_Hermegild_, a friend of Oswald, in love with Gartha (Oswald’s sister). He was a man in the middle age of life, of counsel sage, and great prudence. When Hubert (the brother of Oswald) and Gartha wished to stir up a civil war to avenge the death of Oswald, who had been slain in single combat with Prince Gondibert, Hermegild wisely deterred them from the rash attempt, and diverted the anger of the camp by funeral obsequies of a most imposing character. The tale of Gondibert being unfinished, the sequel is not known.—Sir W. Davenant, _Gondibert_ (died 1668). =Her´mês= (_2 syl._), son of Maia; patron of commerce. Akenside makes Hermês say to the Thames, referring to the merchant ships of England: By you [_ships_] my function and my honored name Do I possess; while o’er the Bætic vale, Or thro’ the towers of Memphis, or the palms By sacred Ganges watered, I conduct The English merchant. Akenside, _Hymn to the Naiads_ (1767). (The Bætis is the Guadalquiver, and the Bætic vale Granāda and Andalucia). _Her´mês_ (_2 syl._), the same as Mercury, and applied both to the god and to the metal. Milton calls quicksilver “volatil Hermês.” So when we see the liquid metal fall, Which chemists by the name of Hermes call. Hoole’s _Ariosto_, viii. _Hermês (St.)_, same as St. Elmo, Suerpo Santo, Castor and Pollux, etc. A comazant or electric light, seen occasionally on ship’s masts. “They shall see the fire which saylors call St. Hermes, fly uppon their shippe, and alight upon the toppe of the mast.”—De Loier, _Treatise of Spectres,_ 67 (1605). =Hermês Trismegis´tus= (_Hermês “thrice-greatest”_), the Egyptian Thoth, to whom is ascribed a host of inventions: as the art of writing in hieroglyphics, the first Egyptian code of laws, the art of harmony, the science of astrology, the invention of the late and lyre, magic, etc. (twentieth century B.C.). The school of Hermês Trismegistus, Who uttered his oracles sublime Before the Olympiads. Longfellow, _The Golden Legend_ (1851). =Her´mesind= (_3 syl._), daughter of Pelayo and Gaudio´sê. She was plighted to Alphonso, son of Lord Pedro of Cantabria. Both Alphonso and Hermesind at death were buried in the cave of St. Antony, in Covadonga.