where Achilles was born, and from which he is often called _Phthius
heros_. _Horace_, bk. 4, ode 6, li. 4.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk.
13, li. 156.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.――_Propertius_, bk. 2, poem 14, li.
38.――_Cicero_, _Tusculanæ Disputationes_, bk. 1, ch. 10.――――A nymph
of Achaia, beloved by Jupiter, who, to seduce her, disguised himself
under the shape of a pigeon. _Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 1, ch. 15.
――――A daughter of Amphion and Niobe, killed by Diana. _Apollodorus._
=Phthiōtis=, a small province of Thessaly, between the Pelasgicus sinus,
and the Maliacus sinus, Magnesia, and mount Œta. It was also called
Achaia. _Pausanias_, bk. 10, ch. 8.
=Phya=, a tall and beautiful woman of Attica, whom Pisistratus, when
he wished to re-establish himself a third time in his tyranny,
dressed like the goddess Minerva, and led to the city on a chariot,
making the populace believe that the goddess herself came to restore
him to power. The artifice succeeded. _Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 59.
――_Polyænus_, bk. 1, ch. 40.
=Phycus= (untis), a promontory near Cyrene, now called _Ras-al-sem_.
_Lucan_, bk. 9.
=Phylăce=, a town of Thessaly, built by Phylacus. Protesilaus reigned
there, from whence he is often called _Phylacides_. _Lucan_, bk. 6,
li. 252.――――A town of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 34.――――A town
of Epirus. _Livy_, bk. 45, ch. 26.
=Phylăcus=, a son of Deion king of Phocis. He married Clymene the
daughter of Mynias, and founded Phylace. _Apollodorus._
=Phylarchus=, a Greek biographer, who flourished B.C. 221. He was
accused of partiality by _Plutarch_, _Aratus_.
=Phylas=, a king of Ephyre, son of Antiochus and grandson of Hercules.
=Phyle=, a well-fortified village of Attica, at a little distance from
Athens. _Cornelius Nepos_, _Thrasybulus._
=Phyleis=, a daughter of Thespius. _Apollodorus._
=Phylēus=, one of the Greek captains during the Trojan war.――――A son of
Augeas. He blamed his father for refusing to pay Hercules what he had
promised him for cleaning his stables. He was placed on his father’s
throne by Hercules.
=Phylĭra.= _See:_ Philyra.
=Phylla=, the wife of Demetrius Poliorcetes, and mother of Stratonice
the wife of Seleucus.
=Phyllalia=, a part of Arcadia.――――A place in Thessaly.
=Phylleius=, a mountain, country, and town of Macedonia. _Apollonius_,
_Argonautica_, bk. 1.
=Phyllis=, a daughter of Sithon, or, according to others, of Lycurgus
king of Thrace, who hospitably received Demophoon the son of Theseus,
who, at his return from the Trojan war, had stopped on her coasts.
She became enamoured of him, and did not find him insensible to
her passion. After some months of mutual tenderness and affection,
Demophoon set sail for Athens, where his domestic affairs recalled
him. He promised faithfully to return as soon as a month was expired;
but either his dislike for Phyllis, or the irreparable situation
of his affairs, obliged him to violate his engagement, and the
queen, grown desperate on account of his absence, hanged herself,
or, according to others, threw herself down a precipice into the
sea, and perished. Her friends raised a tomb over her body, where
there grew up certain trees, whose leaves at a particular season of
the year, suddenly became wet, as if shedding tears for the death
of Phyllis. According to an old tradition mentioned by Servius,
Virgil’s commentator, Phyllis was changed by the gods into an almond
tree, which is called _Phylla_ by the Greeks. Some days after this
metamorphosis, Demophoon revisited Thrace, and when he heard of the
fate of Phyllis, he ran and clasped the tree, which, though at that
time stripped of its leaves, suddenly shot forth and blossomed, as if
still sensible of tenderness and love. The absence of Demophoon from
the house of Phyllis has given rise to a beautiful epistle of Ovid,
supposed to have been written by the Thracian queen, about the fourth
month after her lover’s departure. _Ovid_, _Heroides_, poem 2; _De
Ars Amatoria_, bk. 2, li. 353; _Tristia_, bk. 2, li. 437.――_Hyginus_,
fable 59.――――A country woman introduced in Virgil’s eclogues.――――The
nurse of the emperor Domitian. _Suetonius_, _Domitian_, ch. 17.――――A
country of Thrace, near mount Pangæus. _Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 13.
=Phyllius=, a young Bœotian, uncommonly fond of Cygnus the son of Hyria,
a woman of Bœotia. Cygnus slighted his passion, and told him that, to
obtain a return of affection, he must previously destroy an enormous
lion, take alive two large vultures, and sacrifice on Jupiter’s
altars a wild bull that infested the country. This he easily effected
by means of artifice, and by the advice of Hercules he forgot his
partiality for the son of Hyria. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 7, li.
372.――_Nicander_, _Heteroeumena_, bk. 3.――――A Spartan remarkable for
the courage with which he fought against Pyrrhus king of Epirus.
=Phyllŏdŏce=, one of Cyrene’s attendant nymphs. _Virgil_, _Georgics_,
bk. 4, li. 336.
=Phyllos=, a country of Arcadia.――――A town of Thessaly near Larissa,
where Apollo had a temple.
=Phyllus=, a general of Phocis during the Phocian or sacred war against
the Thebans. He had assumed the command after the death of his
brothers Philomelus and Onomarchus. He is called by some Phayllus.
_See:_ Phocis.
=Physcella=, a town of Macedonia. _Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.
=Physcion=, a famous rock of Bœotia, which was the residence of the
Sphinx, and against which the monster destroyed himself, when his
enigmas were explained by Œdipus. _Plutarch._
=Physcoa=, a woman of Elis, mother of Narcæus by Bacchus. _Pausanias_,
bk. 5, ch. 16.
=Physcon=, a surname of one of the Ptolemies, king of Egypt, from the
great prominency of his belly (φνοκη, _venter_). _Athenæus_, bk. 2,
ch. 23.
=Physcos=, a town of Caria, opposite Rhodes. _Strabo_, bk. 14.
=Physcus=, a river of Asia falling into the Tigris. The 10,000 Greeks
crossed it on their return from Cunaxa.
=Phytălĭdes=, the descendants of Phytalus, a man who hospitably
received and entertained Ceres, when she visited Attica. _Plutarch_,
_Theseus_.
=Phyton=, a general of the people of Rhegium, against Dionysius the
tyrant of Sicily. He was taken by the enemy and tortured, B.C. 387,
and his son was thrown into the sea. _Diodorus_, bk. 14.
=Phyxium=, a town of Elis.
=Pia=, or =Pialia=, festivals instituted in honour of Adrian, by the
Emperor Antoninus. They were celebrated at Puteoli, on the second
year of the Olympiads.
=Piăsus=, a general of the Pelasgi. _Strabo_, bk. 13.
=Picēni=, the inhabitants of Picenum, called also _Picentes_. They
received their name from _picus_, a bird by whose auspices they had
settled in that part of Italy. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 425.
――_Strabo_, bk. 5.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 4.
=Picentia=, the capital of the Picentini.
=Picentīni=, a people of Italy between Lucania and Campania on the
Tuscan sea. They are different from the Piceni or Picentes, who
inhabited Picenum. _Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 450.――_Tacitus_,
_Histories_, bk. 4, ch. 62.
=Picēnum=, or =Picēnus ager=, a country of Italy near the Umbrians
and Sabines, on the borders of the Adriatic. _Livy_, bk. 21, ch. 6;
bk. 22, ch. 9; bk. 27, ch. 43.――_Silius Italicus_, bk. 10, li. 313.
――_Horace_, bk. 2, satire 3, li. 272.――_Martial_, bk. 1, ltr. 44.
=Picra=, a lake of Africa, which Alexander crossed when he went to
consult the oracle of Ammon. _Diodorus._
=Pictæ=, or =Picti=, a people of Scythia, called also _Agathyrsæ_. They
received this name from their painting their bodies with different
colours, to appear more terrible in the eyes of their enemies.
A colony of these, according to Servius, Virgil’s commentator,
emigrated to the northern parts of Britain, where they still
preserved their name and their savage manners, but they are mentioned
only by later writers. _Marcellinus_, bk. 27, ch. 18.――_Claudian_,
_de Consulatu Honorii_, li. 54.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 12.――_Mela_,
bk. 2, ch. 1.
=Pictāvi=, or =Pictŏnes=, a people of Gaul in the modern country of
_Poictou_. _Cæsar_, bk. 7, _Gallic War_, ch. 4.
=Pictăvium=, a town of Gaul.
=Fabius Pictor=, a consul under whom silver was first coined at Rome,
A.U.C. 485.
=Picumnus= and =Pilumnus=, two deities at Rome, who presided over
the auspices that were required before the celebration of nuptials.
Pilumnus was supposed to patronize children, as his name seems, in
some manner, to indicate, _quod pellat mala infantiæ_. The manuring
of lands was first invented by Picumnus, from which reason he is
called _Sterquilinius_. Pilumnus is also invoked as the god of bakers
and millers, as he is said to have first invented how to grind corn.
Turnus boasted of being one of his lineal descendants. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 4.――_Varro._
=Picus=, a king of Latium, son of Saturn, who married Venilia, who is
also called Canens, by whom he had Faunus. He was tenderly loved by
the goddess Pomona, and he returned a mutual affection. As he was
one day hunting in the woods, he was met by Circe, who became deeply
enamoured of him, and who changed him into a woodpecker, called
by the name of _picus_ among the Latins. His wife Venilia was so
disconsolate when she was informed of his death, that she pined away.
Some suppose that Picus was the son of Pilumnus, and that he gave out
prophecies to his subjects, by means of a favourite woodpecker, from
which circumstance originated the fable of his being metamorphosed
into a bird. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 7, lis. 48, 171, &c.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 14, li. 320, &c.
=Pidorus=, a town near mount Athos. _Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 122.
=Pidytes=, a man killed by Ulysses during the Trojan war.
=Piĕlus=, a son of Neoptolemus king of Epirus, after his father.
_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 11.
=Pĭĕra=, a fountain of Peloponnesus, between Elis and Olympia.
_Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 16.
=Piĕria=, a small tract of country in Thessaly or Macedonia, from which
the epithet of _Pierian_ was applied to the Muses, and to poetical
compositions. _Martial_, bk. 9, ltr. 88, li. 3.――_Horace_, bk. 4, ode
8, li. 20.――――A place between Cilicia and Syria.――――One of the wives
of Danaus, mother of six daughters, called Actea, Podarce, Dioxippe,
Adyte, Ocypete, and Pilarge. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2.――――The wife of
Oxylus the son of Hæmon, and mother of Ætolus and Laias. _Pausanias_,
bk. 5, ch. 3.――――The daughter of Pythas, a Milesian, &c.
=Piĕrĭdes=, a name given to the Muses, either because they were born
in Pieria, in Thessaly, or because they were supposed by some to be
the daughters of Pierus, a king of Macedonia, who settled in Bœotia.
――――Also the daughters of Pierus, who challenged the Muses to a trial
in music, in which they were conquered, and changed into magpies. It
may perhaps be supposed that the victorious Muses assumed the name
of the conquered daughters of Pierus, and ordered themselves to be
called Pierides, in the same manner as Minerva was called Pallas
because she had killed the giant Pallas. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 5, li. 300.
=Piĕris=, a mountain of Macedonia. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 29.
=Piĕrus=, a mountain of Thessaly, sacred to the Muses, who were from
thence, as some imagine, called _Pierides_.――――A rich man of Thessaly,
whose nine daughters, called Pierides, challenged the Muses, and were
changed into magpies when conquered. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 29.――――A
river of Achaia, in Peloponnesus.――――A town of Thessaly. _Pausanias_,
bk. 7, ch. 21.――――A mountain with a lake of the same name in
Macedonia.
=Piĕtas=, a virtue which denotes veneration for the deity, and love
and tenderness to our friends. It received divine honours among the
Romans, and was made one of their gods. Acilius Glabrio first erected
a temple to this new divinity, on the spot where a woman had fed with
her own milk her aged father, who had been imprisoned by the order of
the senate, and deprived of all aliments. _Cicero_, _De Divinatione_,
bk. 1.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 5, ch. 4.――_Pliny_, bk. 7, ch. 36.
=Pigres= and =Mattyas=, two brothers, &c. _Herodotus._――――The name of
three rivers.
=Pigrum mare=, a name applied to the Northern sea, from its being
frozen. The word _Pigra_ is applied to the Palus Mœotis. _Ovid_, bk.
4, _ex Ponto_, ltr. 10, li. 61.――_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 13.――_Tacitus_,
_Germania_, ch. 45.
=Pilumnus=, the god of bakers at Rome. _See:_ Picumnus.
=Pimpla=, a mountain of Macedonia, with a fountain of the same name,
on the confines of Thessaly, near Olympus, sacred to the Muses, who
on that account are often called _Pimpleæ_ and _Pimpleades_. _Horace_,
bk. 1, ode 26, li. 9.――_Strabo_, bk. 10.――_Martial_, bk. 12, ltr. 11,
li. 3.――_Statius_, bk. 1, _Sylvæ_, poem 4, li. 26; _Sylvæ_, poem 2,
li. 36.
=Pimprana=, a town on the Indus. _Arrian._
=Pinăre=, an island of the Ægean sea.――――A town of Syria, at the south
of mount Amanus. _Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 25.――――Of Lycia. _Strabo_,
bk. 14.
=Pinārius= and =Potitius=, two old men of Arcadia, who came with
Evander to Italy. They were instructed by Hercules, who visited the
court of Evander, how they were to offer sacrifices to his divinity,
in the morning, and in the evening, immediately at sunset. The
morning sacrifice they punctually performed, but on the evening
Potitius was obliged to offer the sacrifice alone, as Pinarius
neglected to come till after the appointed time. This negligence
offended Hercules, and he ordered that for the future Pinarius and
his descendants should preside over the sacrifices, but that Potitius,
with his posterity, should wait upon the priests as servants, when
the sacrifices were annually offered to him on mount Aventine.
This was religiously observed till the age of Appius Claudius,
who persuaded the Potitii, by a large bribe, to discontinue their
sacred office, and to have the ceremony performed by slaves. For this
negligence, as the Latin authors observe, the Potitii were deprived
of sight, and the family became a little time after totally extinct.
_Livy_, bk. 1, ch. 7.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 8, li. 269, &c.
――_Victor_, _de Origo Gentis Romanæ_, ch. 8.
=Marcus Pinārius Rusca=, a pretor, who conquered Sardinia, and defeated
the Corsicans. _Cicero_, _On Oratory_, bk. 2.
=Pinarus=, or =Pindus=, now _Delifou_, a river falling into the sea
near Issus, after flowing between Cilicia and Syria. _Dionysius
Periegeta._
=Pincum=, a town of Mœsia Superior, now _Gradisca_.
=Pindărus=, a celebrated lyric poet of Thebes. He was carefully trained
from his earliest years to the study of music and poetry, and he was
taught how to compose verses with elegance and simplicity, by Myrtis
and Corinna. When he was young, it is said that a swarm of bees
settled on his lips, and there left some honeycombs as he reposed
on the grass. This was universally explained as a prognostic of
his future greatness and celebrity, and indeed he seemed entitled
to notice when he had conquered Myrtis in a musical conquest. He
was not, however, so successful against Corinna, who obtained five
times, while he was competitor, a poetical prize, which, according
to some, was adjudged rather to the charms of her person, than to the
brilliancy of her genius, or the superiority of her composition. In
the public assemblies of Greece, where females were not permitted to
contend, Pindar was rewarded with the prize, in preference to every
other competitor; and as the conquerors at Olympia were the subject
of his compositions, the poet was courted by statesmen and princes.
His hymns and pæans were repeated before the most crowded assemblies
in the temples of Greece; and the priestess of Delphi declared that
it was the will of Apollo that Pindar should receive the half of all
the first fruit offerings that were annually heaped on his altars.
This was not the only public honour which he received; after his
death, he was honoured with every mark of respect, even to adoration.
His statue was erected at Thebes in the public place where the games
were exhibited, and six centuries after it was viewed with pleasure
and admiration by the geographer Pausanias. The honours which had
been paid to him while alive, were also shared by his posterity; and
at the celebration of one of the festivals of the Greeks, a portion
of the victim which had been offered in sacrifice, was reserved for
the descendants of the poet. Even the most inveterate enemies of the
Thebans showed regard for his memory, and the Spartans spared the
house which the prince of Lyrics had inhabited, when they destroyed
the houses and the walls of Thebes. The same respect was also paid
him by Alexander the Great when Thebes was reduced to ashes. It
is said that Pindar died at the advanced age of 86, B.C. 435. The
greatest part of his works have perished. He had written some hymns
to the gods, poems in honour of Apollo, dithyrambics to Bacchus, and
odes on several victories obtained at the four greatest festivals
of the Greeks, the Olympic, Isthmian, Pythian, and Nemean games.
Of all these, the odes are the only compositions extant, admired
for sublimity of sentiments, grandeur of expression, energy and
magnificence of style, boldness of metaphors, harmony of numbers, and
elegance of diction. In these odes, which were repeated with the aid
of musical instruments, and accompanied by the various inflections
of the voice, with suitable attitudes and proper motions of the body,
the poet has not merely celebrated the place where the victory was
won, but has introduced beautiful episodes, and by unfolding the
greatness of his heroes, the dignity of their characters, and the
glory of the several republics where they flourished, he has rendered
the whole truly beautiful and in the highest degree interesting.
Horace has not hesitated to call Pindar inimitable, and this
panegyric will not perhaps appear too offensive when we recollect
that succeeding critics have agreed in extolling his beauties, his
excellence, the fire, animation, and enthusiasm of his genius. He has
been censured for his affectation in composing an ode from which the
letter S was excluded. The best editions of Pindar are those of Heyne,
4to, Gottingen, 1773; of Glasgow, 12mo, 1774; and of Schmidius, 4to,
Witteberg, 1616. _Athenæus._――_Quintilian_, bk. 10, ch. 1.――_Horace_,
bk. 4, ode 2.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 3.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1,
ch. 8; bk. 9, ch. 23.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 9, ch. 12.――_Plutarch_,
_Alexander_.――_Curtius_, bk. 1, ch. 13.――――A tyrant of Ephesus, who
killed his master at his own request, after the battle of Philippi.
_Plutarch._――――A Theban, who wrote a Latin poem on the Trojan war.
=Pindăsus=, a mountain of Troas.
=Pindenissus=, a town of Cilicia, on the borders of Syria. Cicero, when
proconsul in Asia, besieged it for 25 days and took it. _Cicero_,
_For Marcus Cælius_; _Letters to his Friends_, bk. 2, ltr. 10.
=Pindus=, a mountain, or rather a chain of mountains, between Thessaly,
Macedonia, and Epirus. It was greatly celebrated as being sacred to
the Muses and to Apollo. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, li. 570.
――_Strabo_, bk. 18.――_Virgil_, _Eclogues_, poem 10.――_Lucan_, bk. 1,
li. 674; bk. 6, li. 339.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 3.――――A town of Doris
in Greece, called also Cyphas. It was watered by a small river of
the same name which falls into the Cephisus, near Lilæa. _Herodotus_,
bk. 1, ch. 56.
=Pingus=, a river of Mœsia, falling into the Danube. _Pliny_, bk. 3,
ch. 26.
=Pinna=, a town of Italy at the mouth of the Matrinus, south of Picenum.
_Silius Italicus_, bk. 8, li. 518.
=Pinthias.= _See:_ Phinthias.
=Pintia=, a town of Spain, now supposed to be _Valladolid_.
=Pion=, one of the descendants of Hercules, who built _Pionia_, near
the Caycus in Mysia. It is said that smoke issued from his tomb as
often as sacrifices were offered to him. _Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 18.
=Pione=, one of the Nereides. _Apollodorus._
=Piŏnia=, a town of Mysia, near the Caycus.
=Piræus=, or =Pyræeus=, a celebrated harbour at Athens, at the mouth
of the Cephisus, about three miles distant from the city. It was
joined to the town by two walls, in circumference seven miles and
a half, and 60 feet high, which Themistocles wished to raise in a
double proportion. One of these was built by Pericles, and the other
by Themistocles. The towers which were raised on the walls to serve
as a defence, were turned into dwelling-houses, as the population
of Athens gradually increased. It was the most capacious of all
the harbours of the Athenians, and was naturally divided into three
large basins called Cantharos, Aphrodisium, and Zea, improved by
the labours of Themistocles, and made sufficiently commodious for
the reception of a fleet of 400 ships, in the greatest security. The
walls which joined it to Athens, with all the fortifications, were
totally demolished when Lysander put an end to the Peloponnesian war
by the reduction of Attica. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 1.――_Strabo_,
bk. 9.――_Cornelius Nepos_, _Themistocles_.――_Florus_, bk. 3, ch. 5.
――_Justin_, bk. 5, ch. 8.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 6, li. 446.
=Piranthus=, a son of Argus and Evadne, brother to Jasus, Epidaurus,
and Perasus. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, chs. 16 & 17.――_Apollodorus_, bk. 2.
=Pirēne=, a daughter of Danaus.――――A daughter of Œbalus, or, according
to others, of the Achelous. She had by Neptune two sons, called
Leches and Cenchrius, who gave their names to two of the harbours of
Corinth. Pirene was so disconsolate at the death of her son Cenchrius,
who had been killed by Diana, that she pined away, and was dissolved,
by her continual weeping, into a fountain of the same name, which was
still seen at Corinth in the age of Pausanias. The fountain Pirene
was sacred to the Muses, and, according to some, the horse Pegasus
was then drinking some of its waters, when Bellerophon took it to
go and conquer the Chimæra. _Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 3.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 2, li. 240.