and he thus belongs to that period of the Greek nation when its great qualities were first distinctly unfolded, and when it exhibited an energy of action and a spirit of enterprise never afterward surpassed, together with a love of poetry, art, and philosophy, which produced much, and promised to produce more. His native place was Cynocephala, a village in the territory of Thebes, and the family of the poet seems to have been skilled in music: since we learn from the ancient biographies of him, that his father or his uncle was a flute-player. But Pindar, very early in life, soared far beyond the sphere of a flute-player at festivals, or even a lyric poet of merely local celebrity. Although, in his time, the voices of Pierian bards, and of epic poets of the Hesiodean school, had long been mute in Boeotia, yet there was still much love for music and poetry, which had taken the prevailing form of lyric and choral compositions. That these arts were widely culti vated in Boeotia is proved by the fact that two females, Myrtis and Corinna, had attained celebrity in them during the youth of Pindar. Both were competitors with him in poetry. Myrtis strove with the bard for a prize at public games; and although Corinna said, It is not meet that the clear-toned Myrtis, a woman born, should enter the lists with Pindar," yet she is said (perhaps from jealousy of his rising fame) to have often contended against him in the agones, and five times to have gained the victory. (Elian, V. H., 13, 24) Corinna also assisted the young poet with her advice; and it is related of her, that she recommended him to ornament his productions with mythical narrations; but that, when he had composed a hymn, in the first six verses of which (still extant) almost the whole of the Theban mythology was introduced, she smiled and said, "We should sow with the hand, not with the whole sack."-Pindar placed himself under the tuition of Lasus of Hermione, a distinguished poet, but probably better versed in the theory than the practice of poetry and music. Since Pindar made these arts the whole business of his life, and was nothing but a poet and musician, he soon extended the boundaries of his art to the whole Greek nation, and composed poems of the choral lyric kind for persons in all parts of Greece. At the age of twenty he composed a song of victory in honour of a Thessalian youth belonging to the family of the Aleuada (Pyth. 10, composed in Olympiad 69.3, B.C. 502). We find him employed soon afterward for the Sicilian rulers, Hiero of Syracuse and Theron of Agrigentum; for Arcesilaus, king of Cyrene, and Amyntas, king of Macedonia, as well as for the free cities of Greece. He made no distinction according to the race of the persons whom he celebrated he was honoured and loved by the Ionian states for himself as well as for his art: the Athenians made him their public guest (πpóžɛvos); and the inhabitants of Ceos employed him to compose a processional song (posódiov), although they had their own poets, Simonides and Bacchylides. Pindar, however, was not a common mercenary poet, always ready to sing the praises of him whose bread he ate. He received, indeed, money and presents for his poems, according to the general usage previously introduced by Simonides; yet his poems are the genuine expression of his thoughts and feelings. In his praises of virtue and good fortune, the colours which he employs are not too vivid nor does he avoid the darker shades of his subject; he often suggests topics of consolation for past and present evil, and sometimes warns and exhorts to avoid future calamity. Thus he ventures to speak freely to the powerful Hiero, whose many great and noble qualities were alloyed by insatiable cupidity and ambition, which his courtiers well knew how to turn to a bad account; and he addresses himself in the same manly tone to Arcesilaus IV., king of Cyrene, who afterward brought on the ruin of his dynasty by his tyrannical severity. Thus lofty and dignified was the position which Pindar assumed with regard to these princes; and, in accordance with this, he frequently proclaims, that frankness and sincerity are always laudable. But his intercourse with the princes of his time appears to have been limited to poetry. We do not find him, like Simonides, the daily associate, counsellor, and friend of kings and statesmen; he plays no part in the public events of the time, either as a politician or a courtier. Neither was his name, like that of Simonides, distinguished in the Persian war: partly because his fellow-citizens, the Thebans, were, together with half of the Grecian nation, on the Persian side, while the spirit of independence and victory was with the other half. Nevertheless, the lofty character of Pindar's muse rises superior to these unfavourable circumstances. He did not, indeed, make the vain attempt of gaining over the Thebans to the cause of Greece; but he sought to appease the internal dissensions which threatened to destroy Thebes during the war, by admonishing his fellow-citizens to union and concord (Polyb., 4, 31, 5.—Frag. incert., 125, ed. Bockh); and, after the war was ended, he openly proclaims, in odes intended for the Eginetans and Athenians, his admiration of the heroism of the victors.Having mentioned nearly all that is known of the events of Pindar's life, and his relations to his contemporaries, we proceed to consider him more closely as a poet, and to examine the character and form of his poetical productions. The only class of poems which enable us to judge of Pindar's general style are* the vikia, or triumphal odes. Pindar, indeed, excelled in all the known varieties of choral poetry; namely, hymns to the gods, pans, and dithyrambs appropriate to the worship of particular divinities, odes for processions (poσódia), songs of maidens (ñaplévɛta), mimic dancing songs (орxhuara), drinking songs (okoλiá), dirges (pivot), and encomiastic odes to princes (ykóuia), which last approached most nearly to the rivikia. The poems of Pindar in these various styles were nearly as renowned among the ancients as the triumphal odes, which is proved by the numerous quotations of them. Horace, too, in enumerating the different styles of Pindar's poetry, puts the dithyramb first, then the hymns, and afterward the epinikia and the dirges. Nevertheless, there must have been some decided superiority in the epinikia, which caused them to be more frequently transcribed in the later period of antiquity, and thus rescued them from perishing with the rest of the Greek lyric poetry. any rate, these odes, from the vast variety of their subjects and style, and their refined and elaborate structure, some approaching to hymns and pæans, others to scolia and hyporchemes, serve to indemnify us for the loss of the other sorts of lyric poetry. We will now explain, as briefly as possible, the occasion of an epinikian ode, and the mode of its execution. A victory has been gained in a contest at a festival, particularly at one of the four great games most prized by the Greeks. Such a victory as this, which shed a lustre not only on the victor himself, but on his family, and even on his native city, demanded a solemn celebration. This celebration might be performed by the victor's friends on the spot where the prize was obtained; as, for example, at Olympia, when, in the evening, after the termination of the contests, by the light of the moon, the whole sanctuary resounded with joyful songs after the manner of encomia; or it might be deferred till after the victor's solemn return to his native city, where it was sometimes repeated in following years, in commemoration of his success. celebration of this kind always had a religious character; it often began with a procession to an altar or temple, in the place where the games had been held, or in the native city of the conqueror; a sacrifice, followed by a banquet, was then offered at the temple, or in the house of the victor; and the whole solemnity conclu At A ded with the merry and boisterous revel called by the wisdom, which began to show itself among the Greeks Greeks kuuоg. At this sacred and, at the same time, at the time of the Seven Wise Men, and which formed joyous solemnity (a mingled character frequent among an important element of elegiac and choral lyric poethe Greeks), appeared the chorus, trained by the poet try before the time of Pindar.-The other element or some other skilled person, for the purpose of reci- of his poetry, his mythical narratives, occupies, howting the triumphal hymn, which was considered the ever, far more space in most of his odes. That these fairest ornament of the festival. It was during either are not mere digressions for the sake of ornament has the procession or the banquet that the hymn was reci- been fully proved by modern commentators. This ted, as it was not properly a religious hymn, which admixture of apophthegmatic maxims and typical nar could be combined with the sacrifice. The form of ratives would alone render it difficult to follow the the poem must, to a certain extent, have been deter- thread of Pindar's meaning; but, in addition to this mined by the occasion on which it was to be recited. cause of obscurity, the entire plan of his poetry is so From expressions which occur in several epinikian intricate, that a modern reader often fails to underodes, it is probable that all odes consisting of strophes stand the connexion of the parts, even where he thinks without epodes were sung during a procession to a he has found a clew. Pindar begins an ode full of temple or to the house of the victor; although there the lofty conception which he has formed of the gloriare others which contain expressions denoting move- ous destiny of the victor; and he seems, as it were, ment, and which yet have epodes. It is possible that carried away by the flood of images which this conthe epodes in the latter odes may have been sung at ception pours forth. He does not attempt to express certain intervals when the procession was not ad- directly the general idea, but follows the strain of vancing; for an epode, according to the statements of thought which it suggests into its details, though the ancients, always required that the chorus should be without losing sight of their reference to the main obat rest. But by far the greater number of the odes of ject. Accordingly, when he has pursued a train of Pindar were sung at the Comus, at the jovial termi- thought, either in an apophthegmatic or mythical form, nation of the feast: and hence Pindar himself more up to a certain point, he breaks off, before he has gone frequently names his odes from the Comus than from far enough to make the application to the victor suffi the victory. The occasion of the epinikian ode-a ciently clear; he then takes up another thread, which victory in the sacred games--and its end-the enno- is, perhaps, soon dropped for a fresh one; and at the bling of a solemnity connected with the worship of the end of the ode he gathers up all these different threads, gods-required that it should be composed in a lofty and weaves them together into one web, in which the and dignified style. But, on the other hand, the bois- general idea predominates. By reserving the explaterous mirth of the feast did not admit the severity of nations of his allusions until the end, Pindar conthe antique poetic style, like that of the hymns and trives that his odes should consist of parts which are nomes; it demanded a free and lively expression of not complete or intelligible in themselves; and thus feeling, in harmony with the occasion of the festival, the curiosity of the reader is kept on the stretch and suggesting the noblest ideas connected with the throughout the entire ode.—The characteristics of victor. Pindar, however, gives no detailed descrip- Pindar's poetry, which have just been explained, may tion of the victory, as this would have been only a be discovered in all his epinikian odes. Their agreerepetition of the spectacle which had already been be- ment, however, in this respect, is quite consistent held with enthusiasm by the assembled Greeks; nay, with the extraordinary variety of style and expression he often bestows only a few words on the victory, re- which belongs to this class of poems. Every epinik. cording its place, and the sort of contest in which it ian ode of Pindar has its peculiar tone, depending was won. On the other hand, we often find a precise upon the course of the ideas and the consequent enumeration of all the victories, not only of the actual choice of the expressions. The principal differences victor, but of his entire family: this must evidently are connected with the choice of the rhythms, which have been required of the poet. Nevertheless, he does again is regulated by the musical style. According not (as many writers have supposed) treat the victory to the last distinction, the epinikia of Pindar are of as a merely secondary object; which he despatches three sorts, Doric, Æolic, and Lydian; which can be quickly, in order to pass on to objects of greater inter- easily distinguished, although each admits of innuThe victory, in truth, is always the point upon merable varieties. In respect of metre, every ode of which the whole of the ode turns; only he regards it, Pindar has an individual character, no two odes being not simply as an incident, but as connected with the of the same metrical structure. In the Doric ode the whole life of the victor. Pindar establishes this con- same metrical forms occur as those which prevailed in nexion by forming a high conception of the fortunes the choral lyric poetry of Stesichorus, namely, sysand character of the victor, and by representing the tems of dactyls and trochaic dipodies, which most victory as the result of them. And as the Greeks nearly approach the stateliness of the hexameter. were less accustomed to consider a man in his indi- cordingly, a severe dignity pervades these odes; the vidual capacity than as a member of his state and his mythical narrations are developed with greater fulness, family, so Pindar considers the renown of the victor and the ideas are limited to the subject, and are free in connexion with the past and the present condition from personal feeling; in short, their general characof the race and state to which he belongs. Even, ter is that of calmness and elevation. The language however, when the skill of the victor is put in the fore- is epic, with a slight Doric tinge, which adds to its ground, Pindar, in general, does not content himself brilliancy and dignity. The rhythms of the Æolic odes Awith celebrating this bodily prowess alone, but he usu- resemble those of the Lesbian poetry, in which light ally adds some moral virtue which the victor has dactylic, trochaic, or logacdic metres prevailed: these shown, or which he recommends and extols. This rhythms, however, when applied to choral lyric poetry, virtue is sometimes moderation, sometimes wisdom, were rendered far more various, and thus often acsometimes filial love, sometimes piety to the gods. quired a character of greater volubility and liveliness. The latter is frequently represented as the main cause The Eolic odes, from the rapidity and variety of their of the victory; the victor having thereby obtained the movement, have a less uniform character than the Doprotection of the deities who preside over gymnastic ric odes; for example, the first Olympic, with its joycontests, as Mercury or the Dioscuri.. Whatever ous and glowing images, is very different from the might be the theme of one of Pindar's epinikian odes, second, in which a lofty melancholy is expressed, it would naturally not be developed with the systemat- and from the ninth, which has an air of proud and ic completeness of a philosophical treatise. Pindar, complacent self-reliance. The language of the Eohowever, has undoubtedly much of that sententious lic epinikia is also bolder, more difficult in its syn est. Ac the four great games of Greece. Thus we have, Ist, Olympic Odes, to the number of fourteen; 2d, Pythian, to the number of twelve; 3d, Nemcan, eleven in number; and, 4th, Isthmian, amounting to eight. This division, however, is not that of the poet himself; we owe it to the grammarian Aristophanes of Byzantium. This individual selected out of the general collection of Epinikia a certain number of pieces that had reference, more or less, to victories gained at the several games of Greece. It did not suffice, in the eyes of this critic, that an ode should celebrate some victory gained in these assemblies in order to be judged worthy of a place in his selection; for there are fragments remaining of the poems of Pindar which have direct allusion to such subjects, and yet were excluded by Aristophanes. On the other hand, we find, in the se any particular victory, namely, the second Pythian; as well as some others, which, though they celebrate deeds of martial prowess, contain no mention whatever of those peculiar exploits, of which the four great national celebrations of the Hellenic race were respectively the theatres.-Hermann has shown, that the basis of Pindar's diction is epic, but that he employs Doric forms as often as they appear more expressive, or are better adapted to the metre which he employs. Sometimes he gives the preference to Eolic forms, which was his native dialect. Hermann also remarks, that the verses of Pindar abound in hiatus, without there being any appearance of his having used the digamma, which in his days had partially disappeared from the Eolic dialect, and which Alcæus and Sappho had only occasionally employed. After the example of the ancient poets, he makes the vowel long which is followed by a mute and liquid. The remark of Hermann respecting the mixture of dialects in Pindar has been acquiesced in by Böckh, who observes, that the copyists have frequently removed the Doricisms from the Olympic Odes, while they have been preserved more carefully in the other works of the poet.--The best edition of Pindar is that of Böckh, Lips., 1811-22, 3 vols. 4to. The text is corrected by the aid of thirty-seven MSS. Previous to the appearance of this edition, that of Heyne was regarded as the best. Heyne's work appeared in 1773, Götting., 2 vols. 8vo. A second edition of it was published in 1798, Götting., 3 vols. 8vo, containing Hermann's commentary on the metres of Pindar. The third edition appeared, after Heyne's death, in 1817, under the supervision of Schaffer. An excellent school and college edition, by L. Dissen, based on that of Böckh, forms part of Jacobs's and Rost's "Bibliotheca Græca," Goth. et Erfurdt., 1830, 8vo. (Schöll, Gesch. Gr. Lit., vol. 1, p. 196, seqq.-Id. ib., vol 3, p. 598.) tax, and marked by rarer dialectic forms. Lastly, there are the Lydian odes, the number of which is inconsiderable: their metre is mostly trochaic, and of a particularly soft character, agreeing with the tone of the poetry. Pindar appears to have preferred the Lydian rhythms for odes which were destined to be sung during a procession to a temple or at the altar, and in which the favour of the deity was implored in an humble spirit. (Müller, Gr. Lit., p. 216, seqq.) -The scholar comes to the study of Pindar, as to that of one whom fable and history, poetry and criticism, have alike delighted to honour. The writers of Greece speak of him as the man whose birth was celebrated by the songs and dances of the deities themselves, in joyous anticipation of those immortal hymns which he was to frame in their praise; to whom in after life the God of Poetry himself devoted a share of the of-lection made by him, one ode, having no reference to ferings brought to his shrine, and conceded a chair of honour in his most favoured temple. These were indeed fables, but fables that evinced the truth: the reputation which they testified went on increasing in magnitude and splendour. The glory of succeeding poets, the severity of the most refined criticism, the spread of sceptic philosophy no way impaired it; it was not obscured by the literary darkness of his country; it was not overpowered by the literary brightness of rival states. The fastidious Athenian was proud of the compliment paid to his city by a Baotian; the elegant Rhodian inscribed his verses in letters of gold within the temple of his guardian deity; and, in a later age, Alexander, the son of Philip, "bade spare the house of Pindarus," when Thebes fell in ruins beneath his hand. Pindar has not improperly been called the Sacerdotal Poet of Greece; and that he must have been of high consideration with the priesthood will be easily believed. He stood forth the champion of the "graceful religion of Greece;" and he seems to have laboured, on the one hand, to defend it from the sneers and profaneness of the philosophers; and, on the other, to spiritualize it, and to prevent its degenerating into the mere image-worship of the vulgar. His deities, therefore, are neither like those of Homer, nor the insulted Olympians of Eschylus; they come in visions of the night; they stand in a moment before the eyes of the mortal who prays to them, and whom they deign to favour; they see and hear all things; they flit in an instant from land to land, and the elements yield, and are innoxuous to their impassible forms. But these forms are not minutely described; the fables respecting them are rejected in the whole as untrue, or better versions of them are given. With Pindar the deity is not the capricious, jealous being, whose evil eye the fortunate man has reason to tremble at; but just, benignant, the author and wise ruler of all things: whom it is dreadful to slander, and with whom it is idle to contend: he moulds everything to his will; he bows the spirit of the high-minded, and crowns with glory the moderate and humble; he is the guardian of princes, and if he deign not to be a guide to the ruler of the city, it is hard indeed to restore the people to order and peace. Nor is this all. Pindar is not merely a devout, but he is also an eminently moral poet. Plato observes of him, in the Menon, that he maintained the immortality of the soul; and he lays down, with remarkable distinctness, the doctrine of future happiness or misery. On principles such as these, it is no wonder that Pindar's poetry should abound with maxims of the highest morality in every part; not a page, indeed, is without them. They spread a colour over the whole, of which no idea can be given by a few extracts. (Quarterly Review, No. 56, p. 410, seqq.)-We have remaining, at the present day, forty-five of the Epinikia, or triumphal odes of Pindar, together with some few fragments of his other productions. The Epinikia are divided into four classes or kinds, and derive their names respectively from PINDENISSUS, a city of Cilicia, belonging to the Eleuthero-Cilices. It was situated on a height of great elevation and strength, forming part of the range of Amanus. Cicero took it after a siege of 57 days, and compelled the Tibareni, a neighbouring tribe, to, submit likewise. The modern Behesni is supposed to occupy its site. (Cic., Ep. ad Fam., 15, 4. — Id., Ep. ad Att., 5, 20.) PINDUS, I. a name applied by the Greeks to the elevated chain which separates Thessaly from Epirus, and the waters falling into the Ionian Sea and Ambracian Gulf, from those streams which discharge themselves into the Egean. Towards the north it joined the great Illyrian and Macedonian ridges of Bora and Scardus, while to the south it was connected with the ramifications of Eta, and the Ætolian and Acarnanian mountains. (Herodotus, 7, 129.—Strabo, 430.— Pind., Pyth., 9, 27.-Virgil, Eclog., 10, 11.-Ovid, Metamorph., 2, 224. Cramer's Ancient Greece, vol. 1, p. 353.)-II. A town and river of Doris in Greece. The river flowed into the Cephissus at Lilæa, a Phocian town. According to Strabo, the earlier name of the town was Acryphas. (Strabo, 427.) PIRÆUM, a small fortress of Corinthia, on the Sinus Corinthiacus, and not far from the promontory of Olmiæ. It was taken on one occasion by Agesilaus. (Xen., Hist. Gr., 4, 5, 5.-Id., Vit. Ages., 2, 18.) We must not confound this place with the Corinthian harbour of Piræus, on the Sinus Saronicus, near the confines of Argolis. (Cramer's Ancient Greece, vol. 3, p. 34.) 1. Athenian Imports and Exports. The commodities which Attica did not produce within her own territory, were obtained by foreign commerce, and, unless the importation was prevented by some extraordinary obstacle, such, for example, as war, there could be no danger of a scarcity, even in the case of a failure of the crops, because it consumed the surplus produce of other countries. (Xen., Repub. Ath., 2, 6.) Although not an island, yet it possessed PIREUS (Пεipatos), or PIRAEUS (Пɛipaιɛúç), a cel- all the advantages of insular position, that is, excellent ebrated and capacious harbour of Athens, at some dis- harbours conveniently situated, in which it received tance from it, but joined to it by long walls, called supplies during all winds; in addition to which, it had paкpà Tεixn. The southern wall was built by The- sufficient facilities for inland traffic: the intercourse mistocles, and was 35 stadia long and 40 cubits high; with other countries was promoted by the purity of the this height was but half of what Themistocles design- coin, as the merchant, not being obliged to take a reed. The northern was built by Pericles; its height turn freight, had the option of carrying out bullion, althe same as the former, its length 40 stadia. Both of though Athens abounded in commodities which would these walls were sufficiently broad on the top to admit meet with a ready sale. (Xen., de Vect., 1, 7.) If of two wagons passing each other. The stones were a stagnation in trade was not produced by war or piof an enormous size, joined together without any ce- racy, all the products of foreign countries came to ment, but with clamps of iron and lead, which, with Athens; and articles which in other places could hardtheir own weight, easily sufficed to unite walls even ly be obtained single, were collected together at the of so great a height as 40 cubits (60 feet). Upon both Piræus. (Thucyd., 2, 38.-Isocr., Paneg., p. 34, ed. of the walls a great number of turrets were erected, Hall) Besides the corn, the costly wines, iron, brass, which were turned into dwelling-houses when the and other objects of commerce, which came from all Athenians became so numerous that the city was not the regions of the Mediterranean, they imported from large enough to contain them. The wall which en- the coasts of the Black Sea slaves, timber for shipcompassed the Munychia, and joined it to the Piræus, building, salt fish, honey, wax, tar, wool, rigging, was 60 stadia, and the exterior wall on the other side leather, goatskins, &c.; from Byzantium, Thrace, of the city was 43 stadia, in length. Athens had three and Macedonia, timber, slaves, and salt fish; also, harbours, of which the Piraeus was by far the largest. slaves from Thessaly, whither they came from the inEast of it was the second one, called Munychia ; and, terior; and carpets and fine wool from Phrygia and still farther east, the third, called Phalerus, the least Miletus. "All the finest products," says Xenophon, frequented of the three. The entrance of the Piræus "of Sicily, of Italy, Cyprus, Lydia, the Pontus, and was narrow, being contracted by two projecting prom-the Peloponnesus, Athens, by her empire of the sea, is ontories. Within, however, it was very capacious, and contained three large basins or ports, named Cantharus, Aphrodisus, and Zea. The first was called after an ancient hero, the second after Venus, the third from the term Céa, signifying bread-corn. The Piræus is said to have been capable of containing 300 ships. The walls which joined it to Athens, with all its fortifications, were totally demolished when Lysander put an end to the Peloponnesian war by the reduction of Attica. They were rebuilt by Conon with the money supplied by the Persian commander Pharnabazus, after the defeat of the Lacedæmonians, in the battle off the Arginusæ Insulæ. In after days the Piraus suffered greatly from Sylla, who demolished the walls, and set fire to the armory and arsenals. It must not be imagined, however, that the Piraeus was a mere harbour. It was, in fact, a city of itself, abounding with temples, porticoes, and other magnificent structures. Strabo compares the maritime part of Athens to the city of the Rhodians, since it was thickly inhabited, and enclosed with a wall, comprehending within its circuit the Piræus and the other ports. Little, however, remains of the former splendour of the Piræus. According to Hobhouse, nothing now is left to lead one to suppose that it was ever a large and flourishing port. (Journey, vol. 1, p. 299.) The ancient Zea is a marsh, and Cantharus of but little depth. The deepest water is at the mouth of the ancient Aphrodisus. He adds, that the ships of the ancients must have been extremely small, if 300 could be contained within the Piræus, since he saw an Hydriote merchant-vessel, of about 200 tons, at anchor in the port, which appeared too large for the station, and an English sloop of war was warned that she would run aground if she attempted to enter, and was therefore compelled to anchor in the straits between Salamis and the port once called Phoron. The Piræus is now called Draco by the Greeks, but by the Franks Porto Leone, from the figure of a stone lion with which it was anciently adorned, and which was carried away by the Venetians. able to collect into one spot." (Repub. Ath., 2, 7.) To this far-extended intercourse the same author attributes the mixture of all dialects which prevailed at Athens, and the admission of barbarous words into the language of ordinary life. On the other hand, Athens conveyed to different regions the products of her own soil and labour; in addition to which, the Athenian merchant trafficked in commodities which they collected in other countries. Thus, they took up wine from the islands and shores of the gean Sea, at Peparethus, Cos, Thasus, and elsewhere, and transported it to the Euxine. (Demosth. in Lacrit., p. 935.) The trade in books alone appears to have made but small advances in Greece, a branch of industry which was more widely extended in the Roman Empire after the reign of Augustus. There was, it is true, a bookmarket (rù Bibha) at Athens (Jul. Poll., 9, 47), and books were exported to the Euxine and to Thrace (Xen., Anab., 7, 5, 14), but there can be no doubt that the books meant were merely blank volumes. The trade in manuscripts was in the time of Plato so little common, that Hermodorus, who sold the books of this writer in Sicily, gave occasion to a proverb, "Hermodorus carries on trade with writings." (Cic., Ep. ad Att., 13, 21.—Suid., s. v. 2óyoiow 'Epμódwроs Eμжорεvεтαι.) At a subsequent period, while Ze no the Stoic was still a youth, dealers in manuscripts are mentioned as having been at Athens. (Diog. Laert., in Vit) The merchant-vessels appear to have been of considerable size; not to quote an extraordinary instance, we find in Demosthenes (in Phorm.) a vessel of this kind, which, besides the cargo, the slaves, and the ship's crew, carried 300 free inhabitants. (Böckh, Public Economy of Athens, vol. 1, p. 65, seqq., Eng. transl.) 2. Credit System of the Athenians. The advocates for a credit system at the present day will be agreeably surprised to find one fully established among the Athenians, and deemed by that in an irruption into the plain of Marathon, and carried off the herds of the King of Athens. Theseus, on receiving information, went to repel the plunderers. The moment Pirithous beheld him, he was seized with secret admiration, and, stretching out his hand as a token of peace, exclaimed, "Be judge thyself! What satisfaction dost thou require ?"-" Thy friendship," replied the Athenian; and they thereupon swore eternal fidelity. Theseus and Pirithous were both present at the hunt of the Calydonian boar; and the former also took part in the famous conflict between the Centaurs and Lapitha. The cause of this contest was as follows: Pirithoüs, having obtained the hand of Hippodamia, daughter of Adrastus, king of Argos, the chiefs of his nation, the Lapithæ, were all invited to the wedding, as were also the Centaurs, who dwelt in the neighbourhood of Pelion. Theseus, Nestor, and other strangers were likewise present. At the feast, Eurytion, one of the Centaurs, became intoxicated with the wine, and attempted to offer violence to the bride. A dreadful conflict thereupon arose, in which several of the Centaurs were slain, and they were finally driven from Pelion, and obliged to retire to other regions. (Vid. Lapitha.)-Like faithful comrades, Theseus and Pirithous aided each other in every project, and, the death of Hippodamia having subsequently left Pirithous free to form a new attachment, the two friends, equally ambitious in their love, resolved to possess each a daughter of the king of the gods. Theseus fixed his thoughts on Helen, then a child of but nine years. The friends planned the carrying her off, and succeeded. Placing her under the care of his mother #thra, at Aphidnæ, Theseus prepared to assist his friend in a bolder and more perilous attempt: for Pirithous resolved to venture on the daring deed, of carrying away from the palace of the monarch of the under-world his queen Proserpina. Theseus, though aware of the risk, would not abandon his friend. They descended together to the region of shadows; but Pluto, knowing their design, seized them, and pla telligent people essential to commercial operations. | of witnessing his exploits, and he accordingly made The system of banking pursued at Athens gave occasion to a new kind of money, constructed upon the credit of individuals or of companies, and acting as a substitute for the legal currency. In the time of Demosthenes (vol. 2, p. 1236, ed. Reiske), and even at an earlier period, bankers appear to have been numerous, not only in Piræus, but also in the upper city; and it was principally by their means that capital, which would otherwise have been unemployed, was distributed and made productive. Athenian bankers were, in many instances, manufacturers or speculators in land, conducting the different branches of their business by means of partners or confidential servants, and acquiring a sufficient profit to remunerate themselves, and to pay a small rate of interest for the capital intrusted to them. But this was not the only benefit they imparted to the operations of commerce. Their legers were books of transfer, and the entries made in them, although they cannot properly be called a part of the circulation, acted in all other respects as bills of exchange. In this particular their banks bore a strong resemblance to modern banks of deposite A depositor desired his banker to transfer to some other name a portion of the credit assigned to him in the books of the bank (Demosth, pòç Kahλın.—vol. 2, p. 1236, ed. Reiske); and by this method, aided, as it probably was, by a general understanding among the bankers (or, in the modern phrase, a clearing house), credit was easily and constantly converted into money in ancient Athens. "If you do not know," says Demosthenes, "that credit is the readiest capital for acquiring wealth, you know positively nothing." (El δὲ τοῦτο ἀγνοεῖς, ὅτι πίστις ἀφορμὴ τῶν πασῶν ἐστὶ μεγίστη πρὸς χρηματισμὸν, πᾶν ἂν ἀγνοήσειας.—vol 2, p. 958, ed. Reiske.) The spirit of refinement may be traced one step farther. Orders were certainly issued by the government in anticipation of future receipts, and may fairly be considered as having had the force and operation of exchequer bills. They were known by the name of ȧvouoλoynuara. We learn, for instance, from the inscription of the Choiseul mar-ced them upon an enchanted rock at the gate of his ble (Böckh, Corp. Inscript., vol. 1, p. 219), written near the close of the Peloponnesian war, that bills of this description were drawn at that time by the government at Athens on the receiver-general at Samos, and made payable, in one instance, to the paymaster at Athens; in another, to the general of division at Samos. These bills were doubtless employed as money, on the credit of the in-coming taxes, and entered probably, together with others of the same kind, into the circulation of the period. (Cardwell's Lectures on the Coinage of the Greeks and Romans, p. 20, seqq.) realms. Here they sat, unable to move, till Hercules, passing by in his descent for Cerberus, freed Theseus, having taken him by the hand and raised him up; but when he would do the same for Pirithous, the earth quaked, and he left him. Pirithous therefore remained everlastingly on the rock, in punishment of his audacious attempt. (Apollod., 1, 8, 2.—Id., 2, 5, 12. - Plut., Vit. Thes. Hygin., fub., 14, 79, 155.Virg., En., 7, 304.—Keightley's Mythology, p. 316, 323, 392.) PISA, an ancient city of Elis, giving name to the district of Pisatis, in which it was situated. Tradition PIRENE, a fountain near Corinth, on the route from assigned its foundation to Pisus, grandson of olus the city to the harbour of Lechæum. According to (Pausan., 6, 22); but, as no trace of it remains, its the statement of Pausanias (2, 3), the fountain was of very existence was questioned in later ages, as we are white marble, and the water issued from various arti-informed by Strabo (356), some affirming that there ficial caverns into one open basin. This fountain is was only a fountain of the name, and that those writers celebrated by the ancient poets as being sacred to the who spoke of a city meant only to express the kingMuses, and here Bellerophon is said to have seized dom or principality of the Pisata, originally composed the winged horse Pegasus, preparatory to his enter- of eight towns. Other authors, however, have acprise against the Chimera. (Pind, Olymp., 13, 85. knowledged its existence (Pind., Ol., 2, 4.-Id, Ol., —Eurip, Med., 67.—Id., Troad., 205.—Soph., Elec-10, 51); and Herodotus states that the distance from tr., 475, &c.) The fountain was fabled to have de- Pisa to Athens was 1485 stadia (2, 7). Its site was rived its name from the nymph Pirene, who was said commonly supposed to be on a hill between two to have dissolved in tears at the death of her son Cen- mountains, named Ossa and Olympus, and on the left chreas, accidentally slain by Diana. (Pausan., 1. c.) bank of the Alpheus (Strabo, l. c.); but Pausanias PIRITHŎUS, Son of Ixion and Dia, and one of the could nowhere discover any vestiges of a town, the chieftains (or, according to another account, the mon- soil being entirely covered with vines. (Pausan., l. c. arch) of the Lapitha. He is memorable in mytholog--Plin, 4, 5.—Schol. ad. Pind., Olymp., 10, 55.) It ical narrative for his friendship with Theseus, which, is generally agreed that the Pisata were in possession though of a most intimate nature, originated never- of the temple of Olympia, and presided at the celebratheless in the midst of arms. The renown of Theseus having spread widely over Greece, Pirithous, it seems, became desirous of not only beholding him, but also tion of the games from the earliest period of their institution, till their rights were usurped by the Eleans and Heraclidae. They did not, however, tamely sub |