HERALD; for the mediaeval and modern functions of a herald, see HERALDRY.
Greek Heralds, So-called.—The word "herald" is commonly used to translate Gr. Kipv, which has various meanings. (I) In Homer, a Kflpv is mostly a trusted attendant or retainer of a chieftain, one might almost say a gentleman of the bedchamber. We several times hear of them attending and waiting on their lords, performing confidential services for them, and so forth. But they also have official and public functions ; they proclaim and execute the king's will—in which capacity it would seem that their persons are inviolable—and summon and keep order at the f olk-moot. (2) These functions continue at later times, and we find heralds acting as inviolable messengers between states, even in time of war, proclaiming meetings of a senate, popular assembly, or court of law, reciting the formulae of prayer, etc., thereat, and summoning persons to attend. Hermes, himself the herald of the gods, is their patron and carries a herald's staff (caduceus, Knp()KEtov, ; see HERMES). (3) Besides these paid functionaries of the State, there was a clan of kerykes at Eleusis, who had certain duties in connection with the mysteries. (4) The word, however, of ten means no more than a crier, whether at the Olympian or other games or simply at a sale or the like.
Latin "Heralds."—Setting aside the misuse of "herald" to translate praeco (crier, auctioneer), or apparitor (summoner, at tendant on a magistrate), we may notice the real equivalent of the Greek Kipvi in his capacity as an inviolable messenger, the fetialis. A college of fetiales existed from very early times; such an institution was by no means confined to Rome, and parallels to it are found among quite low savages, giving us the right to suppose that it had long been recognized in Italy before our earliest historical documents. At Rome, if a breach of inter national law by a neighbouring state was alleged, two fetiales at least were appointed, the pater patratus, who was the senior member of the deputation, and the Verbenarius, or carrier of the sacred herbs (verbenae, sagmina), which apparently represented the Roman territory. These went to the State in question and thrice solemnly demanded redress (clarigeratio) ; if this was not obtained within 3o days, they reported the matter at Rome; when war was voted they returned to the frontier, and flung a javelin, made of cornel-wood and having either an iron point or one end sharpened and hardened by fire (this clearly is the older form), into the hostile territory, calling on the gods to witness the justice of their cause. In later times, a plot of land in Rome, containing the famous columna bellica or pillar of war, was by a legal fiction made to represent hostile territory, and the javelin cast into it, thus. avoiding the long journeys overseas to perform the ceremony. They also made treaties of peace, when the terms had been agreed upon and ratified. For this purpose, the deputa tion carried flint knives, or a flint knife, which was the embodi ment of Jupiter, and kept in one of his temples (luppiter lapis). They met the deputation of the other state ; the terms of the treaty were read aloud; a pig was killed with the knife (hence the phrase foedus ferire, to smite a treaty-victim, for "to make a treaty," the Greeks said opKW. Taµv€Lv, to cut oath-victims, and had a very similar rite), and Jupiter was invoked to smite Rome in like manner, if Rome were the first wantonly to violate the treaty. The college of fetiales, though little is heard of it of ter 201 B.C., continued to exist throughout the empire.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.-(a) Greek : C. Ostermann, De praeconibus graecis Bibliography.-(a) Greek : C. Ostermann, De praeconibus graecis (i845) ; L. R. Farnell, Cults of the Greek States (1896) • (b) Italian: Wissowa, Religion and Kultus d. Romer 2, p. 55o (1912) ; H. J. Rose, Primitive Culture in Italy, pp. 45, 223 (1926) ; further references in the former work. Etymology of fetialis, see Walde, Lat. Etymol. Worterbuch (s.v.) .