F.
FLORA,

A FAMOUS Courtezan of Rome, who loved Pompey so devotedly, that though at his entreaties she consented to receive another lover, yet when Pompey took that opportunity to discontinue his visits entirely, she fell into such despair as showed she had the true woman's heart, although so polluted by her degradation that its holiest feelings were made to become her severest tortures. Flora was so beautiful that Cecilius Metellus had her picture drawn and kept in the temple of Castor and Pollux.

FULVIA,

AN extraordinary Roman lady, wife of Marc Antony, had, as Paterculus expresses it, nothing of her sex but the body; for her temper and courage breathed only policy and war. She had two husbands before she married Antony - Clodius, the great enemy of Cicero, and Curio, who was killed while fighting in Africa, on Cæsar's side, before the battle of Pharsalia. After the victory, which Octavius and Antony gained at Philippi over Brutus and Cassius, Antony went to Asia to settle the affairs of the East. Octavius returned to Rome, where, falling out with Fulvia, he could not decide the quarrel but with the sword. She retired to Præneste, and withdrew thither the senators and knights of her party; she armed herself in person, gave the word to her soldiers, and harangued them bravely.

Bold and violent as Antony was, he met his match in Fulvia. "She was a woman," says Plutarch, "not born for spinning or housewifery, not one that would be content with ruling a private husband, but capable of advising a magistrate, or ruling the general of an army." Antony had the courage, however, to show great anger at Fulvia for levying war against Octavius; and when he returned to Rome, he treated her with so much contempt and indignation, that she went to Greece, and died there of a disease occasioned by her grief.

She participated with, and assisted her cruel husband, during the massacres of the triumvirate, and had several persons put to death, on her own authority, either from avarice or a spirit of revenge. After Cicero was beheaded, Fulvia caused his head to be brought to her, spit upon it, drawing out the tongue, which she pierced several times with her bodkin, addressing to the lifeless Cicero, all the time, the most opprobrious language. What a contrast to the character of Octavia, the last wife of Marc Antony!

G.
GLAPHYRA,

A PRIESTESS of Bellona's temple in Cappadocia,
and a daughter of Archelaus, the high-priest of
Bellona, is celebrated for her beauty and intrigue.
Although she was married and had two sons,

Sisinna and Archelaus, yet she fell in love with
Marc Antony, and he gave her the kingdom of
Cappadocia for her children. This infidelity of
Antony so displeased his wife Fulvia, that she
resolved to revenge herself by taking the same

course.

Glaphyra had a granddaughter of the same name, who was a daughter of Archelaus, king of Cappadocia, and married Alexander, son of Herod and Mariamne, by whom she had two sons. After the death of Alexander she married her brotherin-law Archelaus.

H.
HAGAR,

AN Egyptian woman, the handmaid of Sarai, whom she gave to her husband Abram as a concubine or left-handed wife. Such arrangements were not uncommon in those old times. When the honoured wife was childless, she would give her favourite slave or maid-servant to her husband, and the children born of this connection were considered as belonging to the real wife.

ness.

It had been promised Abram that his seed should become a great nation; but his wife Sarai had borne him no children. She was nearly eighty years of age; her husband ten years older. Despairing of becoming herself the mother of the promised seed, she would not stand in the way of God's blessing to her husband so she gave him Hagar. It was, like all plans of human device that controvert the laws of God, very unfortunate for the happiness of the parties. Hagar was soon uplifted by this preference; and believing herself the mother of the promised heir, she despised her mistress; was rebuked, and fled into the wilderThere the angel of the Lord met her, and commanded her to return to Sarai, and be submissive. Hagar seems to have obeyed the divine command at once; and all was, for a time, well. Ishmael was born, and for twelve years was the only child, the presumptive heir of one of the richest princes of the East. But at the birth of Isaac, the true heir, all Hagar's glory vanished. The bondwoman and her son were finally sent forth from the tents of the patriarch, with "bread and a bottle of water." Hagar carried these on her shoulder, a poor, outcast mother, the victim of circumstances and events she could not change or control. But God hears the cry of affliction, and all who turn to Him in their hearts will be comforted. Thus was Hagar relieved; God "opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water," when Ishmael was dying of thirst. "She went and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink." Mother-like, she never thought of herself, of her own sorrows and wants. She devoted herself to her son, who became the "father of twelve princes," the progenitor of the Arabs, who, to this day, keep possession of the wilderness where Hagar wandered with her son Ishmael. Poetry and painting have made this scene of her life memorable. It happened B. C: 1898.

HANNAH,

WAS wife of Elkanah, a Levite, and an inhabitant of Ramah. Her history, as given in scripture, is very brief, but full of interest and instruction. Elkanah had another wife, as was not uncommon among the Israelites, a practice their law tolerated though it never approved. Hannah was the beloved wife, but she had no children; and her rival, who had, taunted her with this sterility. The picture of this family gives a vivid idea of the domestic discord caused by polygamy.

HERO,

A PRIESTESS of Venus at Sestos, on the coast of Thrace. She saw Leander, a youth of Abydos, at a festival in honour of Venus and Adonis at Sestos, and they became in love with each other. The sacred office of Hero, and the opposition of her relatives, prevented their marriage; but every night Leander swam across the Hellespont, guided by a torch placed by Hero in her tower. At length he perished one night in the attempt, and Hero, while waiting for him, saw his lifeless body thrown by the waves at the foot of her tower. In her desperation, she sprang from the tower on the corpse of Leander, and was killed by the fall.

HERSILIA,

WIFE of Romulus, the founder of Rome, B. C. 753, was deified after her death, and worshipped under the names of Horta or Orta.

HIPPARCHIA,

A CELEBRATED lady at Maronea, in Thrace, who lived about B. C. 328. She was at one time mistress to Alexander the Great; but her attachment to learning and philosophy was so great, that having attended the lectures of Crates, the cynic, she fell in love with him, and resolved to marry him, though he was old, ugly, and deformed; and though she was addressed by many handsome young men, distinguished by their rank and riches. Crates himself was prevailed upon by her friends to try to dissuade her from her singular choice, which he did, by displaying to her his poverty, his cloak of sheep's skins, and his crooked back; but all in vain. At last, he told her that

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she could not be his wife, unless she resolved to is true, indeed, that in the Carthaginian war our lives as her did. This she cheerfully agreed to, mothers assisted the republic, which was at that assumed the habit of the order, and accompanied time reduced to the utmost distress; but neither him everywhere to public entertainments and their houses, their lands, nor their moveables, other places, which was not customary with the were sold for this service; some rings, and a few Grecian womenti She wrote several tragedies, phi-jewels, furnished the supply. Nor was it conlosophical hypotheses, and reasonings and ques-straint or violence that forced those from them; tions proposed to Theodorus, the atheist, but what they contributed, was the voluntary offering none of her writings are extant. She had two of generosity. What danger at present threatens daughters by Crates: ono to worst né „mole?! Rome? "If the Gauls or Parthians were encamped -tune out a dtro mu ben vd Irid of mid Ferivin on the banks of the Tiber or the Arno, you should find us not less zealous in the defence of our country, than our mothers were before us; but it becomes not us, and we are resolved that we will not be in any way concerned in a civil war. Neither Marius, nor Cæsar, nor Pompey, ever thought of obliging us to take part in the domestic troubles which their ambition had raised; nay, nor did ever Sylla himself, who first set up tyranny in Rome; and yet you assume the glorious title of reformers of the state, a title which will turn to your eternal infamy, if, without the least regard to the laws of equity, you persist in your wicked resolution of plundering those of their lives and fortunes, who have given you no just cause of offence. El amort put for e7, toi Tex "Struck with the justness of her speech, yet offended at its boldness, the triumvirs ordered the women to be driven away; but the populace growing tumultuous in their favour, they were afraid

Was the daughter of Ehomaus, king of Pisa, in Elis. An oracle had predicted to the king that he would be murdered by his son-in-law; and therefore he declared that all the suitors of his daughter should contend with him in a chariot-race, and that if he defeated them, he should be allowed to put them to death. In this way he slew thirteen or seventeen sultors, when Pelops, by bribing the driver of the king's chariot, had him overturned in the middle of the course, and he lost his life. Hippodamia married Pelops, and became the mo ther of{Atreus and Thyestes. She killed herself from grief, at being accused of having caused these sons to commit fratricide,arnom 14 to fitrah red Fauq thus prud borlatoh, „pohod to reare B'ozyloT donlw HORTENSIA, odi quid ret .99A ROMAN lady, daughter of Hortensius, the oral tor, was born B. C. 85. She inherited her father's eloquence, as a speech

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monstrates; which, for elegance Appian de- of an insurrection, and reduced the list of those

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of language, and justness of thought, would do honour to Cicero or Demosthenesys Tfq9] woe 0,12 594T 20 to The triumvirs of Rome, in want of a large sum of money for carrying on a war, drew up a list of fourteen hundred of the wealthiest women; intend- | ing to tax them. The women, after having in vain tried every means to evade so great an innovation, at last chose Hortensia for a speaker, and went with her to the market-place, where she addressed the triumvirs, while they were administering "justice, in the following words: it to 2976w odsy eds The unhappy women you see here, imploring your justice and bounty, would never have pre sumed to appear in this had not first made use of all other means their natural modesty could suggest. Though our appearing here may Beem contrary to the rules prescribed to our sex, which we have hitherto strictly observed, yet the loss of our fathers, children, brothers, and husbands, may sufficiently excuse us, especially when their unhappy deaths are made a pretence for our further misfortunes. You plead that they had offended and provoked you; but what injury have we women done, that we must be impoverished? If we are blameable as the men, why not proscribe us also? Have we declared you enemies to your country? Have we suborned your soldiers, raised | troops against you, or opposed you in pursuit of these honours and offices which you claim? We prétend not to govern the republic, nor is it our ambition which has drawn our present misfortune on our heads; empires, dignities and honours, are not for us; why should we, then, contribute to a war in which we have no manner of interest? It

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ni tud,fourel to HULDAH, abol sawit

A JEWISH prophetess, in the time of king Josiah. Her husband was Shallum, keeper of the royal wardrobe, an office of high honour. We have but a glimpse of Huldah, just sufficient to show, thất when the Jewish nation was given up to idolatry and ignorance of the Good, still the lamp of divine truth was kept burning in the heart of a woman.

When Josiah, who was one of the few good kings who ruled over Judah, came to the throne, he found the Holy Temple partly given up to idolatrous rites, partly falling into ruins. In repairing the temple, the of the Book of the Law was found among the rubbish, and carried to Josinh. The king and his counsellors seem to have been ignorant of this book; and the king was struck with consternation, when he heard the law read, and felt how it had been violated. He imme diately sent three of his chief officers, one of whom was Hilkiah, the high priest, to "enquire of the Lord concerning the words of the book." The officers went to "Huldah, the prophetess, (now she dwelt in Jerusalem, in the college,) and communed with her."id rourist foútogaý et ti of Would the high priest have gone to consult a woman, had not her repute for wisdom and piety been well known; and considered superior to what was possessed by any man in Jerusalem? Her place of residence was in the college,” among the most learned of the land; and, as a prophetess or priestess, her response shows her to have been worthy of the high office she held. How böld was her rebuke of sin, how clear her prophetic

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insight, how true her predictions! The language
-and the style of her reply to the king of Judah,
make it as grand and impressive as any of the
prophecies from the lips of inspired men. The
· history may be found in II. Kings, chapter xxii.
Huldah lived about B. C. 624.
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IPHIGENIA

JAEL, or JAHEL,

5220 777

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WAS daughter of Agamemnon, leader of the
Greek forces against Troy, and of Clytemnestra, his
wife, When the Greeks, going to the Trojan war,
were detained at Aulis by adverse winds, they
[ were told, by an oracle, that Iphigenia, must be
sacrificed to appease Diana, who was incensed
[ against Agamemnon for killing one of her stags.
The father was horror-struck, and commanded his
herald to disband the forces. The other generals
interfered, and Agamemnon at last consented to
the sacrifice. As Iphigenia was tenderly loved by
her mother, the Greeks sent for her on pretence
of giving her in marriage to Achilles. When
Iphigenia came to Aulis, and saw the preparations
for the sacrifice, she implored the protection of
her father, but in vain. Calchas, the Grecian
priest, took the knife, and was about to strike the
fatal blow, when Diana, relented, caught, away
Iphigenia, who suddenly disappeared, and a goat
of uncommon size and beauty was found in her
-place. This supernatural change animated the
Greeks; the wind suddenly became favourable,
and the combined fleet set sail from Aulis. Cal-
ochas, the Grecian, priest, seems to have acted with
the same humane policy in this affair that the
bishop of Beauvois did in the case of Joan of Arc.
This story of Iphigenia has furnished, materials
for several tragedies; those of Euripides are
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WIEE of Heber the Kenite, killed Sisera, general
of the Canaanitish army, who had fled to her tent,
[and while sleeping there, Jael drove a large nail
through his temple. Her story is related in the
fourth chapter of Judges, B. C, 1285.
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JEMIMA, KEZIA, KERENHAPPUCH:
THESE three were the daughters of Job, born to
bim after he was restored to the favour of God
and man.

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We give their names, not for any thing they did, but for the sentiment taught in this sacred history concerning family relations and female elaims. We are instructed, by the particularity with which these daughters are named, that they were considered the crowning blessing God bestowed on his servant Jobs And Job showed his fintegrity as a man, and his wisdom as a father, in providing justly for these his fair daughters. He

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"gave them inheritance among their brethren;" that is, secured to them an equal share of his property, and left them free to enjoy it as they chose.

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JEZEBEL,

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DAUGHTER of Ethbaal, king of Tyre and Sidon, was the wife of Ahab, king of Israel. She seduced him into the worship of Baal, and persecuted the prophets of the Lord. Enraged at the death of the prophets of Baal, slain by the command of Elisha, she resolved on his destruction; but he escaped her vengeance: Ahab, being very desirous of obtaining a vineyard belonging to Naboth the Jezreelite, which was close by the palace of the king, offered the owner a better one in its stead; but Naboth refused to give up the inheritance which had descended to him from his fathers. In consequence of this disappointment, Ahab came into his house sad and dispirited; Jezebel, discovering the reason of his depression, procured the death of Naboth, and Ahab took 'possession of the vineyard. In consequence of this act of wickedness, Elijah foretold the sudden and violent death both of Ahab and Jezebel, which occurred three years after. The story of this "wicked woman' shows the power of female influence, and how per nicious it may be when exerted for evil over the mind of man. Happily for the world, there have been few Jezebels, and therefore the wickedness of this one appears so awful that it has made her name to be forever abhorred. She died B. C. 884. irl qu JOCASTA, *** Daughter of Creon, king of Thebes, and wife of Laius, was mother to Edipus, whom she afterwards ignorantly married, and had by him Polynices and Eteocles, who having killed one another in a battle for the succession, Jocasta destroyed herself in grief. She flourished about B. C. 1266. Her son Edipus had been given by Laius, his father, to a shepherd to destroy, as an oracle had foretold that he should be killed by his own son.

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But the shepherd, not liking to kill the child, left him to perish by hunger; and he was found by Phorbus, shepherd to Polybus, king of Corinth, who brought him up, and Edipus unwittingly fulfilled the oracle. Sophocles has written a tragedy founded on this story. ut T *It *a[ ]« f * } fa

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+ ZI "" "p f [ Farm JOCHEBED, Cart, therei -WIFE of Amram, and mother of Miriam, Aaron, and Moses, has stamped her memory indelibly on the heart of Jew and Christian. She was granddaughter of Levi; her husband was also of the same: : family or tribe; their exact relationship is not decided, though the probability is that they were cousins-german,ozre red fodplait de

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As Amram is y mentioned incidentally, we have no authority for concluding he took any part in the great crisis of Jochebed's life; but as their children were all distinguished for talents and piety, it is reasonable to conclude that this married pair were congenial in mind and heart. Still, though both were pious believers in the promises made by God to their forefathers, it was only the

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wife who had the opportunity of manifesting by hopes. That the preservation of Moses, and his her deeds her superior wisdom and faith.

Nearly three hundred years had gone by since Jacob and his sons went down into Egypt. Their posterity was now a numerous people, but held in the most abject bondage. Pharaoh, a king "who knew not Joseph," endeavouring to extirpate the hated race, had given strict commands to destroy every male child born of a Hebrew mother.

preparation for his great mission as the Deliverer of Israel, and the Lawgiver for all men who worship Jehovah, were effected by the agency of woman, displays her spiritual gifts in such a clear light as must make them strikingly apparent; and that their importance in the progress of mankind, will be frankly acknowledged by all Christian men, seems certain whenever they will, laying aside their masculine prejudices, carefully study the word of God. These events occurred B. C. 1535. See Exodus, chap. I. and II.

Jochebed had borne two children before this bloody edict was promulgated; Miriam, a daughter of thirteen, and Aaron, a little son of three years old. These were safe; but now God gives her another son, "a goodly child;" and the mother's heart must have nearly fainted with grief and terror, as she looked on her helpless babe, and knew he was doomed by the cruel Pharaoh to be cast forth to the monsters of the Nile. No ray of hope from the help of man was visible. The Hebrew men had been bowed beneath the lash of their oppressors, till their souls had become abject as their toils. Jochebed could have no aid from her husband's superior physical strength and worldly knowledge. The man was overborne; the superior spiritual insight of the woman was now to lead; her mother's soul had been gifted with a strength the power of Pharaoh could not subdue; her moral sense had a sagacity that the reason of man could never have reached. Thus, in the history of the human race, woman has ever led the forlorn hope of the world's moral progress. Jochebed was then such a leader. She must have had faith in God's promise of deliverance for her people; every man-child brought a new ray of hope, as the chosen deliverer. She had a "goodly son" he should not die. So "she hid him three months." Language can never express the agony which must have wrung the mother's heart during those months, when each dawning day might bring the death-doom of her nursling son. At length, she can hide him no longer. Another resource must be tried. She must trust him to God's providence; God could move the compassion even of the Egyptian heart. But the mother has her work to perform; all that she can do, she must do. So she gathers her materials, and as she sits weaving an "ark of bulrushes, and daubing it with slime," her slight fingers trembling with the unwonted task, who that saw her could have dreamed she was building a structure of more importance to mankind than all the pyramids of Egypt? That in this mother's heart there was a divine strength with which all the power of Pharaoh would strive in vain to cope? That on the events depending upon her work rested the memory of this very Pharaoh, and not on the monuments he was rearing at Raamses?

She finished her "ark of bulrushes," and in the frail structure laid down her infant son. Then concealing the basket among the flags on the banks of the Nile, she placed her daughter Miriam to watch what should become of the babe, while she, no doubt, retired to weep and pray. The whole plan was in perfect accordance with the peculiar nature of woman-and women only were the actors in this drama of life and life's holiest

JUDITH,

Or the tribe of Reuben, daughter of Meravi, and widow of Manasseh, lived in Bethuliah, when it was besieged by Holofernes. She was beautiful and wealthy, and lived very much secluded. Being informed that the chief of Bethulia had promised to deliver it in five days, she sent for the elders and remonstrated with them, and declared her intention of leaving the city for a short time. Judith then prayed, dressed herself in her best attire, and pretending to have fled from the city, went, with her maid, to the camp of Holofernes. He was immediately captivated by her, and promised her his protection. Judith continued with Holofernes, going out of his camp every night; but the fourth night Holofernes sent for her to stay with him. She went gorgeously apparelled; eating and drinking not with Holofernes, but only what her maid prepared for her. Holofernes, transported with joy at sight of her, drank immoderately, and fell into a sound sleep. Evening being come, the servants departed, leaving Judith and her maid alone with him. Judith ordered the maid to stand without and watch, and putting up a prayer to God, she took Holofernes' sabre, and seized him by his hair, saying, "Strengthen me this day, O Lord!" Then she struck him twice on the neck, and cut off his head, which she told her maid to put in a bag-then wrapping the body in the curtains of the bed, they went, as usual, out of the camp, and returned to Bethulia, where the head of Holofernes being displayed on the gates of the city, struck his army with dismay, and they were entirely defeated. The high-priest Joachim came from Jerusalem to Bethulia to compliment Judith. Everything that had belonged to Holofernes was given to her, and she consecrated his arms and the curtains of his bed to the Lord. Judith set her maid free, and died in Bethulia at the age of one hundred and five, was buried with her husband, and all the people lamented her seven days.

The "Song of Judith," as recorded in the Apocrypha, is a poem of much power and beauty.

JULIA,

DAUGHTER of Julius Cæsar and Cornelia, was one of the most attractive and most virtuous of the Roman ladies. She was first married to Cornelius Cæpion, but divorced from him to become the wife of Pompey. Pompey was so fond of her as to neglect, on her account, politics and arms. She died B. C. 53. Had she lived, there would not have been war between Cæsar and Pompey.