Hister 2226894 211956933 2008-05-12T21:01:34Z Bacteria 157943 :''For the '''beetle''' genus, see:'' '''''[[Histeridae|Clown beetle]]''''' '''Hister''' (genetive '''Histri''') is the [[Latin]] name for the [[Danube River]] (especially its lower course), or for the people living along its banks. It also appears as '''Ister''', equivalent to the [[Ancient Greek]] '''᾽´Ιστρος''', which also meant the Danube River or the region around its mouth. A city called '''Istria''' still appears near the mouth of the Danube in some modern atlases. The term may be related to the name of the region [[Istria]] in what is now northwestern [[Croatia]], where a tribe called the Histri lived in ancient times. Some once thought that the local freshwater streams in Istria derived from a (non-existent) southward branch of the Danube. In modern English the term is most commonly encountered in its use by [[Nostradamus]], in a phrase commonly translated "most of the battle (or armies) will be against Hister"<ref name="Nostradamus">[[wikisource:Les Propheties#Century II|Century II, Quatrain 24]], [[Les Propheties]], [[Nostradamus]]: :Beasts ferocious from hunger will swim across rivers: :The greater part of the region will be against the Hister, :The great one will cause it to be dragged in an iron cage, :When the German child will observe nothing. [[wikisource:fr:Les Prophéties de M. Nostradamus : Centurie II|In French]]: :Bestes farouches de faim fleuves tranner: :Plus part du champ encontre Hister sera, :En caige de fer le grand fera treisner, :Quand rien enfant de [[Germain]] observera.</ref>, and popularly interpreted to be a prediction of [[World War II|the war]] against [[Adolf Hitler]]'s [[Nazi]] state in the [[Twentieth Century]]. It appears instead to be a prediction of some unknown battle on the banks of the Danube. ==References== *[[Greek-English Lexicon]] *[[Oxford Latin Dictionary]] <references/> {{hist-stub}} [[Category:Alternative names of European places]] [[Category:Latin names of places]] [[Category:Roman toponymy]] [[Category:Nostradamus]] [[Category:Danube]]