HESSUS, HELIUS EOBANUS 540) German Latin poet, was born at Halgehausen in Hesse-Cassel, on Jan. 6, 1488. His family name is said to have been Koch. He entered the University of Erfurt in 1504 and became professor of Latin there in 1517. He was associated with the distinguished men of the time (Johann Reuchlin, Conrad Peutinger, Ulrich von Hutten, Conrad Mutianus), and took part in the political, religious and literary quarrels of _ the period, finally declaring in favour of Luther and the Reformation. Through the influence of Camerarius and Melanchthon, he obtained a post at Nuremberg (1526), but, finding a regular life distasteful, he again went back to Erfurt , but found his friends gone and the university deserted. In 1536 the Landgrave of Hesse made him professor of poetry and history at Marburg, where he died on Oct. 5, 154o. Hessus, who was considered the foremost Latin poet of his age, was a facile verse-maker, but not a true poet. He wrote local, historical and military poems, idylls, epigrams and occasional pieces, col lected under the title of Sylvae. His most popular works were translations of the Psalms into Latin distichs (which reached 4o editions) and of the Iliad into hexameters. His most original poem was the Heroides in imitation of Ovid, consisting of letters from holy women, from the Virgin Mary down to Kunigunde, wife of the emperor Henry II.