British Museum_ (London, 1853-1859) are well worthy of study. (G. H. C.) HYMETTUS (Ital. Monte Matto, hence the modern name Trello Vouni), a mountain in Attica, bounding the Athenian plain on the S.E. Height, 3370 ft. It was famous in ancient times for its bees, which gathered honey of peculiar flavour from its aromatic herbs; their fame still persists. The spring mentioned by Ovid (_Ars Amat._ iii. 687) is probably to be recognized near the monastery of Syriani or Kaesariani on the western slope. This may be identical with that known as [Greek: Kyllon Pêra], said to be a remedy for barrenness in women. The marble of Hymettus, which often has a bluish tinge, was used extensively for building in ancient Athens, and also, in early times, for sculpture; but the white marble of Pentelicus was preferred for both purposes. See E. Dodwell, _Classical and Topographical Tour_ (1819), i. 483. HYMNS.--1. _Classical Hymnody._--The word "hymn" ([Greek: hymnos]) was employed by the ancient Greeks[1] to signify a song or poem composed in honour of gods, heroes or famous men, or to be recited on some joyful, mournful or solemn occasion. Polymnia was the name of their lyric muse. Homer makes Alcinous entertain Odysseus with a "hymn" of the minstrel Demodocus, on the capture of Troy by the wooden horse. The _Works and Days_ of Hesiod begins with an invocation to the Muses to address hymns to Zeus, and in his _Theogonia_ he speaks of them as singing or inspiring "hymns" to all the divinities, and of the bard as "their servant, hymning the glories of men of old, and of the gods of Olympus." Pindar calls by this name odes, like his own, in praise of conquerors at the public games of Greece. The Athenian dramatists (Euripides most frequently) use the word and its cognate verbs in a similar manner; they also describe by them metrical oracles and apophthegms, martial, festal and hymeneal songs, dirges and lamentations or incantations of woe.