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HELIUS EOBANUS See also:HESSUS (1488-1540) , See also:German Latin poet, was See also:born at Halgehausen in See also:Hesse-See also:Cassel, on the 6th of See also:January 1488 . His See also:family name is said to have been See also:Koch; Eoban was the name of a See also:local See also:saint; See also:Hessus indicates the See also:land of his See also:birth, Helius the fact that he was born on See also:Sunday . In 1504 he entered the university of See also:Erfurt, and soon after his See also:graduation was appointed See also:rector of the school of St See also:Severus . This See also:post he soon lost, and spent the years 1509-1513 at the See also:court of the See also:bishop of Riesenburg . Returning to Erfurt, he was reduced to See also:great straits owing to his drunken and irregular habits . At length (in 1517) he was appointed See also:professor of Latin in the university . He was prominently associated with the distinguished men of the See also:time (Johann See also:Reuchlin, See also:Conrad Peutinger, See also:Ulrich von See also:Hutten, Conrad Mutianus), and took See also:part in the See also:political, religious and See also:literary quarrels of the See also:period, finally declaring in favour of See also:Luther and the See also:Reformation, although his subsequent conduct showed that he was actuated by selfish motives . The university was seriously weakened by the growing popularity of the new university of See also:Wittenberg, and Hessus endeavoured (but without success) to gain a living by the practice of See also:medicine . Through the See also:influence of See also:Camerarius and See also:Melanchthon, he obtained a post at See also:Nuremberg (1526), but, finding a See also:regular See also:life distasteful, he again went back to Erfurt (1533)• But it was not the Erfurt he had known; his old See also:friends were dead or had See also:left the See also:place; the university was deserted . A lengthy poem gained him the favour of the See also:landgrave of Hesse, by whom he was summoned in 1536 as professor of See also:poetry and See also:history to See also:Marburg, where he died on the sth of See also:October 1540 . Hessus, who was considered the foremost Latin poet of his See also:age, was a facile See also:verse-maker, but not a true poet . He wrote what be thought was likely to pay or secure him the favour of some important See also:person .
He wrote local, See also:historical and military poems, idylls, epigrams and occasional pieces, collected under the See also:title of Sylvae
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His most popular See also:works were See also:translations of the See also:Psalms into Latin distichs (which reached See also:forty See also:editions) and of the Iliad into hexameters
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His mcst See also:original poem was the Heroides in See also:imitation of See also:Ovid, consisting of letters from See also:holy See also:women, from the Virgin See also:Mary down to Kunigunde, wife of the See also:emperor See also: Herrmann and S . Szamatolski's Lateinische Literaturdenkmdler See also:des X V. u . X VI . Jakrhunderts (See also:Berlin, 1896) . |
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