In some of the early Greek communities, the Hieroduli, or ministers of the gods, "formed a class of persons bound to certain services, duties, or contributions to the temple of some god, and … sometimes dwelt in the position of serfs on the sacred ground. They appear in considerable numbers, and as an integral part of the population only in Asia, as, e. g., at Comana in Cappadocia, where in Strabo's time there were more than 6,000 of them attached to the temple of the goddess Ma, who was named by the Greeks Enyo, and by the Romans Bellona. In Sicily too the Erycinian Aphrodite had numerous ministers, whom Cicero calls Venerii, and classes with the ministers of Mars (Martiales) at Larinum in South Italy. In Greece we may consider the Craugallidæ as Hieroduli of the Delphian Apollo. They belonged apparently to the race of Dryopes, who are said to have been at some former time conquered by Heracles, and dedicated by him to the god. The greater part of them, we are told, were sent at the command of Apollo to the Peloponnese, whilst the Craugallidæ remained behind. … At Corinth too there were numerous Hieroduli attached to Aphrodite, some of whom were women, who lived as Hetæræ and paid a certain tax from their earnings to the goddess." _G. Schömann, Antiquities of Greece: The State, part 2, chapter 4._ See, also, DORIS AND DRYOPIS. HIEROGLYPHICS, Egyptian. "The Greeks gave the name of Hieroglyphics, that is, 'Sacred Sculpture,' to the national writing of the Egyptians, composed entirely of pictures of natural objects. Although very inapplicable, this name has been adopted by modern writers, and has been so completely accepted and used that it cannot now be replaced by a more appropriate appellation. … For a long series of ages the decipherment of the hieroglyphics, for which the classical writers furnish no assistance, remained a hopeless mystery. The acute genius of a Frenchman at last succeeded, not fifty years since, in lifting the veil. By a prodigious effort of induction, and almost divination, Jean François Champollion, who was born at Figeac (Lot) on the 23d of December, 1790, and died at Paris on the 4th of March, 1832, made the greatest discovery of the nineteenth century in the domain of historical science, and succeeded in fixing on a solid basis the principle of reading hieroglyphics. Numerous scholars have followed the path opened by him. … It would … be very far from the truth to regard hieroglyphics as always, or even generally, symbolical. No doubt there are symbolical characters among them, generally easy to understand; as also there are, and in very great number, figurative characters directly representing the object to be designated; but the majority of the signs found in every hieroglyphic text are characters purely phonetic; that is,