Himĕra
(
Ἱμέρα).
1.
Now Fiume Salso; one of the principal rivers in the south of Sicily, at one time the
boundary between the territories of the Carthaginians and Syracusans, receives near Enua the
water of a salt spring, and hence has salt water as far as its mouth.
2.
A smaller river in the north of Sicily, flowing into the sea between the towns of Himera
and Thermae.
3.
A celebrated Greek city on the north coast of Sicily, west of the mouth of the river Himera
2, was founded by the Chalcidians of Zanclé, B.C. 648, and afterwards received
Dorian settlers, so that the inhabitants spoke a mixed dialect, partly Ionic (Chalcidian),
and partly Doric. In B.C. 409 it was taken by the Carthaginians, and was levelled to the
ground. It was never rebuilt; but on the opposite bank of the river Himera the Carthaginians
founded a new town, which, from a warm medicinal spring in its neighbourhood, was called
Thermae (Termini). The poet Stesichorus was born at the
ancient Himera, and the tyrant Agathocles at Thermae.