Chapter M (14)

=Parma=, a town of Italy, near Cremona, celebrated for its wool, and
now for its cheese. The poet Cassius and the critic Macrobius were
born there. It was made a Roman colony, A.U.C. 569. The inhabitants
are called _Parmenenses_ and _Parmani_. _Livy_, bk. 39, ch. 55.
――_Strabo_, bk. 5.――_Horace_, bk. 1, ltr. 4, li. 3.――_Cicero_,
_Philippics_, bk. 14, li. 3.――_Varro_, _de Lingua Latina_, bk. 7,
ch. 31.――_Martial_, bk. 2, ltr. 43, li. 4; bk. 3, ltr. 13, li. 8 &
ltr. 14, li. 155.

=Parmenĭdes=, a Greek philosopher of Elis, who flourished about 505
years before Christ. He was son of Pyres of Elis, and the pupil
of Xenophanes, or of Anaximander, according to some. He maintained
that there were only two elements, fire and the earth; and he taught
that the first generation of men was produced from the sun. He first
discovered that the earth was round, and habitable only in the two
temperate zones, and that it was suspended in the centre of the
universe, in a fluid lighter than air, so that all bodies left to
themselves fell on its surface. There were, as he supposed, only two
sorts of philosophy,――one founded on reason, and the other on opinion.
He digested this unpopular system in verses, of which a few fragments
remain. _Diogenes Laërtius._

=Parmenio=, a celebrated general in the armies of Alexander, who
enjoyed the king’s confidence, and was more attached to his person as
a man than as a monarch. When Darius king of Persia offered Alexander
all the country which lies at the west of the Euphrates, with his
daughter Statira in marriage, and 10,000 talents of gold, Parmenio
took occasion to observe that he would, without hesitation, accept of
these conditions, if he were Alexander. “So would I, were I Parmenio,”
replied the conqueror. This friendship, so true and inviolable, was
sacrificed to a moment of resentment and suspicion; and Alexander,
who had too eagerly listened to a light and perhaps a false
accusation, ordered Parmenio and his son to be put to death, as if
guilty of treason against his person. Parmenio was in the 70th year
of his age, B.C. 330. He died in the greatest popularity, and it
has been judiciously observed, that Parmenio obtained many victories
without Alexander, but Alexander not one without Parmenio. _Curtius_,
bk. 7, &c.――_Plutarch_, _Alexander_.

=Parnassus=, a mountain of Phocis, anciently called _Larnassos_, from
the _boat_ of Deucalion (λαρναξ), which was carried there in the
universal deluge. It received the name of Parnassus from Parnassus
the son of Neptune by Cleobula, and was sacred to the Muses, and
to Apollo and Bacchus. The soil was barren, but the valleys and
the green woods that covered its sides, rendered it agreeable, and
fit for solitude and meditation. Parnassus is one of the highest
mountains of Europe, and it is easily seen from the citadel of
Corinth, though at the distance of about 80 miles. According to the
computation of the ancients, it is one day’s journey round. At the
north of Parnassus, there is a large plain, about eight miles in
circumference. The mountain, according to the poets, had only two
tops, called _Hyampea_ and _Tithorea_, on one of which the city of
Delphi was situated, and thence it was called _Biceps_. _Strabo_, bks.
8, 9.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, li. 317; bk. 2, li. 221; bk. 5,
li. 278.――_Lucan_, bk. 5, li. 71; bk. 3, li. 173.――_Livy_, bk. 42,
ch. 16.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 15, li. 311.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 6.――_Propertius_, bk. 2, poem 23, li. 13;
bk. 3, poem 11, li. 54.――――A son of Neptune, who gave his name to a
mountain of Phocis.

=Parnes= (etis), a mountain of Africa, abounding in vines. _Statius_,
bk. 12, _Thebaid_, li. 620.

=Parnessus=, a mountain of Asia near Bactriana. _Dionysius Periegeta_,
li. 737.

=Parni=, a tribe of the Scythians, who invaded Parthia. _Strabo_,
bk. 11.

=Paron= and =Heraclides=, two youths who killed a man who had insulted
their father. _Plutarch_, _Apophthegmata Laconica_.

=Paropamisus=, a ridge of mountains at the north of India, called the
_Stony Girdle_, or Indian Caucasus. _Strabo_, bk. 15.

=Paropus=, now _Colisano_, a town at the north of Sicily, on the shores
of the Tyrrhene sea. _Polybius_, bk. 1, ch. 24.

=Paroreia=, a town of Thrace, near mount Hæmus. _Livy_, bk. 39, ch. 27.
――――A town of Peloponnesus.――――A district of Phrygia Magna. _Strabo_,
bk. 12.

=Paros=, a celebrated island among the Cyclades, about 7½ miles distant
from Naxos, and 28 from Delos. According to Pliny, it is half as
large as Naxos, that is, about 36 or 37 miles in circumference, a
measure which some of the moderns have extended to 50 and even 80
miles. It has borne the different names of _Pactia_, _Minoa_, _Hiria_,
_Demetrias_, _Zacynthus_, _Cabarnis_, and _Hyleassa_. It received
the name of Paros, which it still bears, from Paros, a son of Jason,
or, as some maintain, of Parrhasius. The island of Paros was rich
and powerful, and well known for its famous marble, which was always
used by the best statuaries. The best quarries were those of Marpesus,
a mountain where still caverns of the most extraordinary depth are
seen by modern travellers, and admired as the sources from whence
the ♦labyrinth of Egypt and the porticoes of Greece received their
splendour. According to Pliny, the quarries were so uncommonly deep,
that, in the clearest weather, the workmen were obliged to use lamps,
from which circumstance the Greeks have called the marble _Lychnites_,
worked by the light of lamps. Paros is also famous for the fine
cattle which it produces, and for its partridges, and wild pigeons.
The capital city was called Paros. It was first peopled by the
Phœnicians, and afterwards a colony of Cretans settled in it. The
Athenians made war against it, because it had assisted the Persians
in the invasion of Greece, and took it, and it became a Roman
province in the age of Pompey. Archilochus was born there. The
_Parian_ marbles, perhaps better known by the appellation of
_Arundelian_, were engraved in this island in capital letters, B.C.
264, and, as a valuable chronicle, preserved the most celebrated
epochas of Greece, from the year 1582 B.C. These valuable pieces of
antiquity were procured originally by M. de Peirisc, a Frenchman,
and afterwards purchased by the earl of Arundel, by whom they were
given to the university of Oxford, where they are still to be seen.
Prideaux published an account of all the inscriptions in 1676. _Mela_,
bk. 2, ch. 7.――_Strabo_, bk. 5.――_Cornelius Nepos_, _Miltiades_ &
_Alcibiades_.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 1, li. 593; _Georgics_, bk. 3,
li. 34.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 3, li. 419; bk. 7, li. 466.
――_Pliny_, bk. 3, ch. 14; bk. 36, ch. 17.――_Diodorus_, bk. 5, &
_Thucydides_, bk. 1.――_Herodotus_, bk. 5, &c.――_Horace_, bk. 1,
ode 19, li. 6.

♦ ‘labryrinth’ replaced with ‘labyrinth’

=Parphŏrus=, a native of Colophon, who, at the head of a colony, built
a town at the foot of Ida, which was abandoned for a situation nearer
his native city. _Strabo_, bk. 14.――_Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 3.

=Parrhăsia=, a town of Arcadia, founded by Parrhasius the son of
Jupiter. The Arcadians are sometimes called _Parrhasians_, and
Arcas _Parrhasis_, and Carmenta, Evander’s mother, _Parrhasiadea_.
_Lucan_, bk. 2, li. 237.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 8, li. 333.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 8, li. 315; _Fasti_, bk. 1, li. 618; _Tristia_,
bk. 1, li. 190.――_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 27.

=Parrhăsius=, a famous painter, son of Evenor of Ephesus, in the age
of Zeuxis, about 415 years before Christ. He was a great master of
his profession, and particularly excelled in strongly expressing
the violent passions. He was blessed with a great genius, and much
invention, and he was particularly happy in his designs. He acquired
himself great reputation by his pieces, but by none more than that
in which he allegorically represented the people of Athens with all
the injustice, the clemency, the fickleness, timidity, the arrogance
and inconsistency, which so eminently characterized that celebrated
nation. He once entered the lists against Zeuxis, and when they had
produced their respective pieces, the birds came to pick with the
greatest avidity the grapes which ♦Zeuxis had painted. Immediately
Parrhasius exhibited his piece, and Zeuxis said, “Remove your
curtain, that we may see the painting.” The curtain was the painting,
and Zeuxis acknowledged himself conquered, by exclaiming, “Zeuxis
has deceived birds, but Parrhasius has deceived Zeuxis himself”.
Parrhasius grew so vain of his art, that he clothed himself in purple,
and wore a crown of gold, calling himself the king of painters. He
was lavish in his own praises, and by his vanity too often exposed
himself to the ridicule of his enemies. _Plutarch_, _Theseus_;
_Quomodo Adolescens Poetas Audire Debeat_.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch.
28.――_Pliny_, bk. 35, ch. 10.――_Horace_, bk. 4, ode 8.――――A son of
Jupiter, or, according to some, of Mars, by a nymph called Philonomia.

♦ ‘Xeuxis’ replaced with ‘Zeuxis’

=Parthamisiris=, a king of Armenia, in the reign of Trajan.

=Parthāon=, a son of Agenor and Epicaste, who married Euryte daughter
of Hippodamus, by whom he had many children, among whom were Œneus
and Sterope. Parthaon was brother to Demonice, the mother of Evenus
by Mars, and also to Molus, Pylus, and Thestius. He is called
Portheus by Homer, _Iliad_, bk. 14.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 7.
――_Hyginus_, fables 129 & 239.――――A son of Peripetus and father of
Aristas. _Pausanias_, bk. 8.

=Parthĕniæ= and =Parthĕnii=, a certain number of desperate citizens
of Sparta. During the Messenian war, the Spartans were absent from
their city for the space of 10 years, and it was unlawful for them to
return, as they had bound themselves by a solemn oath not to revisit
Sparta before they had totally subdued Messenia. This long absence
alarmed the Lacedæmonian women, as well as the magistrates. The
Spartans were reminded by their wives, that if they continued in
their resolution, the state must at last decay for want of citizens,
and when they had duly considered this embassy, they empowered all
the young men in the army, who had come to the war while yet under
age, and who therefore were not bound by the oath, to return to
Sparta, and, by a familiar and promiscuous intercourse with all the
unmarried women of the state, to raise a future generation. It was
carried into execution, and the children that sprang from this union
were called Partheniæ, or _sons of virgins_ (παρθενος). The war
with Messenia was some time after ended, and the Spartans returned
victorious; but the cold indifference with which they looked upon
the Partheniæ was attended with serious consequences. The Partheniæ
knew they had no legitimate fathers, and no inheritance, and
that therefore their life depended upon their own exertions. This
drove them almost to despair. They joined with the Helots, whose
maintenance was as precarious as their own, and it was mutually
agreed to murder all the citizens of Sparta, and to seize their
possessions. This massacre was to be done at a general assembly, and
the signal was the throwing of a cap in the air. The whole, however,
was discovered through the diffidence and apprehensions of the Helots;
and when the people had assembled, the Partheniæ discovered that all
was known, by the voice of a crier, who proclaimed that no man should
throw up his cap. The Partheniæ, though apprehensive of punishment,
were not visibly treated with greater severity; their calamitous
condition was attentively examined, and the Spartans, afraid of
another conspiracy, and awed by their numbers, permitted them to
sail for Italy, with Phalantus their ringleader at their head. They
settled in Magna Græcia, and built Tarentum, about 707 years before
Christ. _Justin_, bk. 3, ch. 5.――_Strabo_, bk. 6.――_Pausanias_, on
_Laconia_, &c.――_Plutarch_, _Apophthegmata Laconica_.

=Parthĕnias=, a river of Peloponnesus, flowing by Elis. _Pausanias_,
bk. 6, ch. 21.――――The ancient name of Samos. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 31.

=Parthĕnion=, a mountain of Peloponnesus at the north of Tegea.
_Pausanias._

=Parthĕnius=, a river of Paphlagonia, which, after separating Bithynia,
falls into the Euxine sea, near Sesamum. It received its name either
because the _virgin_ Diana (παρθενος) bathed herself there, or
perhaps it received it from the purity and mildness of its waters.
_Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 104.――_Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 2.――――A mountain
of Arcadia, which was said to abound in tortoises. Here Telephus
had a temple. Atalanta was exposed on its top and brought up there.
_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 54.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 13.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 7.――――A favourite of the emperor Domitian.
He conspired against his imperial master, and assisted to murder him.
――――A river of European Sarmatia. _Ovid_, _ex Ponto_, bk. 4, poem 10,
li. 49.――――A friend of Æneas killed in Italy. _Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 10, li. 748.――――A Greek writer, whose romance, _de Amatoriis
Affectionibus_ has been edited in 12mo, Basil, 1531.

=Parthĕnon=, a temple of Athens, sacred to Minerva. It was destroyed by
the Persians, and afterwards rebuilt by Pericles in a more magnificent
manner, and still exists. All the circumstances which related to
the birth of Minerva were beautifully and minutely represented in
bas-relief, on the front of the entrance. The statue of the goddess,
26 cubits high, and made of gold and ivory, passed for one of the
masterpieces of Phidias. _Pliny_, bk. 34.

=Parthĕnŏpæus=, a son of Meleager and Atalanta, or, according to some,
of Milanion and another Atalanta. He was one of the seven chiefs
who accompanied Adrastus the king of Argos in his expedition against
Thebes. He was killed by Amphidicus. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 9.
――_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 12; bk. 9, ch. 19.――――A son of Talaus.

=Parthĕnŏpe=, one of the Sirens.――――A daughter of Stymphalus.
_Apollodorus._――――A city of Campania, afterwards called Neapolis,
or _the new city_, when it had been beautified and enlarged by a
colony from Eubœa. It is now called _Naples_. It received the name
of Parthenope from one of the Sirens, whose body was found on the
sea-shore there. _Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 4, li. 564.――_Strabo_,
bks. 1 & 5.――_Paterculus_, bk. 1, ch. 4.――_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 12,
li. 167.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 12, li. 33.

=Parthia=, a celebrated country of Asia, bounded on the west by
Media, south by Carmania, north by Hyrcania, and east by Aria, &c.,
containing, according to Ptolemy, 25 large cities, the most capital
of which was called _Hecatompylos_, from its _hundred gates_. Some
suppose that the present capital of the country is built on the
ruins of Hecatompylos. According to some authors, the Parthians
were Scythians by origin, who made an invasion on the more southern
provinces of Asia, and at last fixed their residence near Hyrcania.
They long remained unknown and unnoticed, and became successively
tributary to the empire of the Assyrians, Medes, and Persians. When
Alexander invaded Asia, the Parthians submitted, like the other
dependent provinces of Persia, and they were for some time under
the power of Eumenes, Antigonus, Seleucus, Nicanor, and Antiochus,
till the rapacity and oppression of Agathocles, a lieutenant of the
latter, roused their spirit, and fomented rebellion. Arsaces, a man
of obscure origin, but blessed with great military powers, placed
himself at the head of his countrymen, and laid the foundation of
the Parthian empire, about 250 years before the christian era. The
Macedonians attempted in vain to recover it; a race of active and
vigilant princes, who assumed the surname of _Arsacides_, from the
founder of their kingdom, increased its power, and rendered it so
formidable, that, while it possessed 18 kingdoms between the Caspian
and Arabian seas, it even disputed the empire of the world with the
Romans, and could never be subdued by that nation, which had seen
no people on earth unconquered by their arms. It remained a kingdom
till the reign of Artabanus, who was killed about the year 229 of the
christian era, and from that time it became a province of the newly
re-established kingdom of Persia, under Artaxerxes. The Parthians
were naturally strong and warlike, and were esteemed the most expert
horsemen and archers in the world. The peculiar custom of discharging
their arrows while they were retiring full speed, has been greatly
celebrated by the ancients, particularly by the poets, who all
observe that their flight was more formidable than their attacks.
This manner of fighting, and the wonderful address and dexterity
with which it was performed, gained them many victories. They were
addicted much to drinking, and to every manner of lewdness, and
their laws permitted them to raise children even by their mothers
and sisters. _Strabo_, bks. 2, 6, &c.――_Curtius_, bk. 6, ch. 11.
――_Florus_, bk. 3, ch. 5.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 3, li. 31, &c.;
_Æneid_ bk. 7, li. 606.――_Ovid_, _Ars Amatoria_, bk. 1, &c., _Fasti_,
bk. 5, li. 580.――_Dio Cassius_, bk. 40.――_Ptolemy_, bk. 6, ch. 5.
――_Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 25.――_Polybius_, bk. 5, &c.――_Marcellinus._
――_Herodian_, bk. 3, &c.――_Lucan_, bk. 1, li. 230; bk. 6, li. 50;
bk. 10, li. 53.――_Justin_, bk. 41, ch. 1.――_Horace_, bk. 1, ode 19,
li. 11; bk. 2, ode 13, li. 17.

=Parthini=, a people of Illyricum. _Livy_, bk. 29, ltr. 12; bk. 33,
ch. 34; bk. 44, ch. 30.――_Suetonius_, _Augustus_, ch. 19.――_Cicero_,
_Against Piso_, ch. 40.

=Parthytēne=, a province of Parthia, according to Ptolemy, though some
authors support that it is the name of Parthia itself.

=Parysădes=, a king of Pontus, B.C. 310. _Diodorus._――――A king of the
Cimmerian Bosphorus, who flourished 284 B.C.

=Parysătis=, a Persian princess, wife of Darius Ochus, by whom she
had Artaxerxes, Memnon, and Cyrus the younger. She was so extremely
partial to her younger son, that she committed the greatest cruelties
to encourage his ambition, and she supported him with all her
interest in his rebellion against his brother Memnon. The death
of Cyrus at the battle of Cunaxa, was revenged with the grossest
barbarity, and Parysatis sacrificed to her resentment all such as she
found concerned in his fall. She also poisoned Statira the wife of
her son Artaxerxes, and ordered one of the eunuchs of the court to
be flayed alive, and his skin to be stretched on two poles before her
eyes, because he had, by order of the king, cut off the hand and the
head of Cyrus. These cruelties offended Artaxerxes, and he ordered
his mother to be confined in Babylon; but they were soon after
reconciled, and Parysatis regained all her power and influence till
the time of her death. _Plutarch_, _Artaxerxes_.――_Ctesiphon._

=Pasargada=, a town of Persia, near Carmania, founded by Cyrus on the
very spot where he had conquered Astyages. The kings of Persia were
always crowned there, and the Pasargadæ were the noblest families of
Persia, in the number of which were the Achæmenides. _Strabo_, bk. 15.
――_Pliny_, bk. 8, ch. 26.――_Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 125.――_Mela_,
bk. 3, ch. 8.

=Paseas=, a tyrant in Sicyon in Peloponnesus, father to Abantidas, &c.
_Plutarch_, _Aratus_.

=Pasicles=, a grammarian, &c.

=Pasicrătes=, a king of part of the island of Cyprus. _Plutarch._

=Pasiphae=, a daughter of the Sun and of Perseis, who married Minos king
of Crete. She disgraced herself by her unnatural passion for a bull,
which, according to some authors, she was enabled to gratify by means
of the artist Dædalus. This celebrated bull had been given to Minos
by Neptune, to be offered on his altars, but as the monarch refused
to sacrifice the animal on account of his beauty, the god revenged
his disobedience by inspiring Pasiphæ with an unnatural love for it.
This fabulous tradition, which is universally believed by the poets,
who observe that the Minotaur was the fruit of this infamous commerce,
is refuted by some writers, who suppose that the infidelity of
Pasiphæ to her husband was betrayed in her affection for an officer
called Taurus; and that Dædalus, by permitting his house to be
the asylum of the two lovers, was looked upon as accessary to the
gratification of Pasiphæ’s lust. From this amour with Taurus, as it
is further remarked, the queen became mother of twins, and the name
of _Minotaurus_ arises from the resemblance of the children to the
husband and the lover of Pasiphæ. Minos had four sons by Pasiphæ,
Castreus, Deucalion, Glaucus, and Androgeus, and three daughters,
Hecate, Ariadne, and Phædra. _See:_ Minotaurus. _Plato_, _Minos_.
――_Plutarch_, _Theseus_.――_Apollonius_, bk. 2, ch. 1.――_Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 6, li. 24.――_Hyginus_, fable 40.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.
――_Ovid_, _Heroides_, poem 4, lis. 57 & 165.

=Pasithea=, one of the Graces, also called Aglaia. _Pausanias_, bk. 9,
ch. 35.――――One of the Nereides. _Hesiod._――――A daughter of Atlas.

=Pasitĭgris=, a name given to the river Tigris. _Strabo_, bk. 15.
――_Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 20.

=Passaron=, a town of Epirus, where, after sacrificing to Jupiter, the
kings swore to govern according to law, and the people to obey and
to defend the country. _Plutarch_, _Pyrrhus_.――_Livy_, bk. 45, chs.
26 & 33.

=Passiēnus=, a Roman who reduced Numidia, &c. _Tacitus_, _Annals_.
――――Paulus, a Roman knight, nephew to the poet Propertius, whose
elegiac compositions he imitated. He likewise attempted lyric poetry,
and with success, and chose for his model the writings of Horace.
_Pliny_, ltrs. 6 & 9.――――Crispus, a man distinguished as an orator,
but more as the husband of Domitia, and afterwards of Agrippina,
Nero’s mother, &c. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 6, ch. 20.

=Pasus=, a Thessalian in Alexander’s army, &c.

=Patala=, a harbour at the mouth of the Indus, in an island called
_Patale_. The river here begins to form a Delta like the Nile. Pliny
places this island within the torrid zone. _Pliny_, bk. 2, ch. 73.
――_Curtius_, bk. 9, ch. 7.――_Strabo_, bk. 15.――_Arrian_, bk. 6,
ch. 17.

=Pătăra= (orum), now _Patera_, a town of Lycia, situate on the eastern
side of the mouth of the river Xanthus, with a capacious harbour,
a temple, and an oracle of Apollo, surnamed _Patareus_, where was
preserved and shown, in the age of Pausanias, a brazen cap, which
had been made by the hands of Vulcan, and presented by the god to
Telephus. The god was supposed by some to reside for the six winter
months at Patara, and the rest of the year at Delphi. The city was
greatly embellished by Ptolemy Philadelphus, who attempted in vain to
change its original name into that of his wife Arsinoe. _Livy_, bk.
37, ch. 15.――_Strabo_, bk. 14.――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 41.――_Horace_,
bk. 3, ode 14, li. 64.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, li. 516.
――_Mela_, bk. 1, ch. 15.

=Pătăvium=, a city of Italy, at the north of the Po, on the shores
of the Adriatic, now called _Padua_, and once said to be capable of
sending 20,000 men into the field. _See:_ Padua. It is the birthplace
of Livy, from which reason some writers have denominated _Patavinity_
those peculiar expressions and provincial dialect, which they seem
to discover in the historian’s style, not strictly agreeable to
the purity and refined language of the Roman authors who flourished
in or near the Augustan age. _Martial_, bk. 11, ltr. 17, li. 8.
――_Quintilian_, bk. 1, chs. 5, 56; bk. 8, ch. 13.――_Livy_, bk. 10,
ch. 2; bk. 41, ch. 27.――_Strabo_, bk. 5.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 4.

=Patercŭlus=, a Roman, whose daughter Sulpicia was pronounced the
chastest matron at Rome. _Pliny_, bk. 7, ch. 35.――――Velleius, an
historian. _See:_ Velleius.

=Patizithes=, one of the Persian Magi, who raised his brother to the
throne because he resembled Smerdis the brother of Cambyses, &c.
_Herodotus_, bk. 3, ch. 61.

=Patmos=, one of the Cyclades, with a small town of the same
name, situate at the south of Icaria, and measuring 30 miles in
circumference, according to Pliny, or only 18, according to modern
travellers. It has a large harbour, near which are some broken
columns, the most ancient in that part of Greece. The Romans
generally banished their culprits there. It is now called _Palmosa_.
_Strabo._――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12.

=Patræ=, an ancient town at the north-west of Peloponnesus, anciently
called _Aroe_. Diana had there a temple, and a famous statue of gold
and ivory. _Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 6.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 6,
li. 417.――_Livy_, bk. 27, ch. 29.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.

=Patro=, a daughter of Thestius. _Apollodorus._――――An epicurean
philosopher intimate with Cicero. _Cicero_, _Letters to his Friends_,
bk. 13, ch. 1.

=Pātrōcles=, an officer of the fleet of Seleucus and Antiochus. He
discovered several countries, and it is said that he wrote a history
of the world. _Strabo._――_Pliny_, bk. 6, ch. 17.

=Patrocli=, a small island on the coast of Attica. _Pausanias_, bk. 4,
ch. 5.

=Pātrōclus=, one of the Grecian chiefs during the Trojan war, son of
Menœtius by Sthenele, whom some call Philomela, or Polymela. The
accidental murder of Clysonymus the son of Amphidamus, in the time
of his youth, obliged him to fly from Opus, where his father reigned.
He retired to the court of Peleus king of Phthia, where he was kindly
received, and where he contracted the most intimate friendship with
Achilles the monarch’s son. When the Greeks went to the Trojan war,
Patroclus also accompanied them at the express command of his father,
who had visited the court of Peleus, and he embarked with 10 ships
from Phthia. He was the constant companion of Achilles, and he lodged
in the same tent; and when his friend refused to appear in the field
of battle, because he had been offended by Agamemnon, Patroclus
imitated his example, and by his absence was the cause of the
overthrow of the Greeks. But at last Nestor prevailed upon him to
return to the war, and Achilles permitted him to appear in his armour.
The valour of Patroclus, together with the terror which the sight of
the arms of Achilles inspired, soon routed the victorious armies of
the Trojans, and obliged them to fly within their walls for safety.
He would have broken down the walls of the city; but Apollo, who
interested himself for the Trojans, placed himself to oppose him, and
Hector, at the instigation of the god, dismounted from his chariot
to attack him, as he attempted to strip one of the Trojans whom he
had slain. The engagement was obstinate, but at last Patroclus was
overpowered by the valour of Hector, and the interposition of Apollo.
His arms became the property of the conqueror, and Hector would have
severed his head from his body had not Ajax and Menelaus intervened.
His body was at last recovered and carried to the Grecian camp, where
Achilles received it with the bitterest lamentations. His funeral was
observed with the greatest solemnity. Achilles sacrificed near the
burning pile 12 young Trojans, besides four of his horses, and two
of his dogs, and the whole was concluded by the exhibition of funeral
games, in which the conquerors were liberally rewarded by Achilles.
The death of Patroclus, as it is described by Homer, gave rise to
new events; Achilles forgot his resentment against Agamemnon, and
entered the field to avenge the fall of his friend, and his anger was
gratified only by the slaughter of Hector, who had more powerfully
kindled his wrath by appearing at the head of the Trojan armies
in the armour which had been taken from the body of Patroclus. The
patronymic of _Actorides_ is often applied to Patroclus, because
Actor was father to Menœtius. _Dictys Cretensis_, bk. 1, &c.――_Homer_,
bk. 9, _Iliad_, &c.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 13.――_Hyginus_, fables
97 & 275.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 13, li. 273.――――A son of
Hercules. _Apollodorus._――――An officer of Ptolemy Philadelphus.

=Patron=, an Arcadian at the games exhibited by Æneas in Sicily.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 5, li. 298.

=Patrous=, a surname of Jupiter among the Greeks, represented by his
statues as having three eyes, which some suppose to signify that he
reigned in three different places, in heaven, on earth, and in hell.
_Pausanias_, bk. 2.

=Patulcius=, a surname of Janus, which he received _a pateo_, because
the doors of his temple were always open in the time of war. Some
suppose that he received it because he presided over gates, or
because the year began by the celebration of his festivals. _Ovid_,
_Fasti_, bk. 1, li. 129.

=Paventia=, a goddess who presided over terror at Rome, and who was
invoked to protect her votaries from its effects. _Augustine_, _City
of God_, bk. 4, ch. 11.

=Paula=, the first wife of the emperor Heliogabalus. She was daughter
of the prefect of the pretorian guards. The emperor divorced her, and
Paula retired to solitude and obscurity with composure.

=Paulīna=, a Roman lady who married Saturninus, a governor of Syria, in
the reign of the emperor Tiberius. Her conjugal peace was disturbed,
and violence was offered to her virtue by a young man called Mundus,
who was enamoured of her, and who had caused her to come to the
temple of Isis by means of the priests of the goddess, who declared
that Anubis wished to communicate to her something of moment.
Saturninus complained to the emperor of the violence which had been
offered to his wife, and the temple of Isis was overturned and Mundus
banished, &c. _Josephus_, _Antiquities_, bk. 18, ch. 4.――――The wife
of the philosopher Seneca, who attempted to kill herself when Nero
had ordered her husband to die. The emperor, however, prevented
her, and she lived some few years after in the greatest melancholy.
_Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 15, ch. 63, &c.――――A sister of the emperor
Adrian.――――The wife of the emperor Maximinus.

=Paulīnus Pompeius=, an officer in Nero’s reign, who had the command of
the German armies, and finished the works on the banks of the Rhine,
which Drusus had begun 63 years before. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 13,
ch. 53.――_Suetonius._――――A Roman general, the first who crossed mount
Atlas with an army. He wrote a history of this expedition in Africa,
which is lost. Paulinus also distinguished himself in Britain, &c. He
followed the arms of Otho against Vitellius. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 1.
――――Valerius, a friend of Vespasian.――――Julius, a Batavian nobleman,
put to death by Fonteius Capito, on pretence of rebellion. _Tacitus_,
_Histories_, bk. 4, ch. 13.

=Paulus Æmylius=, a Roman, son of the Æmylius who fell at Cannæ,
was celebrated for his victories, and received the surname of
_Macedonicus_ from his conquest of Macedonia. In the early part of
life he distinguished himself by his uncommon application, and by his
fondness for military discipline. His first appearance in the field
was attended with great success, and the barbarians that had revolted
in Spain were reduced with the greatest facility under the power of
the Romans. In his first consulship his arms were directed against
the Ligurians, whom he totally subjected. His applications for a
second consulship proved abortive; but when Perseus the king of
Macedonia had declared war against Rome, the abilities of Paulus
were remembered, and he was honoured with the consulship about the
60th year of his age. After this appointment he behaved with uncommon
vigour, and soon a general engagement was fought near Pydna. The
Romans obtained the victory, and Perseus saw himself deserted by all
his subjects. In two days the conqueror made himself master of all
Macedonia, and soon after the fugitive monarch was brought into his
presence. Paulus did not exult over his fallen enemy; but when he
had gently rebuked him for his temerity in attacking the Romans,
he addressed himself in a pathetic speech to the officers of his
army who surrounded him, and feelingly enlarged on the instability
of fortune, and the vicissitude of all human affairs. When he had
finally settled the government of Macedonia with 10 commissioners
from Rome, and after he had sacked 70 cities of Epirus, and divided
the booty amongst his soldiers, Paulus returned to Italy. He
was received with the usual acclamations, and though some of the
seditious soldiers attempted to prevent his triumphal entry into the
capital, yet three days were appointed to exhibit the fruits of his
victories. Perseus, with his wretched family, adorned the triumph of
the conqueror, and as they were dragged through the streets before
the chariot of Paulus, they drew tears of compassion from the people.
The riches which the Romans derived from this conquest were immense,
and the people were freed from all taxes till the consulship of
Hirtius and Pansa; but while every one of the citizens received some
benefit from the victories of Paulus, the conqueror himself was poor,
and appropriated for his own use nothing of the Macedonian treasures
except the library of Perseus. In the office of censor, to which he
was afterwards elected, Paulus behaved with the greatest moderation,
and at his death, which happened about 168 years before the christian
era, not only the Romans, but their very enemies, confessed, by
their lamentations, the loss which they had sustained. He had married
Papiria, by whom he had two sons, one of whom was adopted by the
family of Maximus, and the other by that of Scipio Africanus. He had
also two daughters, one of whom married a son of Cato, and the other
Ælius Tubero. He afterwards divorced Papiria; and when his friends
wished to reprobate his conduct in doing so, by observing that she
was young and handsome, and that she had made him father of a fine
family, Paulus replied, that the shoe which he then wore was new and
well made, but that he was obliged to leave it off, though no one but
himself, as he said, knew where it pinched him. He married a second
wife, by whom he had two sons, whose sudden death exhibited to
the Romans, in the most engaging view, their father’s philosophy
and stoicism. The elder of these sons died five days before Paulus
triumphed over Perseus, and the other three days after the public
♦procession. This domestic calamity did not shake the firmness of the
conqueror; yet before he retired to a private station, he harangued
the people, and in mentioning the severity of fortune upon his family,
he expressed his wish that every evil might be averted from the
republic by the sacrifice of the domestic prosperity of an individual.
_Plutarch_, _Lives_.――_Livy_, bks. 43, 44, &c. _Justin_, bk. 33,
ch. 1, &c.――――Samosatenus, an author in the reign of Gallienus.
――――Maximus. _See:_ Maximus Fabius.――――Ægineta, a Greek physician
whose work was edited _apud_, _Aldus Manutius_, Venice, folio, 1528.
――――Lucius Æmylius, a consul, who, when opposed to Annibal in Italy,
checked the rashness of his colleague Varro, and recommended an
imitation of the conduct of the great Fabius, by harassing and not
facing the enemy in the field. His advice was rejected, and the
battle of Cannæ, so glorious to Annibal, and so fatal to Rome, soon
followed. Paulus was wounded, but when he might have escaped from
the slaughter, by accepting a horse generously offered by one of
his officers, he disdained to fly, and perished by the darts of the
enemy. _Horace_, ode 12, li. 38.――_Livy_, bk. 22, ch. 39.――――Julius,
a Latin poet in the age of Adrian and Antoninus. He wrote some
poetical pieces, recommended by Aulus Gellius.

♦ ‘processsion’ replaced with ‘procession’

=Pāulus.= _See:_ Æmylius.

=Pavor=, an emotion of the mind which received divine honours among
the Romans, and was considered of a most tremendous power, as
the ancients swore by her name in the most solemn manner. Tullus
Hostilius, the third king of Rome, was the first who built her
temples, and raised altars to her honour, as also to Pallor the
goddess of paleness. _Cicero_, _de Natura Deorum_, bk. 3, ch. 17.

=Pausanias=, a Spartan general, who greatly signalized himself at
the battle of Platæa, against the Persians. The Greeks were very
sensible of his services, and they rewarded his merit with the tenth
of the spoils taken from the Persians. He was afterwards set at
the head of the Spartan armies, and extended his conquests in Asia;
but the haughtiness of his behaviour created him many enemies, and
the Athenians soon obtained a superiority in the affairs of Greece.
Pausanias was dissatisfied with his countrymen, and he offered to
betray Greece to the Persians, if he received in marriage, as the
reward of his perfidy, the daughter of their monarch. His intrigues
were discovered by means of a youth, who was entrusted with his
letters to Persia, and who refused to go, on the recollection that
such as had been employed in that office before had never returned.
The letters were given to the Ephori of Sparta, and the perfidy of
Pausanias laid open. He fled for safety to a temple of Minerva, and
as the sanctity of the place screened him from the violence of his
pursuers, the sacred building was surrounded with heaps of stones,
the first of which was carried there by the indignant mother of the
unhappy man. He was starved to death in the temple, and died about
471 years before the christian era. There was a festival, and solemn
games instituted in his honour, in which only free-born Spartans
contended. There was also an oration spoken in his praise, in which
his actions were celebrated, particularly the battle of Platæa, and
the defeat of Mardonius. _Cornelius Nepos_, _Lives_.――_Plutarch_,
_Aristeides_ & _Themistocles_.――_Herodotus_, bk. 9.――――A favourite of
Philip king of Macedonia. He accompanied the prince in an expedition
against the Illyrians, in which he was killed.――――Another, at the
court of king Philip, very intimate with the preceding. He was
grossly and unnaturally abused by Attalus, one of the friends of
Philip, and when he complained of the injuries he had received, the
king in some measure disregarded his remonstrances, and wished them
to be forgotten. This incensed Pausanias; he resolved to revenge
himself, and when he had heard from his master Hermocrates the
sophist that the most effectual way to render himself illustrious was
to murder a person who had signalized himself by uncommon actions,
he stabbed Philip as he entered a public theatre. After this bloody
action he attempted to make his escape to his chariot, which waited
for him at the gate of the city, but he was stopped accidentally
by the twig of a vine, and fell down. Attalus, Perdiccas, and other
friends of Philip, who pursued him, immediately fell upon him and
despatched him. Some support that Pausanias committed this murder
at the instigation of Olympias the wife of Philip, and of her
son Alexander. _Diodorus_, bk. 16.――_Justin_, bk. 9.――_Plutarch_,
_Apophthegmata Laconica_.――――A king of Macedonia, deposed by Amyntas,
after a year’s reign. _Diodorus._――――Another, who attempted to
seize upon the kingdom of ♦Macedonia, from which he was prevented
by Iphicrates the Athenian.――――A friend of Alexander the Great,
made governor of Sardis.――――A physician in the age of Alexander.
_Plutarch._――――A celebrated orator and historian, who settled at Rome,
A.D. 170, where he died in a very advanced age. He wrote a history
of Greece, in 10 books, in the Ionic dialect, in which he gives,
with great precision and geographical knowledge, an account of the
situation of its different cities, their antiquities, and the several
curiosities which they contained. He has also interwoven mythology in
his historical account, and introduced many fabulous traditions and
superstitious stories. In each book the author treats of a separate
country, such as Attica, Arcadia, Messenia, Elis, &c. Some suppose
that he gave a similar description of Phœnicia and Syria. There was
another Pausanias, a native of Cæsarea in Cappadocia, who wrote some
declamations, and who is often confounded with the historian of that
name.――――The best edition of Pausanias is that of Khunius, folio,
Lipscomb, 1696.――――A Lacedæmonian, who wrote a partial account of his
country.――――A statuary of Apollonia, whose abilities were displayed
in adorning Apollo’s temple at Delphi. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 9.
――――A king of Sparta, of the family of the Eurysthenidæ, who died 397
B.C., after a reign of 14 years.

♦ ‘Macedona’ replaced with ‘Macedonia’

=Pausias=, a painter of Sicyon, the first who understood how to apply
colours to wood or ivory by means of fire. He made a beautiful
painting of his mistress Glycere, whom he represented as sitting
on the ground, and making garlands with flowers, and from this
circumstance the picture, which was bought afterwards by Lucullus for
two talents, received the name of _Stephanoplocon_. Some time after
the death of Pausias, the Sicyonians were obliged to part with the
pictures which they possessed to deliver themselves from an enormous
debt, and Marcus Scaurus the Roman bought them all, in which were
those of Pausias, to adorn the theatre, which had been built during
his edileship. Pausias lived about 350 years before Christ. _Pliny_,
bk. 35, ch. 11.

=Pausily̆pus=, a mountain near Naples, which receives its name from
the beauty of its situation, (παυω λυπη, _cessare facio dolor_). The
natives show there the tomb of Virgil, and regard it with the highest
veneration. There were near some fish-ponds belonging to the emperor.
The mountain is now famous for a subterraneous passage near half
a mile in length, and 22 feet in breadth, which affords a safe and
convenient passage to travellers. _Statius_, bk. 4, _Sylvæ_, poem 4,
li. 52.――_Pliny_, bk. 9, ch. 53.――_Strabo_, bk. 5.――_Seneca_, ltrs. 5
& 57.

=Pax=, an allegorical divinity among the ancients. The Athenians raised
her a statue, which represented her as holding Plutus the god of
wealth in her lap, to intimate that peace gives rise to prosperity
and to opulence; and they were the first who erected an altar
to her honour after the victories obtained by Timotheus over the
Lacedæmonian power, though Plutarch asserts it had been done after
the conquests of Cimon over the Persians. She was represented among
the Romans with the horn of plenty, and also carrying an olive branch
in her hand. The emperor Vespasian built her a celebrated temple at
Rome, which was consumed by fire in the reign of Commodus. It was
customary for men of learning to assemble in that temple, and even to
deposit their writings there, as in a place of the greatest security.
Therefore when it was burnt, not only books, but also many valuable
things, jewels, and immense treasures, were lost in the general
conflagration. _Cornelius Nepos_, _Timotheus_, bk. 2.――_Plutarch_,
_Cimon_.――_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 16.

=Paxos=, a small island between Ithaca and the Echinades in the Ionian
sea.

=Peas=, a shepherd, who, according to some, set on fire the pile on
which Hercules was burnt. The hero gave him his bow and arrows.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 2.

=Pedæus=, an illegitimate son of Antenor. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 7.

=Pedācia=, a woman of whom Horace, bk. 1, satire 8, li. 39, speaks of
as a contemptible character.

=Pedāni.= _See:_ Pedum.

=Pedānius=, a prefect of Rome, killed by one of his slaves for having
denied him his liberty, &c. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 14, ch. 42.

=Pedasa= (orum), a town of Caria, near Halicarnassus. _Livy_, bk. 33,
ch. 30.

=Pedăsus=, a son of Bucolion the son of Laomedon. His mother was one
of the Naiades. He was killed in the Trojan war by Euryalus. _Homer_,
_Iliad_, bk. 6, li. 21.――――One of the four horses of Achilles. As
he was not immortal like the other three, he was killed by Sarpedon.
_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 16.――――A town near Pylos in the Peloponnesus.

=Pediadis=, a part of Bactriana, through which the Oxus flows.
_Polybius._

=Pedias=, the wife of Cranaus.

=Pedius Blæsus=, a Roman, accused by the people of Cyrene of plundering
the temple of Æsculapius. He was condemned under Nero, &c. _Tacitus_,
_Annals_, bk. 14, ch. 18.――――A nephew of Julius Cæsar, who commanded
one of his legions in Gaul, &c.――――Poplicola, a lawyer in the age of
Horace. His father was one of Julius Cæsar’s heirs, and became consul
with Augustus after Pansa’s death.

=Pedo=, a lawyer, patronized by Domitian. _Juvenal_, satire 7, li. 129.
――――Albinovanus. _See:_ Albinovanus.

=Pedianus Asconius=, flourished A.D. 76.

=Pedum=, a town of Latium, about 10 miles from Rome, conquered by
Camillus. The inhabitants were called _Pedani_. _Livy_, bk. 2, ch. 39;
bk. 8, chs. 13 & 14.――_Horace_, bk. 1, ltr. 4, li. 2.

=Pegæ=, a fountain at the foot of mount Arganthus in Bithynia, into
which Hylas fell. _Propertius_, bk. 1, poem 20, li. 33.

=Pegăsĭdes=, a name given to the Muses from the horse Pegasus, or from
the fountain which Pegasus had raised from the ground, by striking it
with his foot. _Ovid_, _Heroides_, poem 15, li. 27.

=Pēgăsis=, a name given to Œnone by Ovid, _Heroides_, poem 5, because
she was daughter of the _river_ (πηγη) Cebrenus.

=Pegăsium stagnum=, a lake near Ephesus, which arose from the earth when
Pegasus struck it with his foot.

=Pegăsus=, a winged horse sprung from the blood of Medusa, when Perseus
had cut off her head. He received his name from his being born,
according to Hesiod, near the _sources_ (πηγη) of the ocean. As
soon as born he left the earth, and flew up into heaven, or rather,
according to Ovid, he fixed his residence on mount Helicon, where,
by striking the earth with his foot, he instantly raised a fountain,
which has been called Hippocrene. He became the favourite of the
Muses; and being afterwards tamed by Neptune or Minerva, he was
given to Bellerophon to conquer the Chimæra. No sooner was this fiery
monster destroyed, than Pegasus threw down his rider, because he was
a mortal, or rather, according to the more received opinion, because
he attempted to fly to heaven. This act of temerity in Bellerophon
was punished by Jupiter, who sent an insect to torment Pegasus,
which occasioned the melancholy fall of his rider. Pegasus continued
his flight up to heaven, and was placed among the constellations by
Jupiter. Perseus, according to Ovid, was mounted on the horse Pegasus,
when he destroyed the sea monster which was going to devour Andromeda.
_Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 282.――_Horace_, bk. 4, ode 11, li. 20.
――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 6, li. 179.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, chs. 3
& 4.――_Lycophron_, li. 17.――_Pausanias_, bk. 12, chs. 3 & 4.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 4, li. 785.――_Hyginus_, fable 57.

=Pelăgo=, a eunuch, one of Nero’s favourites, &c. _Tacitus_, _Annals_,
bk. 14, ch. 59.

=Pelăgon=, a man killed by a wild boar. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 8,
li. 360.――――A son of Asopus and Metope.――――A Phocian, one of whose
men conducted Cadmus, and showed him where, according to the oracle,
he was to build a city.

=Pelagonia=, one of the divisions of Macedonia at the north. _Livy_,
bk. 26, ch. 25; bk. 31, ch. 28.

=Pelarge=, a daughter of Potneus, who re-established the worship of
Ceres in Bœotia. She received divine honours after death. _Pausanias_,
bk. 9, ch. 25.

=Pelasgi=, a people of Greece, supposed to be one of the most ancient
in the world. They first inhabited Argolis in Peloponnesus, which
from them received the name of _Pelasgia_, and about 1883 years
before the christian era they passed into Æmonia, and were afterwards
dispersed in several parts of Greece. Some of them fixed their
habitation in Epirus, others in Crete, others in Italy, and others in
Lesbos. From these different changes of situation in the Pelasgians,
all the Greeks are indiscriminately called Pelasgians, and their
country Pelasgia, though, more properly speaking, it should be
confined to Thessaly, Epirus, and Peloponnesus, in Greece. Some of
the Pelasgians, that had been driven from Attica, settled at Lemnos,
where some time after they carried some Athenian women, whom they
had seized in an expedition on the coast of Attica. They raised some
children by these captive females, but they afterwards destroyed
them with their mothers, through jealousy, because they differed
in manners as well as language from them. This horrid murder was
attended by a dreadful pestilence, and they were ordered, to expiate
their crime, to do whatever the Athenians commanded them. This
was to deliver their possessions into their hands. The Pelasgians
seem to have received their name from Pelasgus, the first king and
founder of their nation. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 1.――_Strabo_, bk. 5.
――_Herodotus_, bk. 1.――_Plutarch_, _Romulus_.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_,
bk. 1.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_.――_Flaccus._――_Seneca_, _Medea_ &
_Agamemnon_.

=Pelasgia=, or =Pelasgiotis=, a country of Greece, whose inhabitants
are called _Pelasgi_ or _Pelasgiotæ_. Every country of Greece, and
all Greece in general, is indiscriminately called Pelasgia, though
the name should be more particularly confined to a part of Thessaly,
situate between the Peneus, the Aliacmon, and the Sperchius. The
maritime borders of this part of Thessaly were afterwards called
_Magnesia_, though the sea or its shore still retained the name of
_Pelasgicus Sinus_, now the gulf of _Volo_. Pelasgia is also one of
the ancient names of Epirus, as also of Peloponnesus. _See:_ Pelasgi.

=Pelasgus=, a son of Terra, or, according to others, of Jupiter and
Niobe, who reigned in Sicyon, and gave his name to the ancient
inhabitants of Peloponnesus.

=Pĕlēthrŏnii=, an epithet given to the Lapithæ, because they inhabited
the town of _Pelethronium_, at the foot of mount Pelion in Thessaly;
or because one of their number bore the name of Pelethronius. It
is to them that mankind is indebted for the invention of the bit
with which they tamed their horses with so much dexterity. _Virgil_,
_Georgics_, bk. 3, li. 115.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 12, li. 452.
――_Lucan_, bk. 6, li. 387.

=Peleus=, a king of Thessaly, son of Æacus and Endeis the daughter of
Chiron. He married Thetis, one of the Nereides, and was the only one
among mortals who married an immortal. He was accessary to the death
of his brother Phocus, and on that account he was obliged to leave
his father’s dominions. He retired to the court of Eurytus the son of
Actor, who reigned at Phthia, or according to the less received
opinion of Ovid, he fled to Ceyx king of Trachinia. He was purified
of his murder by Eurytus, with the usual ceremonies, and the monarch
gave him his daughter Antigone in marriage. Some time after this
Peleus and Eurytus went to the chase of the Calydonian boar, where
the father-in-law was accidentally killed by an arrow which his
son-in-law had aimed at the beast. This unfortunate event obliged him
to banish himself from the court of Phthia, and he retired to Iolchos,
where he was purified of the murder of Eurytus, by Acastus the king
of the country. His residence at Iolchos was short; Astydamia the
wife of Acastus became enamoured of him, and when she found him
insensible to her passionate declaration, she accused him of attempts
upon her virtue. The monarch partially believed the accusations of
his wife, but not to violate the laws of hospitality, by putting him
instantly to death, he ordered his officers to conduct him to mount
Pelion, on pretence of hunting, and there to tie him to a tree, that
he might become the prey of the wild beasts of the place. The orders
of Acastus were faithfully obeyed; but Jupiter, who knew the
innocence of his grandson Peleus, ordered Vulcan to set him at
liberty. As soon as he had been delivered from danger, Peleus
assembled his friends to punish the ill-treatment which he had
received from Acastus. He forcibly took Iolchos, drove the king from
his possessions, and put to death the wicked Astydamia. After the
death of Antigone, Peleus courted Thetis, of whose superior charms
Jupiter himself had been enamoured. His pretensions however, were
rejected, and, as he was a mortal, the goddess fled from him with the
greatest abhorrence; and the more effectually to evade his inquiries,
she generally assumed the shape of a bird, or of a tree, or of a
tigress. Peleus became more animated from her refusal; he offered a
sacrifice to the gods, and Proteus informed him that to obtain Thetis
he must surprise her while she was asleep in her grotto, near the
shores of Thessaly. This advice was immediately followed, and Thetis,
unable to escape from the grasp of Peleus, at last consented to marry
him. Their nuptials were celebrated with the greatest solemnity, and
all the gods attended, and made them each the most valuable presents.
The goddess of discord was the only one of the deities who was not
present, and she punished this seeming neglect by throwing an apple
into the midst of the assembly of the gods, with the inscription of
_Detur pulchriori_. _See:_ Discordia. From the marriage of Peleus and
Thetis was born Achilles, whose education was early entrusted to the
Centaur Chiron, and afterwards to Phœnix the son of Amyntor. Achilles
went to the Trojan war, at the head of his father’s troops, and
Peleus gloried in having a son who was superior to all the Greeks
in valour and intrepidity. The death of Achilles was the source of
grief to Peleus; and Thetis, to comfort her husband, promised him
immortality, and ordered him to retire into the grottos of the island
of Leuce, where he would see and converse with the manes of his son.
Peleus had a daughter called Polydora, by Antigone. _Homer_, _Iliad_,
bk. 9, li. 482.――_Euripides_, _Andromache_.――_Catullus_, _Marriage of
Peleus and Thetis_ [poem 64].――_Ovid_, _Heroides_, poem 5; _Fasti_,
bk. 2; _Metamorphoses_, bk. 11, fables 7 & 8.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3,
ch. 12.――_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 29.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.――_Hyginus_,
fable 54.

=Peliădes=, the daughters of Pelias. _See:_ Pelias.