whose divinity they had despised. They sent their daughters to the
sea-shore, where they prostituted themselves to strangers. The poets
have feigned that they were changed into stones, on account of their
insensibility to every virtuous sentiment. _Justin_, bk. 18, ch. 5.
――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 10, li. 238.
=Propontis=, a sea which has a communication with the Euxine, by the
Thracian Bosphorus, and with the Ægean by the Hellespont, now called
the sea of _Marmora_. It is about 175 miles long and 62 broad, and
it received its name from its vicinity to Pontus. _Mela_, bk. 1,
ch. 19.――_Strabo_, bk. 2.――_Ovid_, bk. 1; _Tristia_, bk. 9, li. 29.
――_Propertius_, bk. 3, poem 22.
=Propylea=, a surname of Diana. She had a temple at Eleusis in Attica.
=Proselystius=, a surname of Neptune among the Greeks. _Pausanias_,
bk. 2.
=Proserpĭna=, a daughter of Ceres by Jupiter, called by the Greeks
_Persephone_. She was so beautiful, that the father of the gods
himself became enamoured of her, and deceived her by changing himself
into a serpent, and folding her in his wreaths. Proserpine made
Sicily the place of her residence, and delighted herself with the
beautiful views, the flowery meadows, and limpid streams, which
surrounded the plains of Enna. In this solitary retreat, as she
amused herself with her female attendants in gathering flowers, Pluto
carried her away into the infernal regions, of which she became the
queen. _See:_ Pluto. Ceres was so disconsolate at the loss of her
daughter, that she travelled all over the world, but her inquiries
were in vain, and she never could have discovered whither she had
been carried, had not she found the girdle of Proserpine on the
surface of the waters of the fountain Cyane, near which the ravisher
had opened himself a passage to his kingdom by striking the earth
with his trident. Ceres soon learned from the nymph Arethusa that her
daughter had been carried away by Pluto, and immediately she repaired
to Jupiter, and demanded of him to punish the ravisher. Jupiter in
vain attempted to persuade the mother that Pluto was not unworthy
of her daughter, and when he saw that she was inflexible for the
restitution of Proserpine, he said that she might return on earth,
if she had not taken any aliments in the infernal regions. Her return,
however, was impossible. Proserpine, as she walked in the Elysian
fields, had gathered a pomegranate from a tree and eaten it, and
Ascalaphus was the only one who saw it, and for his discovery the
goddess instantly turned him into an owl. Jupiter, to appease the
resentment of Ceres, and soothe her grief, permitted that Proserpine
should remain six months with Pluto in the infernal regions, and
that she should spend the rest of the year with her mother on earth.
As queen of hell, and wife of Pluto, Proserpine presided over the
death of mankind, and, according to the opinion of the ancients, no
one could die, if the goddess herself, or Atropos her minister, did
not cut off one of the hairs from the head. From this superstitious
belief, it was usual to cut off some of the hair of the deceased, and
to strew it at the door of the house, as an offering for Proserpine.
The Sicilians were very particular in their worship to Proserpine,
and as they believed that the fountain Cyane had risen from the earth
at the very place where Pluto had opened himself a passage, they
annually sacrificed there a bull, of which they suffered the blood
to run into the water. Proserpine was universally worshipped by
the ancients, and she was known by the different names of _Core_,
_Theogamia_, _Libitina_, _Hecate_, _Juno inferna_, _Anthesphoria_,
_Cotyto_, _Deois_, _Libera_, &c. _Plutarch_, _Lucullus_.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 8, ch. 37; bk. 9, ch. 31.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 5, fable
6; _Fasti_, bk. 4, li. 417.――_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 4, li. 698;
bk. 6, li. 138.――_Strabo_, bk. 7.――_Diodorus_, bk. 5.――_Cicero_,
_Against Verres_, bk. 4.――_Hyginus_, fable 146.――_Hesiod_, _Theogony_.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 3.――_Orpheus_, _Hymn 28_.――_Claudian_,
_de Raptu Proserpinæ_.
=Prosopītis=, an island in one of the mouths of the Nile. _Herodotus_,
bk. 2, ch. 4.
=Prosper=, one of the fathers who died A.D. 466. His works have been
edited by Mangeant, folio, Paris, 1711.
=Prosymna=, a part of Argolis, where Juno was worshipped. It received
its name from a nymph of the same name, daughter of Asterion, who
nursed Juno. _Pausanias_, bk. 2.
=Protagŏras=, a Greek philosopher of Abdera in Thrace, who was
originally a porter. He became one of the disciples of Democritus,
when that philosopher had seen him carrying faggots on his head,
poised in a proper equilibrium. He soon rendered himself ridiculous
by his doctrines, and in a book which he published, he denied the
existence of a Supreme Being. This doctrine he supported by observing,
that his doubts arose from the uncertainty of the existence of a
Supreme Power, and from the shortness of human life. This book was
publicly burnt at Athens, and the philosopher banished from the city,
as a worthless and contemptible being. Protagoras visited from Athens
different islands in the Mediterranean, and died in Sicily in a very
advanced age, about 400 years before the christian era. He generally
reasoned by dilemmas, and always left the mind in suspense about all
the questions which he proposed. Some suppose that he was drowned.
_Diogenes Laërtius_, bk. 9.――♦_Plato_, _Protagoras_.――――A king of
Cyprus, tributary to the court of Persia.――――Another.
♦ ‘Plutarch’ replaced with ‘Plato’
=Protagorĭdes=, an historian of Cyzicus, who wrote a treatise on the
games of Daphne, celebrated at Antioch.
=Protei columnæ=, a place in the remotest parts of Egypt. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 11, li. 262.
=Protesilai turris=, the monument of Protesilaus, on the Hellespont.
_Pliny_, bk. 4, ch. 11.――_Mela_, bk. 2, ch. 2.
=Prōtĕsĭlāus=, a king of part of Thessaly, son of Iphiclus, originally
called Iolaus, grandson of Phylacus, and brother to Alcimede the
mother of Jason. He married Laodamia the daughter of Acastus, and
some time after he departed with the rest of the Greeks for the
Trojan war with 40 sail. He was the first of the Greeks who set
foot on the Trojan shore, and as such he was doomed by the oracle
to perish, therefore he was killed as soon as he had leaped from his
ship, by Æneas or Hector. Homer has not mentioned the person who
killed him. His wife Laodamia destroyed herself when she heard of
his death. _See:_ Laodamia. Protesilaus has received the patronymic
of _Phylacides_ either because he was descended from Phylace, or
because he was a native of Phylace. He was buried on the Trojan
shore, and, according to Pliny, there were near his tomb certain
trees which grew to an extraordinary height, which, as soon as they
could be discovered and seen from Troy, immediately withered and
decayed, and afterwards grew up again to their former height, and
suffered the same vicissitude. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 2, li. 205.
――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 12, fable 1; _Heroides_, poem 13,
li. 17.――_Propertius_, bk. 1, poem 19.――_Hyginus_, fable 103, &c.
=Proteus=, a sea deity, son of Oceanus and Tethys, or, according to
some, of Neptune and Phœnice. He had received the gift of prophecy
from Neptune because he had tended the monsters of the sea, and from
his knowledge of futurity mankind received the greatest services.
He usually resided in the Carpathian sea, and, like the rest of
the gods, he reposed himself on the sea-shore, where such as wished
to consult him generally resorted. He was difficult of access, and
when consulted he refused to give answers, by immediately assuming
different shapes, and if not properly secured in fetters, eluding the
grasp in the form of a tiger, or a lion, or disappearing in a flame
of fire, a whirlwind, or a rushing stream. Aristæus and Menelaus
were in the number of those who consulted him, as also Hercules.
Some suppose that he was originally king of Egypt, known among his
subjects by the name of Cetes, and they assert that he had two sons,
Telegonus and Polygonus, who were both killed by Hercules. He had
also some daughters, among whom were Cabira, Eidothea, and Rhetia.
_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 4, li. 360.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 8,
fable 10; _Amores_, poem 12, li. 36.――_Hesiod_, _Theogony_, li. 243.
――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 4, li. 387.――_Hyginus_, fable 118.
――_Herodotus_, bk. 2, ch. 112.――_Diodorus_, bk. 1.
=Prothēnor=, a Bœotian who went to the Trojan war. _Homer_, _Iliad_,
bk. 2.
=Protheus=, a Greek at the Trojan war.――――A Spartan who endeavoured to
prevent a war with the Thebans.
=Prothous=, a son of Lycaon of Arcadia. _Apollodorus._――――A son of
Agrius.
=Proto=, one of the Nereides. _Apollodorus._
=Protogenēa=, a daughter of Calydon, by Æolia the daughter of Amythaon.
She had a son called Oxylus by Mars. _Apollodorus_, bk. 1.
=Protogĕnes=, a painter of Rhodes, who flourished about 328 years
before Christ. He was originally so poor that he painted ships to
maintain himself. His countrymen were ignorant of his ingenuity
before Apelles came to Rhodes, and offered to buy all his pieces.
This opened the eyes of the Rhodians; they became sensible of the
merit of their countrymen, and liberally rewarded him. Protogenes
was employed for seven years in finishing a picture of Jalysus,
a celebrated huntsman, supposed to have been the son of Apollo,
and the founder of Rhodes. During all this time the painter lived
upon lupines and water, thinking that such aliments would leave him
greater flights of fancy; but all this did not seem to make him more
successful in the perfection of his picture. He was to represent in
the piece a dog panting, and with froth at his mouth, but this he
never could do with satisfaction to himself; and when all his labours
seemed to be without success, he threw his sponge upon the piece in
a fit of anger. Chance alone brought to perfection what the utmost
labours of art could not do; the fall of the sponge upon the picture
represented the froth of the mouth of the dog in the most perfect
and natural manner, and the piece was universally admired. Protogenes
was very exact in his representations, and copied nature with the
greatest nicety, but this was blamed as a fault by his friend Apelles.
When Demetrius besieged Rhodes he refused to set fire to a part of
the city which might have made him master of the whole, because he
knew that Protogenes was then working in that quarter. When the town
was taken, the painter was found closely employed in a garden in
finishing a picture; and when the conqueror asked him why he showed
not more concern at the general calamity, he replied, that Demetrius
made war against the Rhodians, and not against the fine arts.
_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 3.――_Pliny_, bk. 35, ch. 10.――_Ælian_,
_Varia Historia_, bk. 12.――_Juvenal_, satire 3, li. 120.――_Plutarch_,
_Demetrius_.――――One of Caligula’s favourites, famous for his cruelty
and extravagance.
=Protogenīa=, a daughter of Deucalion and Pyrrha. She was beloved
by Jupiter, by whom she had Æthlius the father of Endymion.
_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 7.――_Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 1.――_Hyginus_,
fable 155.――――Another. _See:_ Protogenea.
=Protomedūsa=, one of the Nereides, called Protomelia by Hesiod.
_Theogony_, li. 245.
=Proxĕnus=, a Bœotian of great authority at Thebes, in the age of
Xenophon. _Polyænus._――――A writer who published historical accounts
of Sparta. _Athenæus._
=Prudentius Aurelius Clemens=, a Latin poet who flourished A.D. 392,
and was successively a soldier, an advocate, and a judge. His poems
are numerous, and all theological, devoid of the elegance and purity
of the Augustan age, and yet greatly valued. The best editions are
the Delphin, 4to, Paris, 1687; that of Cellarius, 12mo, Halæ, 1703;
and that of Parma, 2 vols., 4to, 1788.
=Prumnides=, a king of Corinth.
=Prusa=, a town of Bithynia, built by king Prusias, from whom it
received its name. _Strabo_, bk. 12.――_Pliny_, bk. 10, ltr. 16.
=Prusæus Dion=, flourished A.D. 105.
=Prusias=, a king of Bithynia, who flourished 221 B.C.――――Another,
surnamed _Venator_, who made an alliance with the Romans when they
waged war with Antiochus king of Syria. He gave a kind reception
to Annibal, and by his advice he made war against Eumenes king of
Pergamus, and defeated him. Eumenes, who was an ally of Rome as well
as Prusias, complained before the Romans of the hostilities of the
king of Bithynia. Quinctius Flaminius was sent from Rome to settle
the disputes of the two monarchs, and he was no sooner arrived in
Bithynia, than Prusias, to gain his favour, prepared to deliver to
him, at his request, the celebrated Carthaginian, to whom he was
indebted for all the advantages which he had obtained over Eumenes;
but Annibal prevented it by a voluntary death. Prusias was obliged
by the Roman ambassador to make a restitution of the provinces he
had conquered, and by his meanness he continued to enjoy the favours
of the Romans. When some time after he visited the capital of Italy,
he appeared in the habit of a manumitted slave, calling himself
the freedman of the Romans; and when he was introduced into the
senate-house, he saluted the senators by the name of visible deities,
of saviours and deliverers. Such abject behaviour rendered him
contemptible not only in the eyes of the Romans, but of his subjects,
and when he returned home the Bithynians revolted, and placed his
son Nicomedes on the throne. The banished monarch fled to Nicomedia,
where he was assassinated near the altar of Jupiter, about 149 years
before Christ. Some say that his son became his murderer. Prusias,
according to Polybius, was the meanest of monarchs, without honesty,
without morals, virtue, or principle; he was cruel and cowardly,
intemperate and voluptuous, and an enemy to all learning. He was
naturally deformed, and he often appeared in public in the habit of
a woman, to render his deformities more visible. _Polybius._――_Livy._
――_Justin_, bk. 31, &c.――_Cornelius Nepos_, _Hannibal_.――_Plutarch_,
_Titus Flamininus_, &c.
=Prymno=, one of the Oceanides.
=Prytănes=, certain magistrates at Athens who presided over the senate,
and had the privilege of assembling it when they pleased, festivals
excepted. They generally met in a large hall, called _prytaneum_,
where they gave audiences, offered sacrifices, and feasted together
with all those who had rendered signal service to their country. The
Prytanes were elected from the senators which were in number 500,
50 of which were chosen from each tribe. When they were elected, the
names of the 10 tribes of Athens were thrown into one vessel, and in
another were placed nine black beans and a white one. The tribe whose
name was drawn with the white bean, presided the first, and the rest
in the order in which they were drawn. They presided each for 35 days,
as the year was divided into 10 parts; but it is unknown what tribe
presided the rest of those days which were supernumerary. When the
number of tribes was increased to 12, each of the Prytanes presided
one full month.――――Some of the principal magistrates of Corinth were
also called Prytanes.
=Prytănis=, a king of Sparta, of the family of the Proclidæ.
_Pausanias_, bk. 2, ch. 36.――――One of the friends of Æneas killed by
Turnus. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 9, li. 767.
=Psamăthe=, one of the Nereides, mother of Phocus by Æacus king of
Ægina. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 12.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 11,
li. 398.――_Flaccus_, ♦bk. 1, li. 364.――――A daughter of Crotopus king
of Argos. She became mother of Linus by Apollo, and to conceal her
shame from her father, she exposed her child, which was found by dogs
and torn to pieces. _Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 43.――――A fountain and
town of Thebes. _Flaccus_, bk. 1, li. 364.
♦ Book reference omitted in text.
=Psamathos=, a town and port of Laconia. _Pausanias_, bk. 5, ch. 25.
=Psammenītus=, succeeded his father Amasis on the throne of Egypt.
Cambyses made war against him, and as he knew that the Egyptians
paid the greatest veneration to cats, the Persian monarch placed some
of these animals at the head of his army, and the enemy, unable to
defend themselves, and unwilling to kill those objects of adoration,
were easily conquered. Psammenitus was twice beaten at Pelusium and
in Memphis, and became one of the prisoners of Cambyses, who treated
him with great humanity. Psammenitus, however, raised seditions
against the Persian monarch; and attempted to make the Egyptians
rebel, for which he was put to death by drinking bull’s blood. He had
reigned about six months. He flourished about 525 years before the
christian era. _Herodotus_, bk. 3, ch. 10, &c.
=Psammetĭchus=, a king of Egypt. He was one of the 12 princes who
shared the kingdom among themselves; but as he was more popular
than the rest, he was banished from his dominions, and retired into
the marshes near the sea-shore. A descent of some of the Greeks
upon Egypt proved favourable to his cause: he joined the enemy,
and defeated the 11 princes who had expelled him from the country.
He rewarded the Greeks, by whose valour he had recovered Egypt, he
allotted them some territory on the sea-coast, patronized the liberal
arts, and encouraged commerce among his subjects. He made useless
inquiries to find the sources of the Nile, and he stopped, by bribes
and money, a large army of Scythians that were marching against
him. He died 617 years before the christian era, and was buried in
Minerva’s temple at Sais. During his reign there was a contention
among some of the neighbouring nations about the antiquity of their
language. Psammetichus took a part in the contest. He confined
two young children and fed them with milk; the shepherd to whose
care they were entrusted was ordered never to speak to them, but to
watch diligently their articulations. After some time the shepherd
observed, that whenever he entered the place of their confinement
they repeatedly exclaimed _Beccos_, and he gave information of this
to the monarch. Psammetichus made inquiries, and found that the word
_Beccos_ signified bread in the Phœnician language, and from that
circumstance, therefore, it was universally concluded that the
language of Phœnicia was of the greatest antiquity. _Herodotus_,
bk. 2, ch. 28, &c.――_Polyænus_, bk. 8.――_Strabo_, bk. 16.――――A son
of Gordius, brother to Periander, who held the tyranny at Corinth
for three years, B.C. 584. _Aristotle_, _Politics_, bk. 5, ch. 12.
=Psammis=, or =Psammuthis=, a king of Egypt, B.C. 376.
=Psaphis=, a town on the confines of Attica and Bœotia. There was there
an oracle of Amphiaraus.
=Psapho=, a Libyan who taught a number of birds which he kept to say,
“Psapho is a god,” and afterwards gave them their liberty. The birds
did not forget the words which they had been taught, and the Africans
paid divine honours to Psapho. _Ælian._
=Psecas=, one of Diana’s attendant nymphs. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 3.
=Psophis=, a town of Arcadia near the river Erymanthus, whose name it
originally bore, and afterwards that of Phegia. _Statius_, _Thebaid_,
bk. 4, li. 296.――_Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 24.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 5, li. 607.――――A river and town of Elis.――――A daughter of Eryx.
――――A town of Acarnania.――――Another of Libya.
=Psyche=, a nymph whom Cupid married and carried into a place of bliss,
where he long enjoyed her company. Venus put her to death because
she had robbed the world of her son; but Jupiter, at the request of
Cupid, granted immortality to Psyche. The word signifies _the soul_,
and this personification of Psyche first mentioned by Apuleius is
posterior to the Augustan age, though still it is connected with
ancient mythology. Psyche is generally represented with the wings
of a butterfly, to intimate the lightness of the soul, of which the
butterfly is the symbol, and on that account, among the ancients,
when a man had just expired, a butterfly appeared fluttering above,
as if rising from the mouth of the deceased.
=Psychrus=, a river of Thrace. When sheep drank of its waters they were
said always to bring forth black lambs. _Aristotle._
=Psylli=, a people of Libya near the Syrtes, very expert in curing
the venomous bite of serpents, which had no fatal effect upon them.
_Strabo_, bk. 17.――_Dio Cassius_, bk. 51, ch. 14.――_Lucan_, bk. 9,
lis. 894, 937.――_Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 173.――_Pausanias_, bk. 9,
ch. 28.
=Pteleum=, a town of Thessaly on the borders of Bœotia. _Lucan_, bk. 6,
li. 852.――_Livy_, bk. 35, ch. 43.
=Pterelaus=, a son of Taphius, presented with immortality from Neptune,
provided he kept on his head a yellow lock. His daughter cut it off
and he died. He reigned at Taphos in Argos, &c. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2,
ch. 4.
=Pteria=, a well-fortified town of Cappadocia. It was in the
neighbourhood, according to some, that Crœsus was defeated by Cyrus.
_Herodotus_, bk. 1, ch. 76.
=Ptolederma=, a town of Arcadia. _Pausanias_, bk. 8, ch. 27.
=Ptolemæum=, a certain place at Athens dedicated to exercise and study.
_Cicero_, bk. 5, _de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum_.