Hades

"Hades is the lord of the dead and ruler of the nether world, which is referred to as the domain of Hades or, by transference, as Hades alone" [Encyclopedia Mythica].

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hamilton College

A private liberal arts school, located in Clinton, New York. Barfield was a Visiting Professor there in 1970.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hamlet

The most famous character, the Prince of Denmark, in William Shakespeare's most famous play.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Heart of Darkness

Short novel (1902) by Joseph Conrad about a man (Kurtz) who has gone mad while working in the Congo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hector

Son of Priam and the leader (until killed by Achilles) of the Trojan forces in The Iliad.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Helen ["Helen of Troy"]

"[T]he daughter of Leda and Zeus, and . . . the sister of the Dioscuri and Clytemnestra.

Since Zeus visited Leda in the form of a swan, Helen was often presented as being born from an egg. She was reputed to be the most beautiful woman in the world. . . .

 

When Helen reached marriageable age, all the greatest men in Greece courted her. Her mother's husband, King Tyndareos of Lacedaemon, was concerned about the trouble that might be caused by the disappointed suitors. Acting on the advice of Odysseus, he got all the suitors to swear that they would support the marriage rights of the successful candidate. He then settled on Menelaus to be the husband of Helen. She lived happily with Menelaus for a number of years, and bore him a daughter, Hermione.

 

After a decade or so of married life, Helen was abducted by--or ran off with-- Paris, the son of King Priam of Troy. Menelaus called on the other suitors to fulfill their oaths and help him get her back. As a result, the Greek leaders mustered the greatest army of the time, placed it under the command of Agamemnon, and set off to wage what became known as the Trojan War"  [Encyclopedia Mythica].

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hera

The always jealous (and with good reason) wife of Zeus.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Heracles

A son of Zeus and the greatest of the Greek heroes, most famous for his completion of the "seven labors."

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hermetic

1 of or derived from Hermes Trismegistus and his lore 

2 a) magical; alchemic b) hard to understand; obscure [New World Dictionary].

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hesperides

"[I]n Greek mythology, the daughters of the Titan Atlas or of Night. Aided by a dragon, the Hesperides guarded a tree, with branches and leaves of gold, that bore golden apples. The tree had been given to the goddess Hera on her wedding day by Gaea, Mother Earth. One of the 12 labors imposed upon the hero Hercules was to bring back the golden apples of the Hesperides [Microsoft Encarta 97 Encyclopedia 1993-1996 Microsoft Corporation].

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hinduism

Ancient, native Indian religion, a "religion without a founder . . . [which] reflects in itself the cultural history and social conditions of the Indian people from the time civilization flowered in the Indus Valley to our day" (Reese 222).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hiroshima

Japanese city destroyed at the end of World War  II  (1945) by the first military use of an atomic bomb (by the United States).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Historic Conversion

An atheist in his boyhood, C. S. Lewis converted to Christianity in 1931. See Chapter IV, "Checkmate," of Surprised  by Joy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

historical semantics

Semantics, is of course, that branch of linguistics which deals with meaning; historical semantics--roughly equivalent to philology--studies meaning in historical context.

 

 

 

 

 

 

holism

In epistemology, the idea that the whole is greater than the sum of its part.

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Hollow Men"

T. S. Eliot's deeply pessimistic 1925 poem.

 

 

 

 

 

 

homeopathic

A form of natural/ holistic medicine founded on the principle of like treating like.

 

 

 

 

 

 

homology

1 the quality or state of being homologous; 

2 a homologous correspondence or relationship, as of animal organs, chemical compounds, etc. [New World Dictionary]

 

 

 

 

 

 

homologous

1 corresponding in structure, position, character, etc.: opposed to HETEROLOGOUS 

2 Biol. corresponding in basic type of structure and deriving from a common primitive origin: the wing of a bat and the foreleg of a mouse [New World Dictionary]

 

 

 

 

 

 

Huck Finn

The main character and narrator of Mark Twain's great 1884 novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

 

 

 

 

 

 

humanism

The idea, a kind of secular faith, arising in the Renaissance that human beings are the measure of all things with any necessary recourse to the divine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

the humors

According to ancient physical theory (still honored in the Renaissance), the four major influences in the body: phlegm, blood, choler, and black bile, the predominance of any one in an individual producing his/her temper (sanguine, choleric, phlegmatic, melancholic).

 

 

 

 

 

 

hysteria

"[A] psychiatric condition variously characterized by emotional excitability, excessive anxiety, sensory and motor disturbances, or the unconscious simulation of organic disorders, such as blindness, deafness, etc" [Webster's New World Dictionary]. In Freud's day, the most commonly diagnosed of all afflictions.