Agariste. He was naturally endowed with great powers, which he
improved by attending the lectures of Damon, of Zeno, and of
Anaxagoras. Under these celebrated masters, he became a commander,
a statesman, and an orator, and gained the affections of the people
by his uncommon address and well-directed liberality. When he took
a share in the administration of public affairs, he rendered himself
popular by opposing Cimon, who was the favourite of the nobility;
and to remove every obstacle which stood in the way of his ambition,
he lessened the dignity and the power of the court of the Areopagus,
which the people had been taught for ages to respect and to venerate.
He also attacked Cimon, and caused him to be banished by the
ostracism. Thucydides also, who had succeeded Cimon on his banishment,
shared the same fate, and Pericles remained for 15 years the sole
minister, and, as it may be said, the absolute sovereign of a
republic which always showed itself so jealous of her liberties,
and which distrusted so much the honesty of her magistrates. In
his ministerial capacity Pericles did not enrich himself, but the
prosperity of Athens was the object of his administration. He made
war against the Lacedæmonians, and restored the temple of Delphi to
the care of the Phocians, who had been illegally deprived of that
honourable trust. He obtained a victory over the Sicyonians near
Nemæa, and waged a successful war against the inhabitants of Samos,
at the request of his favourite mistress, Aspasia. The Peloponnesian
war was fomented by his ambitious views [_See:_ Peloponnesiacum
bellum], and when he had warmly represented the flourishing state,
the opulence, and actual power of his country, the Athenians did not
hesitate a moment to undertake a war against the most powerful
republics of Greece, a war which continued for 27 years, and which
was concluded by the destruction of their empire, and the demolition
of their walls. The arms of the Athenians were for some time crowned
with success; but an unfortunate expedition raised clamours against
Pericles, and the enraged populace attributed all their losses to
him, and to make atonement for their ill success, they condemned
him to pay 50 talents. This loss of popular favour by republican
caprice, did not so much affect Pericles as the recent death of
all his children; and when the tide of unpopularity was passed by,
he condescended to come into the public assembly, and to view with
secret pride the contrition of his fellow-citizens, who universally
begged his forgiveness for the violence which they had offered to his
ministerial character. He was again restored to all his honours, and
if possible invested with more power and more authority than before;
but the dreadful pestilence which had diminished the number of his
family proved fatal to him, and about 429 years before Christ in his
70th year, he fell a sacrifice to that terrible malady which robbed
Athens of so many of her citizens. Pericles was for 40 years at the
head of the administration, 25 with others, and 15 alone; and the
flourishing state of the empire during his government gave occasion
to the Athenians publicly to lament his loss, and venerate his
memory. As he was expiring, and seemingly senseless, his friends
that stood around his bed expatiated with warmth on the most glorious
actions of his life, and the victories which he had won, when he
suddenly interrupted their tears and conversation, by saying that,
in mentioning the exploits that he had achieved, and which were
common to him with all generals, they had forgotten to mention a
circumstance which reflected far greater glory upon him as a minister,
a general, and above all, as a man. “It is,” says he, “that not a
citizen in Athens has been obliged to put on mourning on my account.”
The Athenians were so pleased with his eloquence that they compared
it to thunder and lightning, and, as to another father of the gods,
they gave him the surname of Olympian. The poets, his flatterers,
said that the goddess of persuasion, with all her charms and
attractions, dwelt upon his tongue. When he marched at the head
of the Athenian armies, Pericles observed that he had the command
of a free nation that were Greeks, and citizens of Athens. He also
declared, that not only the hand of a magistrate, but also his eyes
and his tongue, should be pure and undefiled. Yet great and venerable
as his character may appear, we must not forget the follies of
Pericles. His vicious partiality for the celebrated courtesan Aspasia
subjected him to the ridicule and the censure of his fellow-citizens;
but if he triumphed over satire and malevolent remarks, the Athenians
had occasion to execrate the memory of a man who by his example
corrupted the purity and innocence of their morals, and who made
licentiousness respectable, and the indulgence of every impure desire
the qualification of the soldier as well as of the senator. Pericles
lost all his legitimate children by the pestilence, and to call a
natural son by his own name he was obliged to repeal a law which he
had made against spurious children, and which he had enforced with
great severity. This son, called Pericles, became one ♦of the 10
generals who succeeded Alcibiades in the administration of affairs,
and, like his colleagues, he was condemned to death by the Athenians,
after the unfortunate battle of Arginusæ. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 25.
――_Plutarch_, _Lives_.――_Quintilian_, bk. 12, ch. 9.――_Cicero_,
_On Oratory_, bk. 3.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 4, ch. 10.
――_Xenophon_, _Hellenica_.――_Thucydides._
♦ duplicate ‘of’ removed
=Periclymĕnus=, one of the 12 sons of Neleus, brother to Nestor, killed
by Hercules. He was one of the Argonauts, and had received from
Neptune his grandfather the power of changing himself into whatever
shape he pleased. _Apollodorus._――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 12,
li. 556.
=Peridia=, a Theban woman, whose son was killed by Turnus in the
Rutulian war. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 12, li. 515.
=Periegētes Dionysius=, a poet. _See:_ Dionysius.
=Periēres=, a son of Æolus, or, according to others, of Cynortas.
_Apollodorus._――――The charioteer of Menœceus. _Apollodorus._
=Perigĕnes=, an officer of Ptolemy, &c.
=Perigŏne=, a woman who had a son called Melanippus by Theseus. She
was daughter of Synnis the famous robber, whom Theseus killed.
She married Deioneus the son of Eurytus, by consent of Theseus.
_Plutarch_, _Theseus_.――_Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 25.
=Perilāus=, an officer in the army of Alexander the Great. _Curtius_,
bk. 10.――――A tyrant of Argos.
=Perilēus=, a son of Icarius and Peribœa.
=Perilla=, a daughter of Ovid the poet. She was extremely fond of
poetry and literature. _Ovid_, _Fasti_, bk. 3, poem 7, li. 1.
=Perillus=, an ingenious artist at Athens, who made a brazen bull
for Phalaris tyrant of Agrigentum. This machine was fabricated to
put criminals to death by burning them alive, and it was such that
their cries were like the roaring of a bull. When Perillus gave it
to Phalaris, the tyrant made the first experiment upon the donor,
and cruelly put him to death by lighting a slow fire under the belly
of the bull. _Pliny_, bk. 34, ch. 8.――_Ovid_, _Ars Amatoria_, bk. 1,
li. 653; _Ibis_, li. 439.――――A lawyer and usurer in the age of Horace.
_Horace_, bk. 2, satire 3, li. 75.
=Perimēde=, a daughter of Æolus, who married Achelous.――――The wife
of Licymnius.――――A woman skilled in the knowledge of herbs and of
enchantments. _Theocritus_, poem 2.
=Perimēla=, a daughter of Hippodamus, thrown into the sea for receiving
the addresses of the Achelous. She was changed into an island in the
Ionian sea, and became one of the Echinades. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 8, li. 690.
=Perinthia=, a play of Menander’s. _Terence_, _Andria_, prologue, li. 9.
=Pĕrinthus=, a town of Thrace, on the Propontis, anciently surnamed
_Mygdonica_. It was afterwards called _Heraclea_, in honour of
Hercules, and now _Erekli_. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 2.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 1, ch. 29.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 11.――_Livy_, bk. 33, ch. 30.
=Peripatetĭci=, a sect of philosophers at Athens, disciples to
Aristotle. They derived this name from the place where they were
taught, called _Peripaton_, in the Lyceum, or because they received
the philosopher’s lectures as they _walked_ (περιπατουντες). The
Peripatetics acknowledged the dignity of human nature, and placed
their _summum bonum_, not in the pleasures of passive sensation,
but in the due exercise of the moral and intellectual faculties.
The habit of this exercise, when guided by reason, constituted the
highest excellence of man. The philosopher contended that our own
happiness chiefly depends upon ourselves, and though he did not
require in his followers that self-command to which others pretended,
yet he allowed a moderate degree of perturbation, as becoming human
nature, and he considered a certain sensibility of passion totally
necessary, as by resentment we are enabled to repel injuries, and
the smart which past calamities have inflicted renders us careful to
avoid the repetition. _Cicero_, _Academica_, bk. 2, &c.
=Perĭphas=, a man who attempted, with Pyrrhus, Priam’s palace, &c.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 2, li. 476.――――A son of Ægyptus, who married
Actæa. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 1.――――One of the Lapithæ. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 12, li. 449.――――One of the first kings of Attica,
before the age of Cecrops, according to some authors.
=Periphēmus=, an ancient hero of Greece, to whom Solon sacrificed at
Salamis, by order of the oracle.
♦=Periphētes=, a robber of Attica, son of Vulcan, destroyed by Theseus.
He is also called Corynetes. _Hyginus_, fable 38.――_Diodorus_, bk. 5.
♦ ‘Periphātes’ replaced with ‘Periphētes’
Resorted in alphebetical order.
=Perisades=, a people of Illyricum.
=Peristhĕnes=, a son of Ægyptus, who married Electra. _Apollodorus._
=Peritanus=, an Arcadian who enjoyed the company of Helen after her
elopement with Paris. The offended lover punished the crime by
mutilation, whence mutilated persons were called Peritani in Arcadia.
_Ptolemy Hephæstion_, bk. 1, near the beginning.
=Peritas=, a favourite dog of Alexander the Great, in whose honour the
monarch built a city.
=Peritonium=, a town of Egypt, on the western side of the Nile,
esteemed of great importance, as being one of the keys of the country.
Antony was defeated there by Caius Gallus the lieutenant of Augustus.
=Permessus=, a river of Bœotia, rising in mount Helicon, and flowing
all round it. It received its name from Permessus, the father of a
nymph called Aganippe, who also gave her name to one of the fountains
of Helicon. The river Permessus, as well as the fountain Aganippe,
were sacred to the Muses. _Strabo_, bk. 8.――_Propertius_, bk. 2,
poem 8.
=Pero=, or =Perone=, a daughter of Neleus king of Pylos by Chloris.
Her beauty drew many admirers, but she married Bias son of Amythaon,
because he had by the assistance of his brother Melampus [_See:_
Melampus], and according to her father’s desire, recovered some oxen
which Hercules had stolen away; and she became mother of Talaus.
_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 11, li. 284.――_Propertius_, bk. 2, poem 2, li.
17.――_Pausanias_, bk. 4, ch. 36.――――A daughter of Cimon, remarkable
for her filial affection. When her father had been sent to prison,
where his judges had condemned him to starve, she supported his life
by giving him the milk of her breasts, as to her own child. _Valerius
Maximus_, bk. 5, ch. 4.
=Peroe=, a fountain of Bœotia, called after Peroe, a daughter of the
Asopus. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 4.
=Perola=, a Roman who meditated the death of Hannibal in Italy. His
father Pacuvius dissuaded him from assassinating the Carthaginian
general.
=Perpenna Marcus=, a Roman who conquered Aristonicus in Asia, and took
him prisoner. He died B.C. 130.――――Another, who joined the rebellion
of Sertorius, and opposed Pompey. He was defeated by Metellus,
and some time after he had the meanness to assassinate Sertorius,
whom he had invited to his house. He fell into the hands of Pompey,
who ordered him to be put to death. _Plutarch_, _Sertorius_.
――_Paterculus_, bk. 2, ch. 30.――――A Greek who obtained the consulship
at Rome. _Valerius Maximus_, bk. 3, ch. 4.
=Perperēne=, a place of Phrygia, where, as some suppose, Paris adjudged
the prize of beauty to Venus. _Strabo_, bk. 5.
=Perranthes=, a hill of Epirus, near Ambracia. _Livy_, bk. 38, ch. 4.
=Perrhæbia=, a part of Thessaly situate on the borders of the Peneus,
extending between the town of Atrax and the vale of Tempe. The
inhabitants were driven from their possessions by the Lapithæ, and
retired into Ætolia, where part of the country received the name of
_Perrhæbia_. _Propertius_, bk. 2, poem 5, li. 33――_Strabo_, bk. 9.
――_Livy_, bk. 33, ch. 34; bk. 39, ch. 34.
=Persa=, or =Perseis=, one of the Oceanides, mother of Æetes, Circe,
and Pasiphae by Apollo. _Hesiod_, _Theogony_.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 3.
=Persæ=, the inhabitants of Persia. _See:_ Persia.
=Persæus=, a philosopher intimate with Antigonus, by whom he was
appointed over the Acrocorinth. He flourished B.C. 274. _Diogenes
Laërtius_, _Zeno of Citium_.
=Persēe=, a fountain near Mycenæ, in Peloponnesus. _Pausanias_, bk. 2,
ch. 16.
=Persēis=, one of the Oceanides.――――A patronymic of Hecate, as daughter
of Perses. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 7, li. 69.
=Persĕphŏne=, a daughter of Jupiter and Ceres, called also Proserpine.
_See:_ Proserpina.――――The mother of Amphion by Jasus.
=Persĕpŏlis=, a celebrated city, the capital of the Persian empire.
It was laid in ruins by Alexander after the conquest of Darius.
The reason of this is unknown. Diodorus says that the sight of
about 800 Greeks, whom the Persians had shamefully mutilated, so
irritated Alexander, that he resolved to punish the barbarity of
the inhabitants of Persepolis, and of the neighbouring country, by
permitting his soldiers to plunder their capital. Others suppose
that Alexander set it on fire at the instigation of Thias, one of his
courtesans, when he had passed the day in drinking and in riot and
debauchery. The ruins of Persepolis, now _Estakar_, or _Tehel-Minar_,
still astonish the modern traveller by their grandeur and
magnificence. _Curtius_, bk. 5, ch. 7.――_Diodorus_, bk. 17, &c.
――_Arrian._――_Plutarch_, _Alexander_.――_Justin_, bk. 11, ch. 14.
=Perses=, a son of Perseus and Andromeda. From him the Persians, who
were originally called _Cephenes_, received their name. _Herodotus_,
bk. 7, ch. 61.――――A king of Macedonia. _See:_ Perseus.
=Perseus=, a son of Jupiter and Danae, the daughter of Acrisius. As
Acrisius had confined his daughter in a brazen tower to prevent her
becoming a mother, because he was to perish, according to the words
of an oracle, by the hands of his daughter’s son, Perseus was no
sooner born [_See:_ Danae] than he was thrown into the sea with his
mother Danae. The hopes of Acrisius were frustrated; the slender boat
which carried Danae and her son was driven by the winds on the coasts
of the island of Seriphos, one of the Cyclades, where they were found
by a fisherman called Dictys, and carried to Polydectes the king
of the place. They were treated with great humanity, and Perseus
was entrusted to the care of the priests of Minerva’s temple. His
rising genius and manly courage, however, soon displeased Polydectes,
and the monarch, who wished to offer violence to Danae, feared
the resentment of her son. Yet Polydectes resolved to remove every
obstacle. He invited all his friends to a sumptuous entertainment,
and it was requisite that all such as came should present the monarch
with a beautiful horse. Perseus was in the number of the invited,
and the more particularly so, as Polydectes knew that he could not
receive from him the present which he expected from all the rest.
Nevertheless, Perseus, who wished not to appear inferior to the
others in magnificence, told the king that as he could not give him
a horse, he would bring him the head of Medusa, the only one of the
Gorgons who was subject to mortality. The offer was doubly agreeable
to Polydectes, as it would remove Perseus from Seriphos, and on
account of its seeming impossibility, the attempt might perhaps end
in his ruin. But the innocence of Perseus was patronized by the gods.
Pluto lent him his helmet, which had the wonderful power of making
its bearer invisible; Minerva gave him her buckler, which was as
resplendent as glass; and he received from Mercury wings and the
talaria, with a short dagger, made of diamonds, and called _herpe_.
According to some it was from Vulcan, and not from Mercury, that he
received the _herpe_, which was in form like a scythe. With these
arms Perseus began his expedition, and traversed the air, conducted
by the goddess Minerva. He went to the Graiæ, the sisters of the
Gorgons, who, according to the poets, had wings like the Gorgons, but
only one eye and one tooth between them all, of which they made use,
each in her turn. They were three in number, according to Æschylus
and Apollodorus; or only two, according to Ovid and Hesiod. With
Pluto’s helmet, which rendered him invisible, Perseus was enabled
to steal their eye and their tooth while they were asleep, and he
returned them only when they had informed him where their sisters the
Gorgons resided. When he had received every necessary information,
Perseus flew to the habitation of the Gorgons, which was situate
beyond the western ocean, according to Hesiod and Apollodorus; or
in Libya, according to Ovid and Lucan; or in the deserts of Asiatic
Scythia, according to Æschylus. He found these monsters asleep;
and as he knew that if he fixed his eyes upon them, he should be
instantly changed into a stone, he continually looked on his shield,
which reflected all the objects as clearly as the best of glasses.
He approached them, and with a courage which the goddess Minerva
supported, he cut off Medusa’s head with one blow. The noise awoke
the two immortal sisters, but Pluto’s helmet rendered Perseus
invisible, and the attempts of the Gorgons to revenge Medusa’s death
proved fruitless; the conqueror made his way through the air, and
from the blood which dropped from Medusa’s head sprang all those
innumerable serpents which have ever since infested the sandy deserts
of Libya. Chrysaor also, with the golden sword, sprung from these
drops of blood, as well as the horse Pegasus, which immediately flew
through the air, and stopped on mount Helicon, where he became the
favourite of the Muses. Meantime Perseus had continued his journey
across the deserts of Libya; but the approach of night obliged him
to alight in the territories of Atlas king of Mauritania. He went
to the monarch’s palace, where he hoped to find a kind reception
by announcing himself as the son of Jupiter, but in this he was
disappointed. Atlas recollected that, according to an ancient oracle,
his gardens were to be robbed of their fruit by one of the sons of
Jupiter, and therefore he not only refused Perseus the hospitality
which he demanded, but he even offered violence to his person.
Perseus, finding himself inferior to his powerful enemy, showed him
Medusa’s head, and instantly Atlas was changed into a large mountain
which bore the same name in the deserts of Africa. On the morrow
Perseus continued his flight, and as he passed across the territories
of Libya, he discovered, on the coasts of Æthiopia, the naked
Andromeda, exposed to a sea monster. He was struck at the sight,
and offered her father Cepheus to deliver her from instant death,
if he obtained her in marriage as a reward of his labours. Cepheus
consented, and immediately Perseus raised himself in the air, flew
towards the monster, which was advancing to devour Andromeda, and
he plunged his dagger in ♦its right shoulder, and destroyed it.
This happy event was attended with the greatest rejoicings. Perseus
raised three altars to Mercury, Jupiter, and Pallas, and after he
had offered the sacrifice of a calf, a bullock, and a heifer, the
nuptials were celebrated with the greatest festivity. The universal
joy, however, was soon disturbed. Phineus, Andromeda’s uncle, entered
the palace with a number of armed men, and attempted to carry away
the bride, whom he had courted and admired long before the arrival of
Perseus. The father and mother of Andromeda interfered, but in vain;
a bloody battle ensued, and Perseus must have fallen a victim to the
rage of Phineus, had not he defended himself at last with the same
arms which proved fatal to Atlas. He showed the Gorgon’s head to his
adversaries, and they were instantly turned to stone, each in the
posture and attitude in which he then stood. The friends of Cepheus,
and such as supported Perseus, shared not the fate of Phineus, as the
hero had previously warned them of the power of Medusa’s head, and
of the services which he received from it. Soon after this memorable
adventure Perseus retired to Seriphos, at the very moment that his
mother Danae fled to the altar of Minerva, to avoid the pursuit
of Polydectes, who attempted to offer her violence. Dictys, who
had saved her from the sea, and who, as some say, was the brother
of Polydectes, defended her against the attempts of her enemies,
and therefore Perseus, sensible of his merit, and of his humanity,
placed him on the throne of Seriphos, after he had with Medusa’s head
turned into stones the wicked Polydectes, and the officers who were
the associates of his guilt. He afterwards restored to Mercury his
talaria and his wings, to Pluto his helmet, to Vulcan his sword, and
to Minerva her shield; but as he was more particularly indebted to
the goddess of wisdom for her assistance and protection, he placed
the Gorgon’s head on her shield, or rather, according to the more
received opinion, on her ægis. After he had finished these celebrated
exploits, Perseus expressed a wish to return to his native country;
and accordingly he embarked for the Peloponnesus, with his mother and
Andromeda. When he reached the Peloponnesian coasts he was informed
that Teutamias king of Larissa was then celebrating funeral games
in honour of his father. This intelligence drew him to Larissa to
signalize himself in throwing the quoit, of which, according to some,
he was the inventor. But here he was attended by an evil fate, and
had the misfortune to kill a man with a quoit which he had thrown in
the air. This was no other than his grandfather Acrisius, who, on the
first intelligence that his grandson had reached the Peloponnesus,
fled from his kingdom of Argos to the court of his friend and ally
Teutamias, to prevent the fulfilling of the oracle which had obliged
him to treat his daughter with so much barbarity. Some suppose, with
Pausanias, that Acrisius had gone to Larissa to be reconciled to
his grandson, whose fame had been spread in every city of Greece;
and Ovid maintains that the grandfather was under the strongest
obligations to his son-in-law, as through him he had received his
kingdom, from which he had been forcibly driven by the sons of his
brother Prœtus. This unfortunate murder greatly depressed the spirits
of Perseus: by the death of Acrisius he was entitled to the throne
of Argos, but he refused to reign there; and to remove himself from a
place which reminded him of the parricide which he had unfortunately
committed, he exchanged his kingdom for that of Tirynthus, and the
maritime coast of Argolis, where Megapenthes the son of Prœtus then
reigned. When he had finally settled in this part of the Peloponnesus,
he determined to lay the foundations of a new city, which he made
the capital of his dominions, and which he called _Mycenæ_, because
the pommel of his sword, called by the Greeks _myces_, had fallen
there. The time of his death is unknown, yet it is universally agreed
that he received divine honours like the rest of the ancient heroes.
He had statues at Mycenæ, and in the island of Seriphos, and the
Athenians raised him a temple, in which they consecrated an altar in
honour of Dictys, who had treated Danae and her infant son with so
much paternal tenderness. The Egyptians also paid particular honour
to his memory, and asserted that he often appeared among them wearing
shoes two cubits long, which was always interpreted as a sign of
fertility. Perseus had by Andromeda, Alceus, Sthenelus, Nestor,
Electryon, and Gorgophone, and after death, according to some
mythologists, he became a constellation in the heavens. _Herodotus_,
bk. 2, ch. 91.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 4, &c.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 2, chs. 16 & 18; bk. 3, ch. 17, &c.――_Apollonius_, _Argonautica_,
bk. 4, li. 1509.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 9, li. 442.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 4, fable 16; bk. 5, fable 1, &c.――_Lucan_,
bk. 9, li. 668.――_Hyginus_, fable 64.――_Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 270,
& _Shield of Heracles_.――_Pindar_, _Pythian_, li. 7, & _Olympian_,
bk. 3.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 9.――_Propertius_, bk. 2.――_Athenæus_,
bk. 13.――_Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 14.――_Tzetzes_, on _Lycophron_, ch. 17.
――――A son of Nestor and Anaxibia. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 9.――――A
writer who published a treatise on the republic of Sparta.――――A
philosopher, disciple to Zeno. _See:_ Persæus.
♦ ‘his’ replaced with ‘its’