a long robe, holding burning torches; later she becomes triformis, “triple-formed,” with three bodies standing back to back—corresponding, according to those who regard her as a moon-goddess, to the new, the full and the waning moon. In her six hands are torches, sometimes a snake, a key (as wardress of the lower world), a whip or a dagger; her favourite animal was the dog, which was sacrificed to her—an indication of her non-Hellenic origin, since this animal very rarely fills this part in genuine Greek ritual.
See H. Steuding in Roscher’s Lexikon, where the functions of Hecate are systematically derived from the conception of her as a moon-goddess; L. R. Farnell, Cults of the Greek States, ii., where this view is examined; P. Paris in Daremberg and Saglio’s Dictionnaire des antiquités; O. Gruppe, Griechische Mythologie, ii. (1906) p. 1288.
HECATOMB (Gr. ἑκατόμβη from ἑκατόν, a hundred, and
βοῦς, an ox), originally the sacrifice of a hundred oxen in the
religious ceremonies of the Greeks and Romans; later a large
number of any kind of animals devoted for sacrifice. Figuratively,
“hecatomb” is used to describe the sacrifice or destruction
by fire, tempest, disease or the sword of any large number
of persons or animals; and also of the wholesale destruction of
inanimate objects, and even of mental and moral attributes.
HECATO OF RHODES, Greek Stoic philosopher and disciple
of Panaetius (Cicero, De officiis, iii. 15). Nothing else is known
of his life, but it is clear that he was eminent amongst the Stoics
of the period. He was a voluminous writer, but nothing remains.
A list is preserved by Diogenes, who mentions works on Duty,
Good, Virtues, Ends. The first, dedicated to Tubero, is eulogized
by Cicero in the De officiis, and Seneca refers to him frequently
in the De beneficiis. According to Diogenes Laërtius, he divided
the virtues into two kinds, those founded on scientific intellectual
principles (i.e. wisdom and justice), and those which have no
such basis (e.g. temperance and the resultant health and vigour).
Cicero shows that he was much interested in casuistical questions,
as, for example, whether a good man who had received a coin
which he knew to be bad was justified in passing it on to another.
On the whole, his moral attitude is cynical, and he is inclined
to regard self-interest as the best criterion. This he modifies
by explaining that self-interest is based on the relationships of
life; a man needs money for the sake of his children, his friends
and the state whose general prosperity depends on the wealth
of its citizens. Like the earlier Stoics, Cleanthes and Chrysippus,
he held that virtue may be taught. (See Stoics and Panaetius.)
HECKER, FRIEDRICH FRANZ KARL (1811–1881), German
revolutionist, was born at Eichtersheim in the Palatinate on
the 28th of September 1811, his father being a revenue official.
He studied law with the intention of becoming an advocate,
but soon became absorbed in politics. On entering the Second
Chamber of Baden in 1842, he at once began to take part in the
opposition against the government, which assumed a more and
more openly Radical character, and in the course of which his
talents as an agitator and his personal charm won him wide
popularity and influence. A speech, denouncing the projected
incorporation of Schleswig and Holstein with Denmark, delivered
in the Chamber of Baden on the 6th of February 1845, spread his
fame beyond the limits of his own state, and his popularity was
increased by his expulsion from Prussia on the occasion of a
journey to Stettin. After the death of his more moderate-minded
friend Adolf Sander (March 9th, 1845), Hecker’s tone
towards the government became more and more bitter. In
spite of the shallowness and his culture and his extremely weak
character, he enjoyed an ever-increasing popularity. Even before
the outbreak of the revolution he included Socialistic claims
in his programme. In 1847 he was temporarily occupied with
ideas of emigration, and with this object made a journey to
Algiers, but returned to Baden and resumed his former position
as the Radical champion of popular rights, later becoming
president of the Volksverein, where he was destined to fall still
further under the influence of the agitator Gustav von Struve.
In conjunction with Struve he drew up the Radical programme
carried at the great Liberal meeting held at Offenburg on the
12th of September 1847 (entitled “Thirteen Claims put forward
by the People of Baden”). In addition to the Offenburg programme,
the Sturmpetition of the 1st of March 1848 attempted
to extort from the government the most far-reaching concessions.
But it was in vain that on becoming a deputy Hecker endeavoured
to carry out its impracticable provisions. He had
to yield to the more moderate majority, but on this account was
driven still further towards the Left. The proof lies in the new
Offenburg demands of the 19th of March, and in the resolution
moved by Hecker in the preliminary parliament of Frankfort that
Germany should be declared a republic. But neither in Baden
nor Frankfort did he at any time gain his point.
This double failure, combined with various energetic measures of the government, which were indirectly aimed at him (e.g. the arrest of the editor of the Constanzer Seeblatt, a friend of Hecker’s, in Karlsruhe station on the 8th of April), inspired Hecker with the idea of an armed rising under pretext of the foundation of the German republic. The 9th to the 11th of April was secretly spent in preliminaries. On the 12th of April Hecker and Struve sent a proclamation to the inhabitants of the Seekreis and of the Black Forest “to summon the people who can bear arms to Donaueschingen at mid-day on the 14th, with arms, ammunition and provisions for six days.” They expected 70,000 men, but only a few thousand appeared. The grand-ducal government of the Seekreis was dissolved, and Hecker gradually gained reinforcements. But friendly advisers also joined him, pointing out the risks of his undertaking. Hecker, however, was not at all ready to listen to them; on the contrary, he added to violence an absurd defiance, and offered an amnesty to the German princes on condition of their retiring within fourteen days into private life. The troops of Baden and Hesse marched against him, under the command of General Friedrich von Gagern, and on the 20th of April they met near Kandern, where Gagern was killed, it is true, but Hecker was completely defeated.
Like many of the revolutionaries of that period, Hecker retired to Switzerland. He was, it is true, again elected to the Chamber of Baden by the circle of Thiengen, but the government, no longer willing to respect his immunity as a deputy, refused its ratification. On this account Hecker resolved in September 1848 to emigrate to North America, and obtained possession of a farm near Belleville in the state of Illinois.
During the second rising in Baden in the spring of 1849 he again made efforts to obtain a footing in his own state, but without success. He only came as far as Strassburg, but had to retreat before the victories of the Prussian troops over the Baden insurgents.
On his return to America he won some distinction during the Civil War as colonel of a regiment which he had himself got together on the Federal side in 1861 and 1864. It was with great joy that he heard of the union of Germany brought about by the victory over France in 1870–71. It was then that he made his famous festival speech at St Louis, in which he gave an animated expression to the enthusiasm of the German Americans for their newly-united fatherland. He received a less favourable impression during a journey he made in Germany in 1873. He died at St Louis on the 24th of March 1881.
Hecker was always very much beloved of all the German democrats. The song and the hat named after him (the latter a broad slouch hat with a feather) became famous as the symbols of the middle-classes in revolt. In America, too, he had won great esteem, not only on political grounds but also for his personal qualities.
See F. Hecker, Die Erhebung des Volkes in Baden für die deutsche Republik (Baden, 1848); F. Hecker, Reden und Vorlesungen (Neerstadt a. d. H., 1872); F. v. Weech, Badische Biographien, iv. (1891); L. Mathy, Aus dem Nachlasse von K. Matty, Briefe aus den Jahren 1846–1848 (Leipzig, 1898). (J. Hn.)
HECKER, ISAAC THOMAS (1819–1888), American Roman
Catholic priest, the founder of the “Paulist Fathers,” was
born in New York City, of German immigrant parents, on the
18th of December 1819. When barely twelve years of age,
he had to go to work, and pushed a baker’s cart for his elder
brothers, who had a bakery in Rutgers Street. But he studied
