A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

-HYGINUS. - HYGINUS. 535
~. 18; Serv. ad -'irg. Aen. i. 281, 534, iii. 553, erudition, who flourished during the highest epoch
vii. 47, 412, 678, viii. 597; see also Plin. H. N. of Roman literature; but the greatest diversity of
Elench. Auct. ad Lib. SIl.) 2. De Proprietatibus opinion exists with regard to their real origin and
Deorum. (Macrob. Sat. iii. 8.) 3. De Diis Pe- history. Raphael of Volaterrae, misled by the denatibus. (Macrob.' Sat. iii. 4.) 4. De Virgilio dication to M. Fabius, asserted that the author was
Libri. In five books at least. This seems to be contemporary with Quintilian; Schefer supposed
the same with the work quoted under the title of that he lived under the Antonines, attributing the
Commentaria.in Virgilium. (Gell. i. 21, v. 8, vi. startling expressions and harsh constructions which
6, x. 16, xvi. 6; Macrob. Sat. vi. 9; Serv. ad Virg. everywhere abound to corruption and interpolation,
Aen. xii. 1-20.) 5.'De Familiis Trojanis. (Serv. while Muncker would bring him down to the last
ad Virg. Aen. v. 389.) 6. De Agricultura, in two days of the empire. Again, many critics regard
books at least. (Charis. lib. i. xxi. ~ 185, p. 115, both treatises as merely translations from Greek
ed. Putsch.; comp. Columell. i. 2, ix. 2, 13.) To originals; the astronomical portions, according to
this treatise, in all probability, Pliny refers in his Scaliger, are taken from Eratosthenes, according to
H. N. xiii. 47, xvi. 84, xviii. 63, xix. 27, xx.. 45, Salmasius from the Sphaera Graecanica of Nigidius
xxi. 29. 7. Cinnae Properzpticon. (Charis. lib. i. Figulus; Muncker imagines that we must consider
xxi. ~ 134, pp. 108, 109, ed. Putsch., where two them as abbreviations of works by the Augustan
sentences are extracted.) 8. De Vita Rebusque Hyginus, executed by some unskilful hand, whom
Illnstrium Virorum, in six books at least. (Gell. Barth decides to have been an Avianus, or an
i. 14; Joannes Sarisber. Policrat. v. 7.) We may Ammianus, names.which he found in a MS.;
suppose that the De Vita et Rebus Aficani, men- Reinesius and Van Staveren look upon the whole
tioned by A. Gellius (vii. 1), formed one of the as a mere cento, pieced together, without care or
sections of this essay. (See also Ascon. Pedian. in discrimination, by an unlettered grammarian, who
Pison.; Hieron. de Script. Eccles. praef.) 9. Ex- assumed the designation of the celebrated Hyemrpla. (Gell. x. 18.) 10. De Arte Militari. ginus that he might the more effectually recommend
(Joannes Sarisber. Policrat. vi. 19.) his own worthless trash; while, more recently,
The whole of the above have perished; but we Niebuhr was led to believe that a fragment brought
possess two pieces in prose, nearly entire, which to light by himself (De Rebus Thebanis Mytholobear the name of Hyginus, to which editors, ap- gicis) was a portion of a much larger book, and
parently without any authority from MSS., have that this furnished the materials from which, with
prefixed the additional designations C. Julius. later additions, the Fables of Hyginus had been
These are, worked up. The question has been rendered, if
I. Fabularum Liber, a series of 277 short my- possible, still more complicated by the recent dis;
thological legends, with an introductory genealogy coveries of Angelo Mai, who has published from
of divinities. There are blanks from c. 206-219; MSS. in the Vatican three mythographers prefrom 225-238; from 261-270; and two single viously unknown, of whom the first may be as
chapters, 222 and 272, are also wanting. Although early as the'fifth century, and appears to have been
the larger portion of these narratives has been co- known under the appellation of Hyginus, at least
pied from obvious sources, they occasionally present the second book ends with the words EXPLIcIT
the tales under new forms or with new circum- LIBER SECJNDIUS C. HNI. FABULARUM, an abstances, and hence are regarded with considerable breviation of which the obvious interpretation is
interest by those who investigate such topics. C. HIGINI. These writers, together with a full
II. Poeticon Astronomicon Libri IV., addressed account of the MSS., will be found in the " Classici
to a certain M. Fabius. The first book, entitled Auctores e Vaticanis Codicibus," Rom. 1831, vol.
De Mundi ac Sphaerae ac utriusque Partiun7 De- iii. pp. 1-277.
chlratione, commences with a general outline of The Editio Princeps of the Astronornica was
what the author proposes to accomplish, and is then published at Ferrara, 4to. 1475, and the second
devoted to a definition of the technical terms Alun- edition at Venice, 4to. 1475; besides which, three
dus, Spiaera, Centrum, A.xis, Polus, &c., which are other editions were printed at Venice before the
very briefly explained; the second book, De Sig- close of the fifteenth century.
norumn Coelestium Historiis, comprises an exposition The Editio Princeps of the Fabulae was pubof the legends connected with forty-one of the lished, under the inspection of Micyllus, at Basel,
principal constellations, followed up by a brief fol. 1535, in a volume containing also the Astronotice of the five planets and the Milky Way; the nomica, Palaephatus and Phernutus, Fulgentius,
third book, De Descriptionibus Formarutm Coeles- Albricus, the Phaenomena of Aratus, and the
tium, contains a detailed account of the number Sphere of Proclus, in Greek and Latin, together
and arrangement of the stars which constitute the with the paraphrase of the Phaenomena, by Gerdifferent portions of the fanciful shapes ascribed to manicus.
the constellations previously enumerated; -the The best editions of both works are those infourth book, which ends abruptly, De quinque Cir- cluded in the " Mythographi Latini " of Muncker,
culorum inter Corpora Coelestia Notatione, et Pla- 8vo. Amst. 1681, and in the "Mythographi Lanetis, treats of the circles of the celestial sphere, of tini" of Van Staveren, Lug. Bat. and Amst. 4to.
the constellations appertaining to each, of their 1742.
risings and settings, of the course of the sun and The best edition of the Fabulae in a separate
moon, and of the appearance of the planets. form is that of Schefer, 8vo. Hamb. 1674.
These works exhibit in many passages such (Suet. de Illust. Grammn. 20, and comment. of
gross ignorance, and are expressed in phraseology Vinetus; Isidorus, de Nat. Ser. 17; Honor. Auwhich, although not uniformly impure, frequently gustodun. de Phil. Mund. iii. 12; Raphael Volaterr.
approaches so nearly to barbarism, that no scholar Comment. xvi.; Reines. Var. Lectt. iii. 2, p. 273,
now believes that they could have proceeded in iii. 8, p. 480; Scaliger, ad Manil. i. p. 34, ad
their present shape from a man renowned for Euseb. Chron. 10; Salmas. de Annis Climact. p.
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