genious and eloquent, but by its very nature affords | perpetually occupied with profound but extravagant no room for the exercise of the higher faculties of the meditations, labouring to attain the comprehension of mind; nor will its readers, excepting those who are the absolute by contemplation; a notion borrowed fond of historical researches, derive from it any more from Plato, which became exaggerated in his hands. substantial benefit than the pleasure which a mere el- Carried away by his enthusiasm, he thought that he egant composition can impart. To those, however, was developing the designs of the philosopher of the who are curious in matters of history, it will certainly Academy, when, in fact, he exhibited his thoughts only prove interesting, since, although it only covers the partially and incompletely. The impetuous vivacity early years of Trajan's sway, it nevertheless furnishes of his temper, which caused him perpetually to fall into us with a number of facts, of which we should other- extravagances, prevented his reducing his mystical wise be ignorant; for what Suetonius and Tacitus wrote rationalism to a system. His various scattered treaconcerning Trajan is lost, as is the case, also, with this tises were collected by Porphyry in six Enneades. same portion of the history of Dio Cassius, and with He died in Campania, A.D. 270, having taught at the different accounts of Trajan's reign that are cited Rome, and excited the almost superstitious veneration by Lampridius, in his life of Alexander Severus.- of his disciples.-An admirable analysis is given of Pliny is also known to modern times by his Letters. the system of Plotinus by Tennemann, though occaThese consist of ten books, and were published by sionally somewhat obscure in its details. (Manuel himself. From the first to the ninth book inclusive, of the History of Philosophy, p. 187, seqq., Johnson's we have letters addressed to individuals of all descrip- transl.) The best edition of Plotinus is that of Creutions. The tenth book contains the letters and reports zer, Oxon., 1835, 3 vols. 4to. An edition of the treasent by Pliny to Trajan, together with some answers tise De Pulchritudine was published in 1814, 8vo, of that prince. The Letters of Pliny are valuable to Lips., by the same editor. (Hoffmann, Lex. Bibliogr., us, as all original letters of other times must be, be- vol. 3, p. 336.) cause they necessarily throw much light on the period at which they were written. But many of them are ridiculously studied, and leave the impression, so fatal to our interest in the perusal of such compositions, that they were written for the express purpose of publication. Among the letters of Pliny that have obtained the greatest celebrity, are the two in which he gives an account of the elder Pliny's mode of life, and of the circumstances connected with his death; two others, which contain a description of villas of his own; and one in which he gives an account of his proceedings against the Christians, and to which we have already referred. The authenticity of this last-mentioned letter has been attacked by Semler, an eminent German divine (Historia Ecclesiastica Selecta Capita, Hal., 1767, 3 vols. 8vo.-Neue Versuche die Kirch-fluence of ancient manners, and in this sweet familyen-Historie der ersten Jahrhunderte mehr aufzuklären, Leipz., 1787, 8vo). This critic maintains that the letter in question was forged by Tertullian; but his arguments, if they deserve the name, would invalidate the authority of almost every literary monument of ancient times. This same letter of Pliny's gave rise to an absurd legend at a later date, according to which, Pliny having met, in the island of Crete, with Titus, the disciple of St. Paul, was converted by him, and afterward suffered martyrdom.-The design of writing a history, which Pliny at one time entertained, he never carried into execution. (Epist., 5, 8.) The work "De Viris Illustribus" has been erroneously ascribed to him, as has also the dialogue "De Causis corrupta eloquentiæ." (Masson, Vit. Plin.-Schöll, Hist. Lit. Rom., vol. 2, p. 408, seqq.-Bahr, Gesch. Röm. Lit., vol. 1, p. 566, seq.)-The best edition of Pliny is that of Lemaire, Paris, 1823, 2 vols. 8vo. It is the edition of Gesner, improved by Schaeffer (Laps., 1805, 8vo), with additions by Lemaire.

PLISTHENES, a son of Atreus, king of Argos, father of Menelaus and Agamemnon. (Vid. Agamemnon, and Atridæ.),

PLOTINOPOLIS, a city of Thrace, to the south of Hadrianopolis, founded and named in honour of the Empress Plotina. On its site, at a later period, appeared the city of Didymotichos, now Demotica. (Itin. Ant., 322.-Procop., de Ed., 4, 11.)

PLOTINUS, a philosopher of the New-Platonic school, born A.D. 205, at Lycopolis in Egypt. Nature had endowed him with superior parts, particularly with an extraordinary depth of understanding, and a bold and vigorous imagination. He early manifested these abilities in the school of Ammonius at Alexandrea. Subsequently he determined to accompany the army of Gordian to the East, in order to study the Oriental systems on their native soil. He returned a dreamer,

PLUTARCHUS, one of the most generally known and frequently cited, and hence, if the expression be allowed, one of the most popular, writers of antiquity. He was a native of Charonea in Boeotia, but the period of his birth is not exactly ascertained. Plutarch himself informs us, that he was studying under Ammoni us, at Delphi, when Nero visited Greece, which would be the 66th year of our era; and hence we may conjecture that he was born towards the close of the reign of Claudius, about the middle of the first century. Plutarch belonged to an honourable family, in which a fondness for study and literary pursuits had long been hereditary. In his early days he saw at one and the same time his father, his grandfather, and great grandfather in being; and he was brought up under this in

converse, which imparted to his character an air of in tegrity and goodness, that shows itself in so many of his numerous writings. In the school of Ammonius, which he attended when still quite young, and where he formed an intimate friendship with a descendant of Themistocles, he received instruction in mathematics and philosophy. Without doubt, he carefully attended also, under able instructors, to the various depart ments of belles-lettres, and his works plainly show that the perusal of the poets had supplied his memory with ample materials. It appears that, while still quite young, he was employed by his fellow-citizens in some negotiations with neighbouring cities. The same mo tive led him to Rome, whither all the Greeks pos sessed of any industry or talent had been accustomed regularly to come for more than a century, to seek reputation and fortunes, either by attaching themselves to some powerful individuals, or by giving public leetures on philosophy and eloquence. Plutarch, it may readily be supposed, did not neglect this latter mode of acquiring celebrity. He himself declares, that during his sojourn in Italy, he could not find time to become sufficiently acquainted with the Latin tongue, by reason of the public business with which he was charged, and the frequent conferences he had with educated men on matters of a philosophic nature, about which they came to consult him. He spoke, he professed in his own language; according to the privilege which the Greeks had preserved of imposing their idiom on their conquerors, and of making it the natural language of philosophy and letters. These public lectures, these declamations, were evidently the first germe of the numerous moral treatises that Plutarch subsequently composed. The philosopher of Charonea exercised at Rome that profession of soph ist, the very name of which is now become a byword, and the mere existence of which seems to indi

of a piece; that he represents his heroes either as completely enslaved by some passion, or as perfectly virtuous, and that he has not been able to depict the almost infinite variety of shades between vice and virtue. What renders the perusal of these biographies particularly attractive, is our seeing his personages constantly in action; we follow them amid public affairs, we accompany them to the scenes of private life, to the interior of their dwellings, and into the very bosom of their families. "We are not writing histories," observes Plutarch himself, "but lives. Neither is it always in the most distinguished exploits that men's virtues and vices may be best discerned; but frequently some unimportant action, some short saying or jest, distinguishes a person's real character more than fields of carnage, the greatest battles, or the most important sieges. As painters, therefore, in their portraits, labour the likeness in the face, and particularly about the eyes, in which the peculiar turn of mind most appears, and run over the rest with a less careful hand, so must we be permitted to strike off the features of the soul, in order to give a real likeness of these great men, and leave to others the circumstantial detail of their toils and their achievements." (Vit. Alex., c. 1.) This reasoning of Plutarch's is no doubt very just, but it supposes that the writer does not go in quest of anecdotes, and that he exercises a sound and rigid criticism in the selection of those which he actually receives. Such, however, is not the case with Plutarch. Another defect with which he may be justly charged, is the having entirely neglected the order of chronology, so that frequently his narrative presents only an incoherent mass of facts, and the perusal of his lives leaves behind it, at times, only a confused impression. On the other hand, the Lives of Plutarch contain a treasure of practical philosophy, of morality, and of sound and useful maxims, the fruit of a long experience: indeed, it may be assert

cate the decline of national literature, but which was more than once rendered illustrious at Rome by great talents and the effects of persecution. It is well known, that, under the bad emperors, and amid the universal slavery that then prevailed, philosophy was the only asylum to which liberty fled when banished from the forum and the senate. Philosophy, in earlier days, had effected the ruin of the republic; it was then only a vain scepticism, abused to their own bad purposes by the ambitious and the corrupting. Adopting a better vocation, it became, at a later period, a species of religion, embraced by men of resolute spirit; they needed a wisdom that might teach them how to escape, by death, the cruelty of the oppressor, and they called, for this purpose, stoicism to their aid. Plutarch, the most constant and the most contemptuous opposer of the Epicurean doctrines; Plutarch, the admirer of Plato, and a disciple of his in the belief of the soul's immortality, of divine justice, and of moral good, taught his hearers truths, less pure, indeed, than those of Christianity, but which, nevertheless, in some degree adapted themselves to the pressing wants of heroic and elevated minds.-It is not known whether Plutarch prolonged his stay in Italy until that period when Domitian, by a public decree, banished all philosophers from that country. Some critics have supposed that he made many visits to Rome, but none after the reign of this emperor. One thing, however, appears well ascertained, that he returned, when still young, to his native country, and that he remained there for the rest of his days. During this his long sojourn in the land of his fathers, Plutarch was continually occupied with plans for the benefit of his countrymen; and, to give but a single instance of his zeal in the public service, he not only filled the of fice of archon, the chief dignity in his native city, but even discharged with great exactness, and without the least reluctance, the duties of an inferior office, that of inspector of public works, which compelled him, heed, that oftentimes these Lives are only so many histells us, to measure tile, and keep a register of the torical commentaries on certain maxims. Notwithloads of stone that were brought to him. All this ac- standing all their faults, however, the Lives of Plutarch cords but ill with the statement of Suidas, that Plu- are full of instruction for those who wish to become tarch was honoured with the consulship by Trajan. well acquainted with Greek and Roman history, since Such a supposition is contradicted both by the silence the author has drawn from many sources that are of history and the usuages of the Romans. Another closed upon us. He cherished an ardent love for liband more recent tradition, which makes Plutarch to erty, or, rather, democracy, which he confounded with have been the preceptor of Trajan, appears to rest on liberty, and he has been reproached with allowing himno better foundation, and can derive no support what- self, on certain occasions, to be so far led away by his ever from any of the genuine works of the philosopher. enthusiasm as to mistake for heroism a forgetfulness An employment, however, which Plutarch does seem of the sentiments of nature. For example, though he to have filled, was that of priest of Apollo, which con- would seem to state with impartiality the different nected him with the sacerdotal corporation at Delphi. sensations produced by the punishment of the sons of The period of his death is not known; but the proba- Brutus, and the assassination of the brother of Timobility is that he lived and philosophized until an advan- leon, still it is evident, from the manner in which he ced age, as would appear both from the tone of some expresses himself, that he approves of these two acof his writings and various anecdotes that are related tions, and that, in his eyes, the authors of them were of him. The several productions of this writer will deserving of commendation, and free from all reproach. now be briefly examined. The work to which he owes (Sainte-Croix, Examen, &c., p. 74, 2d ed.) Pluhis chief celebrity is that which bears the title of Bio tarch, moreover, is not even entitled to the praise of Taрáλλnho ("Parallel Lives"). In this he gives bi- being an impartial writer. The desire of showing that ographical sketches of forty-four individuals, distin- there was a time when the Greeks were superior to guished for their virtues, their talents, and their ad- the Romans, pervades all his recitals, and prejudices ventures, some Greek, others Roman, and gives them him in favour of his Grecian heroes. His ignorance in such a way that a Roman is always compared with of the Latin tongue, which he himself avows in his a Greek. Five other biographies are isolated ones; Lives of Demosthenes and Cato, leads him into vatwelve or fourteen are lost. The five isolated lives rious errors relative to Roman history. His style has are those of Artaxerxes Mnemon, Aratus, Galba, Otho, neither the purity of the Attic, nor the noble simpliciand Homer, though this last is probably not Plutarch's. ty which distinguishes the classic writers. He is The lives that have perished are those of Epaminon-overloaded with erudition, and with allusions that are das, Scipio, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, often obscure for us. - An able examination of the Nero, Vitellius, Hesiod, Pindar, Crates the Cynic, Deiphantus, Aristomenes, and Aratus the poet.-Many regard the Lives of Plutarch as models of biography. The principal art of the writer consists in the delineation of character; but it has been objected to him, and, it would seem, with justice, that his characters are all

sources whence Plutarch derived the materials for his lives, is given by Heeren (De fontibus et auctoritate vitarum parallelarum Plutarchi Commentationes IV., Götting., 1820, 8vo), and this inquiry becomes indispensably necessary to the professed scholar, who wishes to ascertain the degree of confidence that is due to the

Reiske, Lips., 1774-82, 12 vols. 8vo; that of Hutten, Tubing., 1796-98, 14 vols. 8vo, and that forming part of the Tauchnitz collection. The best edition of the Lives alone is that of Coray, Paris, 1809–15, 6 vols. 8vo; and the best edition of the Moral works is that of Wyttenbach, Ozon., 1795, 6 vols. 4to, and 12 vols. 8vo.

biographical sketches of Plutarch, though our limits | tus"). From a mistaken principle of patriotism, Plaforbid our entering on the detail. It may be said, in tarch here attacks the veracity of Herodotus as an a few words, that Plutarch, in the composition of his historian. The latter has found an able advocate in Lives, consulted all the existing historians; that he the Abbé Geinoz. (Mem. de l'Acad. des Inscr., &c., did not, however, blindly follow them, but weighed vols. 30, 36, and 38.-11. Bios τův déka þyrÓPUV their respective statements in the balance of justice, (" Biography of the ten Orators"). This work is eviand, when their accounts were contradictory, adopted dently supposititious. Photius has inserted it in his such as seemed to him most probable. The other Bibliotheca, with many omissions and additions, but historical works of Plutarch are the following: 1. 'P- without stating that it was written by Plutarch. paikà, Airiaι Pwμaïkai ("Roman Questions"). Hence some critics have ascribed it to the patriarch These are researches on certain Roman usages: for himself. This piece, however, bears the stamp of an example, Why, in the ceremony of marriage, the bride age much earlier than that of Photius.-We can only is required to touch water and fire? Why, in the same glance at the philosophical, or, as they are more comceremony, they light five tapers? Why travellers, who, monly called, the moral, works of Plutarch. He was having been considered dead, return eventually home, not a profound philosopher. He had formed for himcannot enter into their houses by the door, but must self a peculiar system, made up from the opinions of descend through the roof, &c.-2. 'Eλλyvikà, ǹ Al- various schools, but particularly from those of PlaTía Ehλnvikai ("Hellenica, or Grecian Ques- to and the Academicians, which he has sometimes tions"). We have here similar discourses on points of only imperfectly understood. He detested the docGrecian antiquity.-3. Hepi rapaλλýλwv 'Eλλnvi- trines of Epicurus and the Porch, and the hatred be kāv kaì 'Pwμaïkāv (“Parallels drawn from Grecian had vowed towards their respective schools renders and Roman History"). In order to show that certain him sometimes unjust towards their founders. He events in Grecian history, which appear fabulous, are was not free from superstition, and he pushed to exentitled to full confidence, Plutarch opposes to them cess his devotion towards the gods of paganism. His certain analogous events from Roman history. This philosophical or moral works are more than sixty in production is unworthy of Plutarch, and very probably number. They are full of information as regards an supposititious. It possesses no other merit than that acquaintance with ancient philosohpy; and they have of having preserved a large number of fragments of the additional merit of preserving for us a number Greek historians, who are either otherwise unknown, of passages from authors whose works have perishor whose works have not come down to us.-4. Iepì ed. An analysis of these writings is given by Scholl Tñs 'Pwμaiwv Túxns ("Of the Fortune of the Ro- (Hist. Lit. Gr., vol. 5, p. 77, seqq.).-The best edimans").-5. and 6. Two discourses Tερì τnç 'A2e5-tions of the whole works of Plutarch are, that of ávdpov rúxns ǹ áperns ("On the Fortune or Valour of Alexander"). In one of these Plutarch undertakes to show that Alexander owed his success to himself, not to Fortune. In the other, he attempts to prove, that his virtues were not the offspring of a blind and capricious Fortune, and that his talents and the resources of his intellect cannot be regarded as favours bestowed by this same Fortune. These two discourses are pre- PLUTO (IIλoÚTwv), called also Hades ("Aɩder) and ceded by one (No. 4) which shows the true object of Aidoneus ('Aïdwvɛuç), as well as Orcus and Dis, was the others. Plutarch, in this, endeavours to prove, the brother of Jupiter and Neptune, and lord of the that the Roman exploits are less the effect of valour lower world, or the abode of the dead. He is deand wisdom, than the result of the influence of For- scribed as a being inexorable and deaf to supplication tune; and, among the favours conferred by this god--for from his realms there is no return-and an object dess, he enumerates the unexpected death of Alexan- of aversion and hatred to both gods and men. (II, 9, der, at the very time that he was menacing Italy with 158, seq.) All the latter were sure to be, sooner or his victorious arms. In all this we clearly see the later, collected into his kingdom. The name Hades jealousy and vanity of the Greeks, who, from the time appears to denote invisibility, being derived from a, that they first fell under the Roman yoke, never ceased "not," and ɛidw, "to see," and significatory of the nadetracting from the glory of this republic, and ascribing ture of the realm over which he bore sway. The apits rapid progress to some blind and unknown cause. pellation of Pluto was received by him at a later peOne of the motives that induced Polybius, moreover, riod, and would seem to be connected with the term to write his history, was to undeceive his countrymen Thouros, "wealth," as mines within the earth are the on this point, and prove to them that the prosperity of producers of the precious metals. This notion Voss Rome was owing, not to the caprices of Fortune, but thinks began to prevail when the Greeks first visited to good conduct and valour.-7. IIórepov 'Aonvalo Spain, the country most abundant in gold. (Mythol KATа TóλEμOV ǹ Katà σopíav kvdožóτEpol; (" Wheth- Briefe, vol. 2, p. 175.) Heyne, on the other hand, is er the Athenians are more renowned for War or for of opinion that the name in question was first given the Sciences"). The commencement and conclusion in the mysteries (ad Apollod., 3, 12, 6). It is emare wanting. The text of what remains of this piece ployed occasionally by the Attic dramatists (Soph, is very corrupt.-8. Hepi "Iσidos xai 'Oσípidos (“ Of Antig., 1200.- Eurip., Alcest., 370.- Aristoph., Isis and Osiris"). This treatise contains a number Plut., 727), and it became the prevalent one in later of very curious remarks on the Egyptian mythology, times, when Hades came to signify a place rather than but it is, at the same time, that very one of the works a person.-The adventures of Pluto were few, for the of Plutarch in which his want of critical skill is most gloomy nature of himself and his realm did not offer apparent. His object was to give the mythological much field for such legends of the gods as Grecian traditions of the Egyptians a philosophical sense, in fancy delighted in; yet he too had his love-adventures. order to justify them before the tribunal of reason. The tale of his carrying off Proserpina is one of the Hence this treatise can only be employed with great most celebrated in antiquity. (Vid. Proserpina.) He caution in studying this branch of ancient mythology. loved, we are told, and carried off to Erebus the ocean9. Επιτομὴ τῆς συγκρίσεως Μενάνδρου καὶ ̓Αρισ- nymph Leuce; and, when she died, he caused a tree, Togávovs ("Abridgment of the Comparison between named from her (λɛúkŋ, “white poplar"), to spring up Menander and Aristophanes"). An extract, probably, in the Elysian fields. (Servius ad Virg., Eclog., 7, from some lost work of Plutarch's.-10. Iɛpì Ts 61.) Another of his loves was the nymph Mentha, 'Hρodóтov Kakoηbɛías (“ Of the Malignity of Herodo-whom Proserpina, out of jealousy, turned into the

ex.,

plant which bears her name. (Schol. ad Nicand., Al- lity of the Greeks. For the former asserted, and the 374. Oppian, Hal., 3, 486. Ovid, Met., 10, latter believed, that Orpheus and Homer had both 730.)-Pluto, Homer tells us, was once wounded in learned wisdom on the banks of the Nile; and that the shoulder by the arrows of Hercules; but, from the the Erebus of Greece, and all its parts, personages, ambiguity of the phrase used by the poet (¿v rúλw, and usages, were but transcripts of the mode of burial I., 5, 395), it is difficult to determine the scene of the in Egypt. Here the corpse was, on payment of a piece conflict. Some say that it was at the gate of the of money, conveyed by a ferryman (named Charon in nether world, when the hero was sent to drag the dog the language of Egypt) over the Acherusian lake, after of Hades to the realms of day. (Schol. ad Il., l. c.— it had received its sentence from the judges appointed Heyne ad Il., l. c.-Schol. ad Od., 11, 605.) Others for that purpose. Oceanus was but the Egyptian maintain that it was in Pylos, where the god was aid- name for the Nile; the Gates of the Sun were merely ing his worshippers against the son of Jupiter. (Apol those of Heliopolis; and Hermes, the conductor of lod, 2, 7, 3.-Pausan., 6, 25.-Pind., Ol., 9, 50.- souls, was familiar to the Egyptians; and thus they Schol. ad Pind., l. c.) Heyne, Müller, and Buttmann boldly and falsely appropriated to themselves all the are in favour of this sense of the phrase.-The region mythic ideas of Greece!It is worthy of notice, with over which Pluto presided is represented in the Iliad what unanimity the early races of men placed the and in the Theogony as being within the earth. (Il., abode of departed souls either beneath the earth or in 3, 278.-Ib., 9, 568.-Ib., 20, 61.-Ib., 23, 100.- the remote regions of the West. The former notion Theog., 455, 767.) In the Odyssey it is placed in owes its origin, in all probability, to the simple cirthe dark region beyond the stream of Ocean. (Od., cumstance of the mortal remains of man being depos10, 508.—Ib., 11, 1.) Its name is Erebus, with which ited by most nations in the bosom of the earth; and the appellation Hades became afterward synonymous. the habits of thinking and speaking which thence aroзc, The poets everywhere describe it as dreary, dark, and led to the notion of the soul also being placed in a recheerless. The dead, without distinction of good or gion within the earth. The calmness and stillness of evil, age or rank, wander there, conversing about their evening succeeding the toils of the day, the majesty former state on earth: they are unhappy, and they feel of the sun sinking, as it were, to rest amid the glories their wretched state acutely. They have no strength, of the western sky, exert a powerful influence over the or power of mind or body. Some few, enemies of human mind, and lead us almost insensibly to picture the gods, such as Sisyphus, Tityus, Tantalus, are pun- the West as a region of bliss and tranquillity. The ished for their crimes, but not apart from the rest of idea of its being the abode of the departed good was the dead. Nothing can be more gloomy and com- therefore an obvious one. Finally, the analogy of the fortless than the whole aspect of the realm of Hades conclusion of the day and the setting of the sun with as pictured by Homer. -In process of time. when the close of life, may have led the Greeks, or, it may communication with Egypt and Asia had enlarged the be, the Phoenicians, to place the dwelling of the dead sphere of the ideas of the Greeks, the nether world in general in the dark land on the western shore of underwent a total change. It was now divided into Ocean.-Hades, we are told by Homer, possessed a two separate regions: Tartarus, which, in the time helmet which rendered its wearer invisible; it was of Homer and Hesiod, was thought to lie far beneath forged for him by Vulcan, the later writers say, in the it, and to be the prison of the Titans, became one of time of the war against the Titans. Minerva wore it these regions, and the place of punishment for wick- when aiding Diomede against Mars (I., 5, 845). ed men; and Elysium, which lay on the shore of When Perseus went on his expedition against the the stream of Ocean, the retreat of the children and Gorgons, the helm of invisibility covered his brow. relatives of the king of the gods, was moved down (Apollod., 1, 6, 2.)-By artists the god of the lower thither to form the place of reward for good men. A world was represented similar to his brothers, but he stream encompassed the domains of Hades, over which was distinguished from them by his gloomy and rigid the dead, on paying their passage-money (vavλov), mien. (Keightley's Mythology, p. 89, seqq.) Pluto were ferried by Charon. The three-headed dog Cer- had a temple at Rome under the title of Summanus, berus guarded the entrance; and the three judges, Mi-dedicated to him during the war with Pyrrhus. (Ovid, nos, Æacus, and Rhadamanthus, allotted his place of Fast., 6, 731.) The cypress, the narcissus, the adibliss or of pain to each of the dead who was brought anthus, and the thighs of victims, were sacred to him; before their tribunal. This idea is probably founded black animals were sacrificed to him, such as black on the passage in the Odyssey (11, 568) where the oxen and sheep. (Tibull., 3, 5, 33.) His title Sumhero says he saw Minos judging in Erebus; but, ac-manus was given to him as being summus manium ; cording to the earlier belief, he only judged there as Orion hunted; in other words, he pursued the same Occupation as on earth. According to the fine myth PLUTUS, son of Iasion or Iasius, by Ceres, the god. in Plato (Gorgias, p. 523), Eacus and Rhadaman- dess of corn, has been confounded by many of the thus sit at the point in the mead where the path branch- mythologists with Pluto, though plainly distinguished es off to the Islands of the Blessed and to Tartarus (com- from him as being the god of riches. He was brought pare Virg., En., 6, 540); the former judging the up by the goddess of peace, and, on that account, Pax dead from Europe, the latter those from Asia. If any was represented at Athens as bolding the god of wealth case proves too difficult for them, it is reserved for in her lap. The ancients represented him as blind, the decision of Minos.-The River of Oblivion (ó ris and bestowing his favours indiscriminately on the good λńONS TOTAμós) was added to those of Homer's trans- and bad. He appears as an actor in the comedy of Oceanic region (Acheron, Pyriphlegethon, and Cocy- Aristophanes called after his name, and also bears a tus), and the dead were led to drink of its waters pre- part in the Timon of Lucian. The Greek form П1200vious to their returning to animate other bodies on rog means "wealth." The popular belief among the earth. In the sixth book of Virgil's Eneid will be ancients assigned him a dwelling-place in the subterfound the richest and fullest description of the new-ranean regions of Spain, a country famed for its premodified under-world, and for those who love to trace the progress and change of ideas, it will not be an uninteresting employment to compare it with that in the seventh book of Homer's Odyssey.-In reading the portentous falsehoods" (Lobeck, Aglaoph., p. 811) of the Egyptian priests on this subject, one is at a loss which most to wonder at, their audacity, or the credu

44

but Ovid questions whether this deity was the same as Pluto. (Fuss, Rom. Ant., p. 360.)

cious metals. Phædrus relates, in one of his fables, that when Hercules was received into heaven, and was saluting the gods who thronged around with their congratulations, he turned away his look when Plutus drew near, assigning as a reason for this to Jupiter, who inquired the cause of his strange conduct, that he hated Plutus because he was the friend of the bad,

and, besides, corrupted both good and bad with his horses of Achilles by the wind Zephyrus. (Hom., I., gifts. The fable is borrowed, with some slight alter-16, 150.-Consult Heyne, Excurs., ad loc.) The ation, from the Greek. (Phædr., fab., 4, 12.) name implies swiftness of feet (from woús, “a foot," and άpyós, “swift.")

PLUVIUS, a surname of Jupiter, as god of rain. He was invoked by that name among the Romans, when- PEAS, the father of Philoctetes. The son is hence ever the earth was parched up by continual heat, and called "Paantia proles" by Ovid. (Met., 13, 45.) was in want of refreshing showers. (Tibull., 1, 8, 26.) PECILE, a celebrated portico at Athens, which rePNYX, the place of public assembly at Athens, es- ceived its name from the paintings with which it was pecially during elections, so called from the crowds ac-adorned (Tolkiλŋ σтoά, from roikihoç, “diversified”). customed to assemble therein (añò Tov neπvкvíobai). Its more ancient name is said to have been PeisianacThe Pnyx was situate on a low hill, sloping down to tius. (Diog. Laert., Vit. Zen.-Plin., Vit. Cim.) the north, at the western verge of the city, and at a The pictures were by Polygnotus, Micon, and Pamquarter of a mile to the west of the Acropolis. It was philus, and represented the battle between Theseus a large semicircular area, of which the southern side, and the Amazons, the contest at Marathon, and other or diameter, was formed by a long line of limestone achievements of the Athenians. (Pausan., 1, 15.— rock, hewn so as to present the appearance of a verti- | Diog. Laert., l. c.—Plin., 35, 9.—Elian, Hist. An., cal wall, in the centre of which, and projecting from 7, 28.) Here were suspended also the shields of the it, was a solid pedestal, carved out of the living rock, Scioneans of Thrace, and those of the Lacedæmonians ascended by steps, and based upon seats of the same taken in the island of Sphacteria. (Pausan., 1, 15} material. This was the celebrated Bema, from which It was in this portico that Zeno first opened his school, the orators addressed the people. The lowest or most which was hence denominated the "Stoic." (The northern part of the semicircular curve was supported "school of the porch," from oroά.) No less than 1500 by a terrace wall of polygonal blocks. (Wordsworth's citizens of Athens are said to have been destroyed by Greece, p. 150.-Aristoph., Acharn., 20.-Jul. Poll., the thirty tyrants in the Pocile. (Diog. Laert, i c 8, 10.) -Isocr., Arcop.-Eschin., de Fals. Leg.) Colonel Leake supposes that some walls, which are still to be seen at the church of Panaghia Fanaromeni, are the remains of this celebrated portico. (Topography of Athens, p. 118.-Cramer's Anc. Greece, vol. 2, p. 318.)

PODALIRIUS, son of Esculapius and Epione, and a celebrated physician of antiquity. Xenophon calls him and his brother Machaon pupils of Chiron the centaur (Cyneget., 1, 14), an assertion which Aristides takes the unnecessary trouble of refuting. (Orat. in Asclepiad., vol. 1, p. 76, ed. Cant.) The two brothers were also distinguished for eloquence, and for their acquaintance with the military art. (Xen., l. c.) According to Quintus Calaber, Machaon was the elder, and also instructed Podalirius. (Paralipom., Hom., 8, 60.) They were both present at the siege of Troy, and made themselves so conspicuous by their valour, that Homer ranks them among the first of the Grecian heroes. Their skill in the healing art was also highly serviceable to the wounded, and they were at last excused from the fight, and from all the fatigues of war, in order to have more time to attend to those who were injured. On his return from Troy, Podalirius was driven by a tempest to the coast of Caria, where he either settled in, or founded, the city of Syrna, called by some Syrus. (Pausan., 3, 26.—Sicbelis, ad loc.) The more common account is in favour of his having founded the place, and he is said to have called it after Syrna, the daughter of Damætas, king of the country. He had cured her, it seems, of the effects of a fall from the roof of a mansion, by bleeding her in both arms at the moment when her life was despaired of; and he received her in marriage, together with the sovereignty of the Carian Chersonese. (Steph. Byz., s. v. Zúpva.) This story furnishes the first instance of a physician's having practised bleeding, at least among the Greeks. (Sprengel, Hist. de la Med., vol. 1, p. 131.) Another account makes Podalirius to have been assassinated on the coast of Ausonia, in the territory of the Daunians, in Italy, and to have been worshipped after death under the name of vóowv ȧkεorns, "healer of diseases." (Lycophr., 1046, seqq.) Strabo, moreover, says, that the tomb of Podalirius was to be seen at the distance of 100 stadia from the sea, in the country of the Daunians. (Strab., 436.)

PODARCES, I. the first name of Priam. When Troy was taken by Hercules, he was redeemed from slavery by his sister Hesione, and thence received the name of Priam. (Vid. Priamus.)-II. The son of Iphiclus, of Thessaly, and brother of Protesilaus. He went with twenty ships to the Trojan war, and, after his brother's death, commanded both divisions, amounting to forty vessels. (Hom., Il. 2, 698, seqq.-Eustath., ad loc.-Muncker, ad Hygin, fab., 97.)

PODARGE, one of the Harpies, mother of two of the

PŒNI, a name common to both the Phoenicians and Carthaginians. (Consult remarks under the article Phoenicia, page 1049, col. 2, near the end.)

POGON, a name given to the harbour of Trazene from its shape, being formed by a curved strip of land which resembled a beard (núуwv): hence arose the proverbial joke, nλɛvσɛias eiç Tpoiva, which was addressed to those whose chins were but scantily provided. (Adag. Græc. Zenob.) This port was for merly so capacious as to contain a large fleet. We are told by Herodotus that the Greek ships were ordered to assemble there prior to the battle of Salamis (§ 42.-Strab., 273). At present it is shallow, obstructed by sand, and accessible only to small boats. (Dodwell, vol. 2, p. 268.—Chandler, vol. 2, p. 263.— Cramer's Anc. Greece, vol. 3, p. 266.)

POLA, a town of Istria, on the western coast, near the southern extremity, or Promontorium Polaticum. It still preserves its name unchanged. Tradition reported it to have been founded by the Colchians, whom Eetes had sent in pursuit of the Argonauts. It became afterward a Roman colony, and took the name of Pietas Julia. (Pliny, 3, 19.—Mela, 2, 4.—Cremer's Anc. Italy, vol. 1, p. 136.)

POLEMARCHUS. Vid. Archon.

POLEMON, I. an Athenian of good family, who in his youth was addicted to infamous pleasures. The manner in which he was reclaimed from his licentious course of life, and brought under the discipline of phi losophy, affords a memorable example of the power of eloquence when it is employed in the cause of virtue. As he was one morning, about the rising of the sun, returning home from the revels of the night, clad in s loose robe, crowned with a garland, strongly perfumed and intoxicated with wine, he passed by the school of Xenocrates, and saw him surrounded by his disciples. Unable to resist so fortunate an opportunity of indulging his sportive humour, he rushed, without ceremony, into the school, and took his place among the philosophers. The whole assembly was astonished at this rude and indecent intrusion, and all but Xenocrates discovered signs of resentment. The philosopher, however, preserved the perfect command of his countenance; and, with great presence of mind, turned his discourse from the subject on which he was lecturing to the topics of temperance and modesty, which he recommended with