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.
=Pelias=, the twin brother of Neleus, was son of Neptune, by Tyro the
daughter of Salmoneus. His birth was concealed from the world by his
mother, who wished her father to be ignorant of her incontinence. He
was exposed in the woods, but his life was preserved by shepherds,
and he received the name of _Pelias_, from a spot of the colour of
_lead_ in his face. Some time after this adventure, Tyro married
Cretheus, son of Æolus king of Iolchos, and became mother of three
children, of whom Æson was the eldest. Meantime Pelias visited his
mother, and was received in her family; and, after the death of
Cretheus, he unjustly seized the kingdom, which belonged to the
children of Tyro, by the deceased monarch. To strengthen himself in
his usurpation, Pelias consulted the oracle, and when he was told to
beware of one of the descendants of Æolus, who should come to his
court with one foot shod, and the other bare, he privately removed
the son of Æson, after he had publicly declared that he was dead.
These precautions proved abortive. Jason the son of Æson, who had
been educated by Chiron, returned to Iolchos, when arrived to years
of maturity; and as he had lost one of his shoes in crossing the
river Anaurus, or the Evenus, Pelias immediately perceived that this
was the person whom he was advised so much to dread. His unpopularity
prevented him from acting with violence against a stranger, whose
uncommon dress and commanding aspect had raised admiration in his
subjects. But his astonishment was excited when he saw Jason arrive
at his palace, with his friends and his relations, and boldly
demand the kingdom which he usurped. Pelias was conscious that his
complaints were well founded, and therefore, to divert his attention,
he told him that he would voluntarily resign the crown to him if he
went to Colchis to avenge the death of Phryxus the son of Athamas,
whom Æetes had cruelly murdered. He further observed that the
expedition would be attended with the greatest glory, and that
nothing but the infirmities of old age had prevented him himself from
vindicating the honour of his country, and the injuries of his family
by punishing the assassin. This, so warmly recommended, was as warmly
accepted by the young hero, and his intended expedition was made
known all over Greece. _See:_ Jason. During the absence of Jason, in
the Argonautic expedition, Pelias murdered Æson and all his family;
but, according to the more received opinion of Ovid, Æson was still
living when the Argonauts returned, and he was restored to the vigour
of youth by the magic of Medea. This sudden change in the vigour and
the constitution of Æson astonished all the inhabitants of Iolchos,
and the daughters of Pelias, who had received the patronymic of
_Peliades_, expressed their desire to see their father’s infirmities
vanish by the same powerful arts. Medea, who wished to avenge the
injuries which her husband Jason had received from Pelias, raised the
desires of the Peliades, by cutting an old ram to pieces, and boiling
the flesh in a cauldron, and afterwards turning it into a fine young
lamb. After they had seen this successful experiment, the Peliades
cut their father’s body to pieces, after they had drawn all the blood
from his veins, on the assurance that Medea would replenish them by
her incantations. The limbs were immediately put into a cauldron of
boiling water, but Medea suffered the flesh to be totally consumed,
and refused to give the Peliades the promised assistance, and the
bones of Pelias did not even receive a burial. The Peliades were four
in number, Alceste, Pisidice, Pelopea, and Hippothoe, to whom Hyginus
adds Medusa. Their mother’s name was Anaxibia, the daughter of Bias,
or Philomache, the daughter of Amphion. After this parricide, the
Peliades fled to the court of Admetus, where Acastus the son-in-law
of Pelias pursued them, and took their protector prisoner. The
Peliades died, and were buried in Arcadia. _Hyginus_, fables 12, 13,
& 14.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 7, fables 3 & 4; _Heroides_, poem
12, li. 129.――_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 11.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch.
9.――_Seneca_, _Medea_.――_Apollonius_, _Argonautica_, bk. 1.――_Pindar_,
_Pythian_, poem 4.――_Diodorus_, bk. 4.――――A Trojan chief wounded by
Ulysses during the Trojan war. He survived the ruin of his country,
and followed the fortune of Æneas. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 2, li. 431.
――――The ship Argo is called _Pelias arbor_, built of the trees of
mount Pelion.――――The spear of Achilles. _See:_ Pelion.
=Pelīdes=, a patronymic of Achilles, and of Pyrrhus, as being descended
from Peleus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 2, li. 264.
=Pēligni=, a people of Italy, who dwelt near the Sabines and Marsi,
and had Corfinium and Sulmo for their chief towns. The most expert
magicians were among the Peligni, according to Horace. _Livy_, bk. 8,
chs. 6 & 29; bk. 9, ch. 41.――_Ovid_, _ex Ponto_, bk. 1, poem 8, li.
42.――_Strabo_, bk. 5.――_Horace_, bk. 3, ode 19, li. 8.
=Pelignus=, a friend of the emperor Claudius, made governor of
Cappadocia. _Tacitus_, _Annals_, bk. 12, ch. 49.
=Pelinæus=, a mountain of Chios.
=Pelinnæum=, or =Pelinna=, a town of Macedonia. _Strabo_, bk. 14.
――_Livy_, bk. 36, chs. 10 & 14.
=Pelion= and =Pelios=, a celebrated mountain of Thessaly, whose top is
covered with pine trees. In their wars against the gods, the giants,
as the poets mention, placed mount Ossa upon Pelion, to scale the
heavens with more facility. The celebrated spear of Achilles, which
none but the hero could wield, had been cut down on this mountain,
and was thence called _Pelias_. It was a present from his preceptor
Chiron, who, like the other Centaurs, had fixed his residence here.
_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, li. 155; bk. 13, li. 199.――_Mela_,
bk. 2, ch. 3.――_Strabo_, bk. 9.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 1, li. 281;
bk. 3, li. 94.――_Seneca_, _Hercules_ & _Medea_.
=Pelium=, a town of Macedonia. _Livy_, bk. 31, ch. 40.
=Pella=, a celebrated town of Macedonia, on the Ludias, not far
from the Sinus Thermaicus, which became the capital of the country
after the ruin of Edessa. Philip king of Macedonia was educated
there, and Alexander the Great was born there, whence he is often
called _Pellæus juvenis_. The tomb of the poet Euripides was in the
neighbourhood. The epithet _Pellæus_ is often applied to Egypt or
Alexandria, because the Ptolemies, kings of the country, were of
Macedonian origin. _Martial_, bk. 13, ltr. 85.――_Lucan_, bk. 5, li.
60; bk. 8, lis. 475 & 607; bk. 9, lis. 1016 & 1073; bk. 10, li. 55.
――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.――_Strabo_, bk. 7.――_Livy_, bk. 42, ch. 41.
=Pellāne=, a town of Laconia, with a fountain whose waters have a
subterraneous communication with the waters of another fountain.
_Pausanias_, bk. 3, ch. 21.――_Strabo_, bk. 8.
=Pellēne=, a town of Achaia, in the Peloponnesus, at the west of Sicyon,
famous for its wool. It was built by the giant Pallas, or, according
to others, by Pellen of Argos, son of Phorbas, and was the country
of Proteus the sea-god. _Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Pausanias_, bk. 7, ch. 26.
――_Livy_, bk. 33, ch. 14.
=Pĕlŏpēa=, or =Pĕlŏpīa=, a daughter of Thyestes the brother of Atreus.
She had a son by her father, who had offered her violence in a wood,
without knowing that she was his own daughter. Some suppose that
Thyestes purposely committed the incest, as the oracle had informed
him that his wrongs should be avenged, and his brother destroyed,
by a son who should be born from him and his daughter. This proved
too true. Pelopea afterwards married her uncle Atreus, who kindly
received in his house his wife’s illegitimate child, called Ægysthus,
because preserved by goats (αἰγες) when exposed in the mountains.
Ægysthus became his uncle’s murderer. _See:_ Ægysthus. _Hyginus_,
fable 87, &c.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 12.――_Ovid_, _Ibis_,
li. 359.――_Seneca_, _Agamemnon_.
=Pelŏpēia=, a festival observed by the people of Elis in honour of
Pelops. It was kept in imitation of Hercules, who sacrificed to
Pelops in a trench, as it was usual, when the manes and the infernal
gods were the objects of worship.
=Pelŏpīa=, a daughter of Niobe.――――A daughter of Pelias.――――The mother
of Cycnus.