Clytemnestra and Ægisthus, but young Orestes was saved from his mother's
dagger by his sister Electra, called by Homer Laodicea, and was conveyed
to the house of Strophius, king of Phocis, who had married a sister of
Agamemnon. He was indulgently treated by Strophius, who educated him
with his son Pylades. The two young princes formed the most inviolable
friendship. When Orestes had arrived at years of manhood he avenged his
father's death by killing his mother Clytemnestra.
=Or´igen.= A Greek writer, celebrated for his learning and the sublimity
of his genius. He suffered martyrdom in his sixty-ninth year. His works
are numerous, consisting of commentaries on the Scriptures and various
treatises.
=Or´pheus.= A son of OEger and the Muse Calliope. Some suppose him to be
the son of Apollo. He received a lyre from Apollo, or, according to
some, from Mercury, on which he played in such a masterly manner that
the melodious sounds caused rivers to cease to flow, and savage beasts
to forget their wildness. He married Eurydice, who died from the bite of
a serpent. Orpheus felt her death acutely, and to recover her he visited
the infernal regions. Pluto, the king of the infernal regions, was
enraptured with the strains of music from the lyre of Orpheus, and,
according to the poets, the wheel of Ixion stopped, the stone of
Sisyphus stood still, Tantalus forgot his burning thirst, and even the
Furies relented, so fascinating were the sounds extracted from the lyre.
Pluto was moved by the sorrow of Orpheus, and consented to restore
Eurydice to him, provided he forebore to look behind him till he had
reached the extremity of his domain. Orpheus agreed to this, but forgot
his promise, and turned round to look at Eurydice, who instantly
vanished from his sight. After this he separated himself from the
society of mankind, and the Thracian women, whom he had offended by his
coldness, attacked him whilst they celebrated the orgies of Bacchus, and
after they had torn his body to pieces they threw his head into the
Hebrus.
=Osi´ris.= A great deity of the Egyptians, husband of Isis. The ancients
differ in opinion concerning this celebrated god, but they all agree
that as ruler of Egypt he took care to civilize his subjects, to improve
their morals, to give them good and salutary laws, and to teach them
agriculture.
=Ovid´ius, P. Na´so.= A celebrated Roman poet born at Sulmo. He was sent
at an early age to Rome, and afterwards went to Athens in the sixteenth
year of his age, where his progress in the study of eloquence was great.
His natural inclination, however, was towards poetry, and to this he
devoted his chief attention. His lively genius and fertile imagination
soon gained him admirers; the learned became his friends; Virgil,
Propertius, Horace, and Tibullus, honored him with their correspondence,
and Augustus patronized him with unbounded liberality. These favors,
however, were transitory, and he was banished to a place on the Euxine
Sea by order of the emperor. The true cause of his banishment is not
known. His friends ardently entreated the emperor to permit him to
return, but in vain, and he died in the seventh or eighth year of his
banishment, in the fifty-ninth year of his age, A.D. 17. A great portion
of his works remains. These consist of the "Metamorphoses," "Fasti,"
"Epistolæ," etc. Whilst his works are occasionally disfigured by
indelicacy, they are distinguished by great sweetness and elegance.
=Pacto´lus.= A celebrated river of Lydia. It was in this river that Midas
washed himself when he turned into gold whatever he touched.
=Pæ´an.= A surname of Apollo, derived from the word _pæan_, a hymn which
was sung in his honor for killing the serpent Python.
=Palæ´mon= or =Pale´mon=. A sea deity, son of Athamas and Ino. His original
name was Melicerta. He assumed the name of Palæmon after being changed
into a sea deity by Neptune.
=Palame´des.= A Grecian chief, son of Nauplius, king of Euboea, and
Clymene. He was sent by the Greek princes, who were going to the Trojan
war, to bring Ulysses to the camp, who, to withdraw himself from the
expedition, had pretended to be insane. Palamedes soon penetrated the
deception, and Ulysses was obliged to join in the war, but an inveterate
enmity arose between the two, and by an unworthy artifice Ulysses
procured the death of Palamedes. Palamedes is accredited with the
invention of dice, backgammon, and other games.
=Palati´nus, Mons.= A celebrated hill, the largest of the seven hills on
which Rome was built.
=Palinu´rus.= A skillful pilot of the ship of Æneas. He fell into the sea
whilst asleep, and was exposed to the waves for three days, and on
reaching the shore was murdered by the inhabitants of the place where he
landed.
=Palla´dium.= A celebrated statue of Pallas. It represented the goddess as
holding a spear in her right hand, and in her left a distaff and
spindle. It fell down from heaven near the tent of Ilus as he was
building the citadel of Ilium, whilst, according to others, it fell in
Phrygia; another account says Dardanus received it as a present from his
mother Electra; other accounts are given of its origin. It is generally
agreed, however, that on the preservation of the statue the fate of Troy
depended. This was known to the Greeks during the Trojan war, and they
contrived to obtain possession of it. But some authors say that the true
Palladium was not carried away by the Greeks, but only a statue which
had been placed near it, and which bore some resemblance to it.
=Pal´las.= A name of Minerva. She is said to have received the name
because she killed a noted giant bearing that name.
=Palmy´ra.= The capital of Palmyrene, a country on the eastern boundaries
of Syria, now called Tadmor. It is famous as being the seat of
government of the celebrated Queen Zenobia.
=Pan.= The god of shepherds, huntsmen, and the inhabitants of the country.
He was in appearance a monster; he had two small horns on his head, and
his legs, thighs, tail, and feet were like those of the goat.
=Pan´darus.= A son of Lycaon, who aided the Trojans in their war with the
Greeks. He broke the truce which had been agreed on by the contending
armies, and wounded Menelaus and Diomedes. He was at last killed by
Diomedes.
=Pandi´on.= A king of Athens, father of Procne and Philomela. During his
reign there was such an abundance of corn, wine, and oil in his realm,
that it was supposed that Bacchus and Minerva had personally visited the
country.
=Pando´ra.= A celebrated woman; the first mortal female that ever lived,
according to Hesiod. She was made of clay by Vulcan, and having received
life, all the gods made presents to her. Venus gave her beauty and the
art of pleasing; the Graces gave her the power of captivating; Apollo
taught her how to sing, and Mercury instructed her in eloquence. Jupiter
gave her a beautiful box, which she was ordered to present to the man
who married her. This was Epithemeus, brother of Prometheus, who opened
the box, from which issued a multitude of evils, which became dispersed
all over the world, and which from that fatal moment have never ceased
to affect the human race. Hope alone remained at the bottom of the box.
=Pan´sa, C. Vib´ius.= A Roman consul, who, with Hirtius, pursued the
assassins of Cæsar, and was killed in a battle near Mutina.
=Pan´theon.= A celebrated temple at Rome, built by Agrippa in the reign of
Augustus, and dedicated to all the gods.
=Par´cæ.= The Fates, powerful goddesses who presided over the birth and
life of mankind. They were three in number, Clotho, Lachesis, and
Atropos, daughters of Nox and Erebus, according to Hesiod, or, according
to what he says in another place, of Jupiter and Themis.
=Par´is.= The son of Priam, king of Troy, and Hecuba; he was also called
Alexander. He was destined before his birth to cause the ruin of his
country, and before he was born his mother dreamt that he would be a
torch which would set fire to her palace. The soothsayers predicted that
he would be the cause of the destruction of Troy. In consequence of
these foretold calamities Priam ordered a slave to destroy the child
immediately after birth, but instead of acting thus the slave exposed
the child on Mount Ida, where some shepherds found him and took care of
him. Paris gave early proofs of courage, and his graceful countenance
recommended him to OEnone, a nymph of Ida, whom he married. At the
marriage of Peleus and Thetis, the goddess of discord, who had not been
invited, showed her displeasure by throwing into the assembly of the
gods, who were at the nuptials, a golden apple, on which were the words:
Let it be given to the fairest. The apple was claimed by Juno, Venus,
and Minerva. Paris, who had been appointed to award it to the most
beautiful of the three goddesses, gave it to Venus. Subsequently Paris
visited Sparta, where he persuaded Helen, wife of Menelaus, the most
beautiful woman of the age, to elope with him. This caused the Trojan
war. Different accounts are given of the death of Paris. By some he is
said to have been killed by one of the arrows of Philoctetes which had
once belonged to Hercules.
=Parme´nio.= A celebrated general in the armies of Alexander the Great, by
whom he was regarded with the greatest affection. The firm friendship
which existed between the two generals was broken in a sudden fit of
anger by Alexander, who ordered his friend to be put to death, B.C. 330.
=Parnas´sus.= A mountain of Phocis sacred to the Muses, and to Apollo and
Bacchus. It was named thus after a son of Neptune who bore that
designation.
=Parrha´sius.= A famous painter of Ephesus in the age of Zeuxis, about
fifteen years before Christ. He contended, on one occasion, with Zeuxis
for the palm in painting, and Zeuxis acknowledged that he was excelled
by Parrhasius.
=Par´thenon.= A temple of Athens sacred to Minerva. It was destroyed by
the Persians, and was rebuilt by Pericles.
=Pasiph´ae.= A daughter of the Sun and of Perseis, who married Minos, king
of Crete. She became the mother of the Minotaur, which was killed by
Theseus.
=Patro´clus.= One of the Grecian chiefs during the Trojan war. He
contracted an intimate friendship with Achilles, and when the Greeks
went to the Trojan war Patroclus accompanied them. He was the constant
companion of Achilles, living in the same tent, and when his friend
refused to appear in the field of battle, because of being offended with
Agamemnon, Patroclus imitated his example. Nestor, however, prevailed on
him again to take the field, and Achilles lent him his armor. Hector
encountered him, and after a desperate fight slew him. The Greeks
obtained his dead body, which was brought into the Grecian camp, where
Achilles received it with great lamentation, and again taking the field,
killed Hector, thus avenging the death of his friend.
=Pau´lus Æmil´ius.= A Roman celebrated for his military achievements,
surnamed "Macedonicus" from his conquest of Macedonia. In early life he
distinguished himself by his application and for his love for military
discipline. In his first consulship he reduced the Ligurians to
subjection, and subsequently obtained a great victory over the
Macedonians, making himself master of the country. In the office of
censor, which he filled, he behaved with great moderation, and at his
death, about 168 years before the Christian era, the Romans mourned
deeply for him.
=Pausa´nias.= A Spartan general who greatly signalized himself at the
battle of Platæa against the Persians. He afterwards, at the head of the
Spartan armies, extended his conquests in Asia, but the haughtiness of
his behavior made him many enemies. He offered, on certain conditions,
to betray Greece to the Persians, but his perfidy was discovered, on
which he fled for safety to a temple of Minerva, where he was starved to
death, B.C. 471.
=Peg´asus.= A winged horse sprung from the blood of Medusa. According to
Ovid he fixed his abode on Mount Helicon, where, by striking the earth
with his foot, he raised a fountain which has been called Hippocrene.
=Pe´leus.= A king of Thessaly, son of Æacus and Endeis, the daughter of
Chiron. He married Thetis, one of the Nereids.
=Pe´lias.= Son of Neptune and Tyro. On his birth he was exposed in the
woods, but his life was preserved by some shepherds. Subsequently Tyro
was married to Cretheus, king of Iolchos. They had three children, of
whom Æson was the eldest. Pelias visited his mother after the death of
Cretheus, and usurped the authority which properly belonged to the
children of the deceased monarch. Jason, the son of Æson, who had been
educated by Chiron, on attaining manhood demanded the kingdom, the
government of which Pelias had usurped. Jason was persuaded by Pelias to
waive his claim for the present, and start on the Argonautic
expedition. On his return, accompanied by the sorceress Medea, she
undertook to restore Pelias to youth, explaining that it was necessary
first to cut his body to pieces and place the limbs in a caldron of
boiling water. This was done, when Medea refused to fulfill her promise,
which she had solemnly made to the daughters of Pelias, who were four in
number, and who had received the patronymic of the "Peliades."
=Pe´lion=, sometimes called Pelios. A celebrated mountain of Thessaly, the
top of which is covered with pine-trees.
=Pelop´idas.= A celebrated general of Thebes, son of Hippoclus. It was
owing to his valor and prudence, combined with the ability of
Epaminondas, that the famous victory of Leuctra was won.
=Pe´lops.= A celebrated prince, son of Tantalus, king of Phrygia. He was
killed by his father, and served up as a feast to the gods, who had
visited Phrygia. He was restored to life, and married Hippodamia, having
won her through defeating her father in a chariot race.
=Pena´tes.= Certain inferior deities among the Romans, who presided over
the domestic affairs of families.
=Penel´ope.= A celebrated princess of Greece, daughter of Icarius, and
wife of Ulysses, king of Ithaca. She became the mother of Telemachus,
and was obliged to part, with great reluctance, from her husband, when
the Greeks obliged him to go to the Trojan war. The strife between the
hostile forces continued for ten years, and when Ulysses did not return
home at the conclusion of the war her fears and anxieties became
overwhelming. She was beset by a number of suitors, who told her that
her husband would never return, and she ought to give herself to one of
her admirers. She received their advances with coldness, but as she was
devoid of power, and, as it were, almost a prisoner in their hands, she
temporized with them. After twenty years' absence Ulysses returned, and
at once delivered her from the persecutions of her suitors. Penelope is
described by Homer as a model of female propriety, whilst some more
modern writers dispute the correctness of this view. The accounts given
by different authors respecting her, in fact, differ materially. By some
she is said to have been the mother of Pan.
=Penthesile´a.= A queen of the Amazons, daughter of Mars. She came to
assist Priam in the last years of the Trojan war, and was slain by
Achilles.
=Per´gamus.= The citadel of the city of Troy. The word is often used to
signify Troy. From it Xerxes reviewed his troops as he marched to invade
Greece.
=Per´icles.= An Athenian of noble family, son of Xanthippus and Agariste.
His naturally great mental powers were greatly improved by attending the
lectures of Zeno and other philosophers. He became a commander, a
statesman, and an orator, and gained the esteem of the people by his
address and liberality. In his ministerial capacity, Pericles did not
enrich himself. The prosperity and happiness of Athens was his primary
object. He made war against the Lacedæmonians, and restored the temple
of Delphi to the care of the Phocians, who had been improperly deprived
of that honorable trust. The Peloponnesian war was fomented by his
ambitious views. He at length lost his popularity, but only temporarily,
and he was restored to all the honors of which he had been deprived. A
pestilence which prevailed proved fatal to him in his seventieth year,
about 429 years before Christ.
=Per´seus.= A son of Jupiter and Danae, the daughter of Acrisius. It had
been predicted by the oracle that Acrisius was to perish by his
daughter's offspring, so Perseus, soon after his birth, was, with his
mother Danae, thrown into the sea. Both were saved and reached the
island of Seriphos, where they were treated kindly by Polydectes, the
king, who, however, soon became jealous of the genius of Perseus.
Perseus had promised Polydectes to bring him the head of the Gorgon
Medusa. To enable him to obtain this Pluto lent him a helmet which made
the wearer invisible. Minerva gave him her buckler, and Mercury
furnished him with wings. Thus equipped he found the Gorgons, and cut
off Medusa's head, with which he fled through the air, and from the
blood which dropped from it, sprang the horse Pegasus. During his flight
Perseus discovered Andromeda chained to a rock to be devoured by a sea
monster, which he destroyed, and married Andromeda. He now returned to
Seriphos, where he turned into stone Polydectes by showing him Medusa's
head. By an accident, in throwing a quoit he killed Acrisius, thus
fulfilling the prediction of the oracle.
=Per´seus= or =Per´ses=. A son of Philip, king of Macedonia. He
distinguished himself by his enmity to the Romans, and when he had made
sufficient preparations he declared war against them. He, however,
wanted courage and resolution, and though he at first obtained some
advantages over the Roman armies, his timidity proved destructive to his
cause. He was defeated at Pydna, and soon after was taken prisoner, and
died in prison at Rome.
=Per´sius, Au´lus Flac´cus.= A Latin poet of Volaterræ. He was of a good
family, and soon became intimate with the most illustrious Romans of his
day. The early part of his life was spent in his native town, but at
the age of sixteen he was removed to Rome, where he studied philosophy.
He died in his thirtieth year, A.D. 62. The satires of Persius were read
with pleasure and avidity by his contemporaries.
=Per´tinax, Pub´lius Hel´vius.= A Roman emperor after the death of
Commodus. He was descended from an obscure family, and for some time was
employed in drying wood and making charcoal. He entered on a military
life and by his valor rose to offices of the highest trust, and was made
consul. At the death of Commodus he was selected to succeed to the
throne. His patriotism gained him the affection of the worthiest of his
subjects, but there were some who plotted against him. He was killed by
his soldiers, A.D. 193.
=Petro´nius Ar´biter.= A favorite of the emperor Nero, and one of the
ministers and associates of his pleasures and vices. He was made
proconsul of Bithynia, and afterwards was honored with the consulship.
Eventually he became out of favor with Nero, and resolved to destroy
himself, which he did by having his veins opened, A.D. 66. Petronius
distinguished himself by his writings as well as by his voluptuousness.
He is the author of many elegant compositions, which are, however, often
characterized by impropriety of language.
=Phæ´dra.= A daughter of Minos and Pasiphæ, who married Theseus. She
became the mother of Acamas and Demophoon. She brought an unjust
accusation against Hippolytus (a son of Theseus before she married him),
who was killed by the horses in his chariot taking fright, causing him
to be thrown under the wheels and crushed to death. On hearing this
Phædra acknowledged the falseness of the charge she had brought against
Hippolytus, and hanged herself in despair.
=Phæ´drus.= A Thracian who became one of the freed men of the emperor
Augustus. He translated the fables of Æsop into Iambic verse.
=Pha´ethon.= A son of the Sun, or of Phoebus and Clymene. According to
Hesiod and Pausanias he was son of Cephalus and Aurora, or of Tithonus
and Aurora, according to Apollodorus. He is, however, generally
acknowledged to be son of Phoebus and Clymene. Phoebus allowed him
to drive the chariot of the sun for one day. Phaethon, on receiving the
reins, at once showed his incapacity; the horses became unmanageable,
and heaven and earth were threatened with a conflagration, when Jupiter
struck Phaethon with a thunderbolt, and hurled him into the river Po,
where he perished.
=Phal´aris.= A tyrant of Agrigentum, who treated his subjects with great
cruelty. Perillus made him a brazen bull, inside of which he proposed to
place culprits, and by applying fire burn them to death. The first to be
thus burnt in this manner was Perillus himself. The cruelties practiced
by Phalaris were revenged by a revolt of his people, who put him to
death by burning him in the bull.
=Pha´on.= A boatman of Mitylene, in Lesbos. He received a box of ointment
from Venus, who had presented herself to him in the form of an old
woman. When he had rubbed himself with the unguent he became beautiful,
and Sappho, the celebrated poetess, became enamored with him. For a
short time he devoted himself to her, but soon treated her with
coldness, upon which she threw herself into the sea and was drowned.
=Pharnaba´zus.= A satrap of Persia who assisted the Lacedæmonians against
the Athenians, and gained their esteem by his devotion to their cause.
=Pha´ros.= A small island in the bay of Alexandria, on which was built a
tower which was considered one of the seven wonders of the world. It was
erected in the reigns of Ptolemy Soter and Ptolemy Philadelphus, the
architect being Sostratus, the son of Dexiphanes.
=Pharsa´lia.= A town of Thessaly, famous for the great battle fought there
between Julius Cæsar and Pompey, in which the former obtained the
victory.
=Phid´ias.= A celebrated sculptor of Athens, who died B.C. 432. He
executed a statue of Minerva, which was placed in the Pantheon.
=Philip´pi.= A town of Macedonia, celebrated for two battles fought there,
B.C. 42, between Augustus and Antony and the republican forces of Brutus
and Cassius, in which the former were victorious.
=Philip´pus=, king of Macedonia, was son of Amyntas, king of Macedonia. He
learnt the art of war from Epaminondas. He married Olympias, the
daughter of Neoptolemus, king of the Molossi, and became father of
Alexander the Great. Amongst the most important events of his reign was
the battle of Chæronea, which he won from the Greeks. The character of
Philip is that of a sagacious, prudent, but artful and intriguing,
monarch. He was assassinated by Pausanias at the celebration of the
nuptials of his daughter, in the forty-seventh year of his age and the
twenty-fourth of his reign, about 336 years before the Christian era.
=Philip´pus.= The last king of Macedonia of that name was son of
Demetrius. He aspired to become the friend of Hannibal. His intrigues
were discovered by the Romans, who invaded his territories, and
extorted peace from him on terms which were humiliating. He died in the
forty-second year of his reign, 179 years before the Christian era.
=Phi´lo.= A Jewish writer of Alexandria, A.D. 40. His works related to the
creation of the world, sacred history, and the laws and customs of the
Jewish nation.
=Philocte´tes= was one of the Argonauts. He received from Hercules the
arrows which had been dipped in the gall of the Hydra. The Greeks, in
the tenth year of the Trojan war, were informed by the oracle that Troy
could not be taken without these arrows. Philoctetes repaired to the
Grecian camp, where he destroyed a number of the Trojans, among whom was
Paris, with the arrows. The adventures of Philoctetes are the subject of
one of the best tragedies of Sophocles.
=Philome´la.= A daughter of Pandion, king of Athens. Her sister Procne had
married Tereus, king of Thrace, and being separated from Philomela spent
her time in great melancholy. She persuaded her husband to go to Athens
and bring her sister to Thrace. Tereus, on the journey, treated
Philomela with great cruelty, and cut off her tongue, confining her in a
lonely castle, and reporting to Procne that she was dead. Philomela,
however, found means to inform Procne that she was living. In revenge
for the cruelty of Tereus, Procne murdered his son and served him up as
food at a banquet. On hearing this Tereus drew his sword to slay the
sisters, when he was changed into a hoopoe, Philomela into a
nightingale, and Procne into a swallow.