalia_ (which underlies books i.-vi. of the Apostolic Constitutions, and which hitherto we have only known from the Syriac). The Latin of the Egyptian Church Order is somewhat more primitive than the Coptic, and approaches more nearly, at some points, to the _Canons of Hippolytus_. It has a preface which refers to a treatise _Concerning Spiritual Gifts_, as having immediately preceded it; but neither this nor the Coptic-Aethiopic form has either the introduction or concluding exhortation which is found in the _Canons of Hippolytus_. (b) _The Testament of the Lord_ is a document in Syriac, of which the opening part had been published by Lagarde, and of which Rahmani (1899) has given us the whole. It professes to contain instructions given by our Lord to the apostles after the resurrection. After an introduction containing apocalyptical matter, it passes on to give elaborate directions for the ordering of the Church, embodying, in a much-expanded form, the Egyptian Church Order, and showing a knowledge of the preface to that document which appears in the Latin version. It cannot be placed with probability earlier than the latter part of the 4th century. (c) The _Apostolic Constitutions_ is a composite document, which probably belongs to the end of the 4th century. Its first six books are an expanded edition of a _Didascalia_ which we have already mentioned: its seventh book similarly expands and modifies the _Didache_ its eighth book begins by treating of "spiritual gifts," and then in c. 3 passes on to expand in like manner the Egyptian Church Order. The hand which has wrought up all these documents has been shown to be that of the interpolator of the Ignatian Epistles in the longer Greek recension. (d) The _Canons of Basil_ is the title of an Arabic work, of which a German translation has been given us by Riedel, who thinks that they have come through Coptic from an original Greek book. They embody, in a modified form, considerable portions of the Canons of Hippolytus.

3. We now approach the difficult questions of date and authorship. Much of the material has been quite recently brought to light, and criticism has not had time to investigate and pronounce upon it. Some provisional remarks, therefore, are all that can prudently be made. It seems plain that we have two lines of tradition: (1) The Canons of Hippolytus, followed by the Canons of Basil; (2) the Egyptian Church Order, itself represented (a) by the Latin version, the Testament of the Lord, and the Apostolic Constitutions, which are linked together by the same preface (or portions of it); (b) by the Coptic and Aethiopic versions. Now, the preface of the Latin version points to a time when the canons were embodied in a _corpus_ of similar materials, or, at the least, were preceded by a work on "Spiritual Gifts." The Canons of Hippolytus have a wholly different preface, and also a long exhortation at the close. The question which criticism must endeavour to answer is, whether the Canons of Hippolytus are the original from which the Egyptian Church Order is derived, or whether an earlier body of canons lies behind them both. At present it is probably wise to assume that the latter is the true explanation. For the Canons of Hippolytus appear to contain contradictory regulations (e.g. cc. 2 and 4 of the presbyters), and also suggest that they have received a considerable supplement (after c. 23). There is, however, no doubt that they present us with a more primitive stage of Church life than we find in the Egyptian Church Order. The mention of sub-deacons (which, after Riedel's fresh manuscript evidence, cannot now be dismissed as due to interpolation) makes it difficult to assign a date much earlier than the middle of the 3rd century.

The Puritan severity of the canons well accords with the temper of the writer to whom the Arabic title attributes them; and it is to be noted that the exhortation at the close contains a quotation from 2 Peter actually attributed to the apostle, and Hippolytus is perhaps the earliest author who can with certainty be said to have used this epistle. But the general style of Hippolytus, which is simple, straight-forward and strong, is in marked contrast with that of the closing passage of the canons; moreover, his mind, as presented to us in his extant writings, appears to be a much larger one than that of the writer of these canons; it is as difficult to think of Hippolytus as it would be to think of Origen in such a connexion. How, then, are we to account for the attribution? There is evidence to show that Hippolytus was highly reverenced throughout the East: his writings, which were in Greek, were known, but his history was entirely unknown. He was supposed to be "a pupil ([Greek: gnorimos]) of apostles" (Palladius, 4th century), and the Arabic title calls him "chief of the bishops of Rome," i.e. archbishop of Rome. It is hard to trust this attribution more than the attribution of a Coptic discourse on the _Dormitio Mariae_ to "Evodius, archbishop of the great city Rome, who was the second after Peter the apostle" (_Texts and Studies_, iv. 2-44)--Evodius being by tradition first bishop of Antioch. A whole group of books on Church Order bears the name of Clement of Rome; and the attribution of our canons to Hippolytus may be only an example of the same tendency. The fact that Hippolytus wrote a treatise _Concerning Spiritual Gifts_, and that some such treatise is not only referred to in the Latin preface to the Egyptian Church Order, but is actually found at the beginning of book viii. of the Apostolic Constitutions, introduces an interesting complication; but we cannot here pursue the matter further. Dom Morin's ingenious attribution of the canons to Dionysius of Alexandria (on the ground of Eusebius, _H.E._ vi. 46., 5) cannot be accepted in view of the broader church policy which that writer represents. If the Hippolytean authorship be given up, it is probable that Egypt will make the strongest claim to be the locality in which the canons were compiled in their present form.

The authorities of chief practical importance are H. Achelis, _Texte
u. Unters._ vi. 4 (1891); Rahmani, _Testamentum Domini_ (1899);
Hauler, _Didascaliae Apostolorum_ (1900); Riedel,
_Kirchenrechtsquellen des Patriarchats Alexandrien_ (1900).
(J. A. R.)

HIPPONAX, of Ephesus, Greek iambic poet. Expelled from Ephesus in 540 B.C. by the tyrant Athenagoras, he took refuge in Clazomenae, where he spent the rest of his life in poverty. His deformed figure and malicious disposition exposed him to the caricature of the Chian sculptors Bupalus and Athenis, upon whom he revenged himself by issuing against them a series of satires. They are said to have hanged themselves like Lycambes and his daughters when assailed by Archilochus, the model and predecessor of Hipponax. His coarseness of thought and feeling, his rude vocabulary, his want of grace and taste, and his numerous allusions to matters of merely local interest prevented his becoming a favourite in Attica. He was considered the inventor of parody and of a peculiar metre, the _scazon_ or _choliambus_, which substitutes a spondee for the final iambus of an iambic senarius, and is an appropriate form for the burlesque character of his poems.

Fragments in Bergk, _Poetae lyrici Graeci_; see also B. J. Peltzer,
_De parodica Graecorum poesi_ (1855), containing an account of
Hipponax and the fragments.

HIPPOPOTAMUS ("river-horse," Gr. [Greek: hippos], horse and [Greek: potamos], river), the name of the largest representative of the non-ruminating artiodactyle ungulate mammals, and its living and extinct relatives. The common hippopotamus (_Hippopotamus amphibius_), which formerly inhabited all the great rivers of Africa but whose range has now been much restricted, is most likely the _behemoth_ of Scripture, and may very probably in Biblical times have been found in the Jordan valley, since at a still earlier (Pleistocene) epoch it ranged over a large part of Europe. It typifies not only a genus, but likewise a family, _Hippopotamidae_, distinguished from its relatives the pigs and peccaries, or _Suidae_, by the following assemblage of characters: Muzzle very broad and rounded. Feet short and broad, with four subequal toes, bearing short rounded hoofs, and all reaching the ground in walking. Incisors not rooted but continuously growing; those of the upper jaw curved and directed downwards; those of the lower straight and procumbent. Canines very large, curved, continuously growing; upper ones directed downwards. Premolars 4/4; molars 3/3. Stomach complex. No caecum.

In form the hippopotamus is a huge, unwieldy creature, measuring in the largest specimens fully 14 ft. from the extremity of the upper lip to the tip of the tail, while it ordinarily attains a length of 12 ft., with a height of 5 ft. at the shoulders, and a girth round the thickest part of the body almost equal to its length. The small ears are exceedingly flexible, and kept in constant motion when the animal is seeking to catch a distant sound; the eyes are placed high up on the head, but little below the level of the ears; while the gape is wide, and the upper lip thick and bulging so as to cover over even its large tusks when the mouth is closed. The molars, which show trefoil-shaped grinding-surfaces are well adapted for masticating vegetable substances, while the formidable array of long spear-like incisors and curved chisel-edged canines or tusks root up rank grass like an agricultural implement. The legs are short, so that the body is but little elevated above the ground; and the feet, which are small in proportion to the size of the animal, terminate in four short toes each bearing a small hoof. With the exception of a few tufts of hair on the lips, on the sides of the head and neck, and at the extremity of the short robust tail, the skin of the hippopotamus, some portions of which are 2 in. in thickness, is destitute of covering. Hippopotamuses are gregarious animals, living in herds of from 20 to 40 individuals on the banks and in the beds of rivers, in the neighbourhood of which they most readily find appropriate food. This consists chiefly of grass and of aquatic plants, of which these animals consume enormous quantities, the stomach being capable of containing from 5 to 6 bushels. They feed principally by night, remaining in the water during the day, although in districts where they are little disturbed they are less exclusively aquatic. In such remote quarters, they put their heads boldly out of the water to blow, but when rendered suspicious they become exceedingly cautious in this respect, only exposing their nostrils above the water, and even this they prefer doing amid the shelter of water plants. In spite of their enormous size and uncouth form, they are expert swimmers and divers, and can remain easily under the water from five to eight minutes. They walk on the bottoms of rivers, beneath at least 1 ft. of water. At nightfall they come on land to feed; and when, as often happens on the banks of the Nile, they reach cultivated ground, they do immense damage to growing crops, destroying by their ponderous tread even more than they devour. To scare away these unwelcome visitors the natives in such districts are in the habit of kindling fires at night. Although hippopotamuses do not willingly go far from the water on which their existence depends, they occasionally travel long distances by night in search of food, and in spite of their clumsy appearance are able to climb steep banks and precipitous ravines with ease. Of a wounded hippopotamus which Sir S. Baker saw leaving the water and galloping inland, he writes: "I never could have imagined that so unwieldy an animal could have exhibited such speed. No man could have had a chance of escape." The hippopotamus does not confine itself to rivers and lakes, but has been known to prefer the waters of the ocean as its home during the day. Of a mild and inoffensive disposition, it seeks to avoid collision with man; when wounded, however, or in defence of its young, it exhibits great ferocity, and native canoes are capsized and occasionally demolished by its infuriated attacks; the bellowing grunt then becoming loud enough to be heard a mile away. As among elephants, so also among hippopotamuses there are "rogues"--old bulls which have become soured in solitude, and are at all times dangerous. Assuming the offensive on every occasion, they attack all and sundry without shadow of provocation; and the natives avoid their haunts, which are usually well known.

The only other living species is the pygmy hippopotamus, _H. (Choeropsis) liberiensis_, of West Africa, an animal not larger than a clumsily made pig of full dimensions, and characterized by having generally one (in place of two) pair of incisors. It is much less aquatic than its giant relative, having, in fact, the habits of a pig.

A small extinct species (_H. lemerlei_) inhabited Madagascar at a comparatively recent date; while other dwarf kinds were natives of Crete (_H. minutus_) and Malta and Sicily (_H. pentlandi_) during the Pleistocene. A large form of the ordinary species (_H. amphibius major_) was distributed over Europe as far north as Yorkshire at the same epoch; while an allied species (_H. palaeindicus_) inhabited Pleistocene India. Contemporary with the latter was, however, a species (_H. namadicus_) with three pairs of incisors; and "hexaprotodont" hippopotamuses are also characteristic of the Pliocene of India and Burma (_H. sivalensis_ and _H. iravadicus_), and of Algeria, Egypt and southern Europe (_H. hipponensis_).

For the ancestral genera of the hippopotamus line, see ARTIODACTYLA.
(R. L.*)

HIPPURIC ACID (Gr. [Greek: hippos], horse, [Greek: ouron], urine), benzoyl glycocoll or benzoyl amidoacetic acid, C9H9NO3 or C6H5CO.NH.CH2.CO2H, an organic acid found in the urine of horses and other herbivorae. It is excreted when many aromatic compounds, such as benzoic acid and toluene, are taken internally. J. v. Liebig in 1829 showed that it differed from benzoic acid, and in 1839 determined its constitution, while in 1853 V. Dessaignes (_Ann._ 87, p. 325) synthesized it by acting with benzoyl chloride on zinc glycocollide. It is also formed by heating benzoic anhydride with glycocoll (Th. Curtius, _Ber._, 1884, 17, p. 1662), and by heating benzamide with monochloracetic acid. It crystallizes in rhombic prisms which are readily soluble in hot water, melt at 187 deg. C. and decompose at about 240 deg. C. It is readily hydrolysed by hot caustic alkalis to benzoic acid and glycocoll. Nitrous acid converts it into benzoyl glycollic acid, C6H5CO.O.CH2.CO2H. Its ethyl ester reacts with hydrazine to form hippuryl hydrazine, C6H5CO.NH.CH2.CO.NH.NH2, which was used by Curtius for the preparation of azoimide (q.v.).

HIPURNIAS, a tribe of South American Indians, 2000 or 3000 in number, living on the river Purus, western Brazil. Their houses are long, low and narrow: the side walls and roof are one, poles being fixed in the ground and then bent together so as to meet and form a pointed arch for the cross-sections. They use small bark canoes. Their chief weapons are poisoned arrows. They have a native god called Guintiniri.

HIRA, the capital of an Arabian kingdom, founded in the 2nd century A.D., on the western edge of Irak, was situated at 32 deg. N., 44 deg. 20' E., about 4 m. S.E. of modern Nejef, by the Sa'ade canal, on the shore of the Bahr Nejef or Assyrium Stagnum. Its kings governed the western shore of the lower Euphrates and of the Persian Gulf, their kingdom extending inland to the confines of the Nejd. This Lakhmid kingdom was more or less dependent, during the four centuries of its existence, on the Sassanian empire, to which it formed a sort of buffer state towards Arabia. After the battle of Kadesiya and the founding of Kufa by the Arabs, Hira lost its importance and fell into decay. The ruin mounds covering the ancient site, while extensive, are insignificant in appearance and give no indications of the existence of important buildings.

HIRADO, an island belonging to Japan, 19(1/2) m. long and 6 m. wide, lying off the west coast of the province of Hizen, Kiushiu, in 33 deg. 15' N. and 129 deg. 25' E. It is celebrated as the site of the original Dutch factory--often erroneously written Firando--and as the place where one of the finest blue-and-white porcelains of Japan (_Hiradoyaki_) was produced in the 17th and 18th centuries. The kilns are still active.

HIRE-PURCHASE AGREEMENT, in the law of contract, a form of bailment of goods, on credit, which has extended very considerably of late years. Originally applied to the sale of the more expensive kinds of goods, such as pianos and articles of furniture, the hire-purchase agreement has now been extended to almost every description. The agreement is usually in writing, with a stipulation that the payments to purchase shall be by weekly, monthly or other instalments. The agreement is virtually one to purchase, but in order that the vendor may be able to recover the goods at any time on non-payment of an instalment, it is treated as an agreement to let and hire, with a provision that when the last instalment has been paid the goods shall become the property of the hirer. A clause provides that in case of default of any instalment, or breach of any part of the agreement, all previous payments shall be forfeited to the lender, who can forcibly recover the goods. Such agreements, therefore, do not pass the property in the goods, which remains in the lender until all the instalments have been paid. But the terms of the agreement may sometimes purposely obscure the nature of the transaction between the parties, where, for example, the hire-purchase is merely to create a security for money. In such a case a judge will look to the true nature of the transaction. If it is not a real letting and hiring, the agreement will require registration under the Bills of Sale Acts. If the agreement contains words to the effect that a person has "bought or agreed to buy" goods, the transaction comes under the Factors Act 1889, and the person in possession of the goods may dispose of them and give a good title. The doctrine of reputed ownership, by which a bankrupt is deemed the reputed owner of goods in his apparent possession, has been somewhat modified by trade customs, in accordance with which property is frequently let out on the hire-purchase system (see BANKRUPTCY).