med Pila, and laid down in Lapie's map as nearly in the centre of the bay, probably answers to the ancient Pylos. (Cramer's Anc. Greece, vol. 3, p. 132, segg.) PYRAMIDES, famous monuments of Egypt, of mass territory to the neighbouring town of Lepræum. | tailed in the fourth book of Thucydides. A spot na (Strab., 355.) The vestiges of Pylos are thought by Sir W. Gell to correspond with a Palaio Castro, situated at Pischine or Piskini, about two miles from the coast. Near this is a village called Sarene, perhaps a corruption of Arene. (Itin. of the Morea, p.ive masonry, which, from a square base, rise diminish 40.-Cramer's Anc. Greece, vol. 3, p. 117.)-III. A ing to a point or vertex when viewed from below.— city of Messenia, on the western coast, off which lay The pyramids commence immediately south of Caire, the island of Sphacteria. It was situated at the foot but on the opposite side of the Nile, and extend in an of Mount Egaleus, now Geranio or Agio Elia. (Sira- uninterrupted range for many miles in a southerly dibo, 459.) This city was regarded by many as the rection parallel with the banks of the river. The percapital of Nestor's dominions, and, at a later period, pendicular height of the first, which is ascribed to was celebrated for the brilliant successes obtained Cheops, is 480 feet 9 inches, that is, 43 feet 9 inches there by the Athenians in the Peloponnesian war. It higher than St. Peter's at Rome, and 136 feet 9 inchis necessary, however, to distinguish between the an- es higher than St. Paul's in London. The length of cient city of Pylos, and the fortress which the Athe- the former base was 764 feet, that of the present base nian troops under Demosthenes erected on the spot is 746 feet. (Vyse, Operations at the Pyramids of termed Coryphasium by the Lacedæmonians. (Thu- Gizeh, vol. 2, p. 109.) The following are the dimen cyd., 4, 3.) Strabo affirms, that when the town of Py- sions of the second pyramid: the base, 684 feet; the los was destroyed, part of the inhabitants retired to central line down the front from the apex to the base, Coryphasium; but Pausanias makes no distinction be- 568; the perpendicular, 356; coating from the top te tween the old and new town, simply stating that Py where it ends, 140. These dimensions, being consid los, founded by Pylus, son of Cleson, was situated on erably greater than those usually assigned even to the the promontory of Coryphasium. To Pylus he has first or largest pyramid, are to be accounted for by also attributed the foundation of Pylos in Elis, whith- their being taken (by Belzoni) from the base as clear. er that chief retired on his expulsion from Messenia ed from sand and rubbish, while the measurements of by Neleus and the Thessalian Pelasgi. He adds, that the first pyramid given by others only applied to it as a temple of Minerva Coryphasia was to be seen near measured from the level of the surrounding sandthe town, as well as the house of Nestor, whose mon- The antiquity of these erections, and the purpose ument was likewise to be seen there. Strabo, on the which they were formed, have furnished matter for contrary, has been at considerable pains to prove that much ingenious conjecture and dispute in the absence the Pylos of Homer was not in Messenia, but in Tri- of certain information. It has been supposed that phylia. From Homer's description, he observes, it is they were intended for scientific purposes, such as evident that Nestor's dominions were traversed by the that of establishing the proper length of the cubit, of Alpheus; and, from his account of Telemachus' voy- which they contain, in breadth and height, a certain age when returning to Ithaca, it is also clear that the number of multiples. They were, at all events, coPylos of the Odyssey could neither be the Messenian structed on scientific principles, and give evidence of nor Elean city; since the son of Ulysses is made to a certain progress in astronomy; for their sides are pass Cruni, Chalcis, Phea, and the coast of Elis, which accurately adapted to the four cardinal points. Wheth he could not have done if he had set out from the last-er they were applied to sepulchral uses, and intended mentioned place; if from the former, the navigation as sepulchral monuments, has been doubted; but the would have been much longer than from the descrip- doubts have in a great measure been dispelled by the tion we are led to suppose, since we must reckon 400 recent discoveries made by means of laborious excastadia from the Messenian to the Triphylian Pylos vations. The drifting sand had, in the course of ages, only, besides which, we may presume, the poet would collected around their base to a considerable height, in that case have named the Neda, the Acidon, and and had raised the general surface of the country the intervening rivers and places. Again, from Nes- above the level which it possessed when they were tor's account of his battle with the Epeans, he must constructed. The entrance to the chambers had also have been separated from that people by the Alpheus, been, in the finishing, shut up with large stones, and a statement which cannot be reconciled with the po- built round so as to be uniform with the rest of the sition of the Elean Pylos. If, on the other hand, we exterior. The largest, called the Pyramid of Cheops, suppose him to allude to the Messenian city, it will had been opened, and some chambers discovered in it, appear very improbable that Nestor should make an but not so low as the base, till Mr. Davison, British incursion into the country of the Epei, and return consul at Algiers, explored it in 1763, when accom from thence with a vast quantity of cattle, which he panying Mr. Wortley Montague to Egypt. He dis had to convey such a distance. His pursuit of the covered a room before unknown, and descended the enemy as far as Buprasium and the Olenian rock, after three successive wells to a depth of 155 feet. Cap. their defeat, is equally incompatible with the supposi- tain Caviglia, master of a merchant-vessel, afterward tion that he marched from Messenia. In fact, it is pursued the principal oblique passage 200 feet farther not easy to understand how there could have been down than any former explorer, and found it com any communication between the Epeans and the sub- municate with the bottom of the well. This circum jects of Nestor, if they had been so far removed from stance creating a circulation of air, he proceeded 28 each other. But as all the circumstances mentioned feet farther, and found a spacious room 66 feet by 27, by Homer agree satisfactorily with the situation of the but of unequal height, under the centre of the pyr Triphylian city, we are necessarily induced to regard amid, supposed by Mr. Salt to have been the place it as the Pylos of Nestor. Such are the chief argu- for containing the theca or sarcophagus, though now ments adduced by Strabo.-According to Thucydides, none is found in it. The room is 30 feet above the the Messenian Pylos had two entrances, one on each level of the Nile. The upper chamber, 354 feet by side of the island of Sphacteria, but of unequal 171, and 18 high, still contains a sarcophagus.breadth; the narrowest being capable of admitting Three chambers, hitherto undiscovered, were exposed only two vessels abreast. The harbour itself must and opened, in 1836-7, by Colonel Vyse. The longhave been very capacious for two such considerable est, measuring 38 feet 1 inch, by 17 feet 1 inch, bas fleets as those of Athens and Sparta to engage within been denominated by him the "Wellington Chamit. These characteristics sufficiently indicate the port ber;" the second (38 feet 9 inches, by 16 feet 8 inci or bay of Navarino as the scene of those most inter-es) he named "Nelson's;" and the third (37 feet esting events of the Peloponnesian war which are de- inches, by 16 feet 4 inches) has been called after tion, at which moment its altitude above the horizon of Gizeh (lat. 30) would have been 27° 9'-refraction being neglected as too trifling (about 2') to affect the question. The present polar star, a Ursa Minoris, was at this epoch 23° more or less in arc from the then pole of the heavens, and, of course, at its lower culmination, it was only 7° above the horizon of Gizeh." (Vyse, Operations, &c., vol. 2, p. 107, seq.) 2. Operations of Belzoni. Belzoni, after some acute observations on the appearances connected with the second pyramid, or that of Chephrenes, succeeded in opening it. The stones which had constituted the coating (by which the sides of most of the pyramids, which now rise in steps, had been formed into plain and smooth surfaces) lay in a state of compact and ponderous rubbish, presenting a formidable obstruction; but somewhat looser in the centre of the front, showing traces of operations for ex Lady Arbuthnot, who was present at the time of the discovery. These chambers vary as to height, and the blocks of granite which form the ceiling of the one below serve as the pavement of the one above it. According to Colonel Vyse, these three chambers were chiefly intended as voids in that portion of the pyramid above what is termed the "king's chamber" (the only one that appears to have had any destination), and thereby to lessen the superincumbent mass. (Consult the costly and elaborate work of Colonel Vyse, "Operations carried on at the Pyramids of Gizeh in 1837," &c., London, 1840, 2 vols. 4to.-vol. I, p. 205, 235, 256.)—In the course of the work just alluded to (vol. 2, p. 105), Colonel Vyse has some remarks on the question whether the pyramids were connected in any way with astronomical purposes. It seems that, in six pyramids which have been opened, the principal passage preserves the same inclination of 26° to the horizon, being directed to the polar star. "As it had been supposed," remarks the colonel," that the in-ploring it in an age posterior to the erection. On the clined passages were intended for astronomical purposes, I mentioned the circumstance to Sir John Herschel, who, with the utmost kindness, entered into various calculations to ascertain the fact. I also informed Sir John of the allusion in the Quarterly Review' to Mr. Caviglia's remarks respecting the polar star, and likewise of its having been seen by Captains Irby and Mangles from the inclined passage in the Great Pyramid, at the period of its culminating, on the night of the 21st of March, 1817. It would appear from the remarks of Sir John, which here follow, that the direction of the passage was determined by the star which was polar at the time that the pyramid was constructed, and that the exact aspect of the building was regulated by it; but it could not have been used for celestial observation. The coincidence of the relative position of a Draconis is at all events very remarkable." 1. Sir John Herschel's Observations on the Entrance Passages in the Pyramids of Gizeh. east side of the pyramid he discovered the foundation of a large temple, connected with a portico appearing above ground, which had induced him to explore that part. Between this and the pyramid, from which it was fifty feet distant, a way was cleared through rubbish forty feet in height, and a pavement was found at the bottom, which is supposed to extend quite round the pyramid; but there was no appearance of any entrance. On the north side, notwithstanding the same general appearance presented itself after the rubbish was cleared away, one of the stones, though nicely adapted to its place, was observed to be loose; and when it was removed, a hollow passage was found, evidently forced by some former enterprising explorer, and rendered dangerous by the rubbish which fell from the roof; it was therefore abandoned. Reasoning by analogy from the entrance of the first pyramid, which is to the east of the centre on the north side, he ex plored in that situation, and found, at a distance of thirty feet, the true entrance. After incredible perseverance and labour, he found numerous passages, all cut out of "Four thousand years ago, the present polar star, a the solid rock, and a chamber forty-six feet three inches Ursa Minoris, could by no possibility have been seen by sixteen feet three inches, and twenty-three feet six at any time in the twenty-four hours through the gal- inches high. It contained a sarcophagus in a corner, lery in the Great Pyramid, on account of the preces-surrounded by large blocks of granite. When opened, sion of the Equinoxes, which at that time would have after great labour, this was found to contain bones, displaced every star in the heavens, from its then ap- which mouldered down when touched, and, from speciparent position on the sphere, by no less a quantity than mens afterward examined, turned out to be the bones 55° 45' of longitude, and would have changed all the of an ox. Human bones were also found in the same relations of the constellations to the diurnal sphere. place. An Arabic inscription, made with charcoal, The supposed date of the pyramid, 2123 years B.C., was on the wall, signifying that "the place had been added to our present date, 1839, form 3962 years (say opened by Mohammed Ahmed, lapicide, attended by 4000), and the effect of the precession on the longi- the master Othman, and the king Alij Mohammed," tudes of the stars in that interval having been to in- supposed to be the Ottoman emperor, Mohammed I., crease them all by the above-named quantity, it will in the beginning of the fifteenth century. It was obfollow that the pole of the heavens, at the erection of served that the rock surrounding the pyramids, on the the pyramid, must have stood very near to the star a north and west sides, was on a level with the upper Draconis, that is, 2° 51′ 15′′ from it to the westward, part of the chamber. It is evidently cut away all as we should now call it; a Draconis was therefore, around, and the stones taken from it were most probat that time, the polar star; and as it is comparatively ably applied to the erection of the pyramid. There insignificant, and only of the third magnitude, if so are many places in the neighbourhood where the rock much, it can scarcely be supposed that it could have has been evidently quarried, so that there is no foundbeen seen in the daytime even in the climate of Gizeh, ation for the opinion formerly common, and given by or even from so dark a recess as the inclined entrance Herodotus, that the stones had been brought from the of the Great Pyramid. A latitude, however, of 30°, east side of the Nile, which is only probable as apand a polar distance of the star in question of 1° 51' plied to the granite brought from Syene. The opera15", would bring it, at its lower culmination, to an al- tions of Belzoni have thrown light on the manner in titude of 27° 91', and therefore it would have been di- which the pyramids were constructed, as well as the rectly in view of an observer stationed in the descend-purposes for which they were intended. That they ing passage, the opening of which, as seen from a were meant for sepulchres can hardly admit of a doubt. point sixty-three feet within, would, by calculation, It is remarkable that no hieroglyphical inscriptions are subtend an angle of 7° 7'; and even from the bot-found in or about the pyramids as in the other tombs; tom, near the sepulchral chamber, would still appear a circumstance which is supposed to indicate the periof at least 2° in breadth. In short, speaking as in or-od of their construction to have been prior to the indinary parlance, the passage may be said to have been vention of that mode of writing, though some think directly pointed at a Draconis, at its inferior culmina- that the variation may be accounted for by a difference in the usages of different places and ages. Belzoni, however, says that he found some hieroglyphics on one of the blocks forming a mausoleum to the west of the first pyramid. The first pyramid seems never to have been coated, as there is not the slightest mark of any covering. The second pyramid showed that the coating had been executed from the summit downward, as it appeared that it had not, in this instance, been finished to the bottom. 3. Who were the labourers employed on the Pyramids? pyramids were built, by this name in the hearing of Herodotus, since they referred them to their kings Che ops and Chephrenes. It would seem, moreover, that the shepherd Philitis had formerly, and at other times, customarily fed his cattle elsewhere. The following, then, may be regarded as the meaning of the passage in question: they attributed the labour of constructing the pyramids to a shepherd who came from Philistia, but who, at that time, fed his cattle in the land of Egypt; implying that they more readily told the appellation of the workman (the son of Israel, the shepherd, Gen., 47, 5) employed in the building, than of A very curious inquiry now remains as to the la- the kings by whose commands they were built. They bourers employed in erecting these stupendous struc- seem to have pursued the same course in the days of tures, and the following remarks on this subject, though Diodorus, who remarks (1, 2), “They admit that these they may not be acceded to in their full extent, will works are superior to all which are seen in Egypt, not yet, it is conceived, not prove unacceptable. They only by the immensity of their mass and by their proare from Calmet's Dictionary (vol. 3, p. 217, seq.).digious cost, but still more by the beauty of their On the supposition that they were native Egyptians, construction; and the workmen, who have rendered Voltaire has founded an argument in proof of the sla- them so perfect, are much more estimable than the very of that people; but that they were really natives kings who paid their cost; for the former have hereby is a point which admits of considerable doubt. The given a proof of their genius and skill, whereas the uniform practice of the ancient Oriental nations seems kings contributed only the riches left them by their anto have been, to employ captive foreigners in erecting cestors, or extorted from their subjects. They say laborious and painful works, and Diodorus (1, 2) ex- the first was erected by Armaus; the second by An pressly asserts this of the Egyptian Sesostris. Is it mosis; the third by Inaron." In the common Greek improbable to suppose that one at least, if not all, of text we read 'Auaois for the second name, but the the structures in question, were the work of the Israel- best critics decide in favour of 'Auμworç. If we make ites? Bondage is expressly attributed to them in the a slight change also. in the first name, and, instead of sacred writings; and that the Israelites did not make Armæus ('Apuaios), read Aramæus ('Apaμalog), the brick only, but performed other labours, may be in- result will be a curious one, On comparing the ferred from Exodus, 9, 8, 10. Moses took "ashes of names a Mousis and in Aron with the Hebrew dethe furnace," no doubt that which was tendered him scription of Moses and Aaron, we find that the proper by his people. So Psalm 81, 6, "I removed his appellation is the same, as near as pronunciation by shoulder from the burden, and his hands were deliv-natives of different countries could bring it: a Meusis, ered from the mortar-basket," not pots, as in our or ha Mousis, is hu Mousch in Hebrew; and in Ares, translation; and with this rendering agree the Septu- or hin Aron, is written hu Aaron, which certainly, agint, Vulgate, Symmachus, and others. Added to when two vowels came together, took a consonant bethis, we have the positive testimony of Josephus that tween them, being spoken as if written hun Aaron. the Israelites were employed on the Pyramids. The This testimony, therefore, agrees with the supposition space of time allotted for the erection of these im- that the Israelites were employed on the pyramids; mense masses coincides with what is usually assigned first under the appellation of the Syrian or Arameen to the slavery of the Israelites. Israel is understood (the very title given to Jacob, Deut., 26, 5, "An Arato have been in Egypt 215 years, of which Joseph mite ready to perish," &c.), and afterward under the ruled seventy years; nor was it till long after his names of the two most famous leaders of that nation, death that a "new king arose who knew not Joseph." Moscs and Aaron. (Calmet's Dictionary, l. c.) If we allow about forty years for the extent of the generation which succeeded Joseph, added to his seventy, there remain about 105 years to the Exodus. According to Herodotus (2, 124, seqq.), Egypt, Some derive the name Pyramid (Pyramis, Пvoauntil the reign of Rhampsinitus, was remarkable for μís) from πʊpóç, wheat," on the supposition that its abundance and excellent laws. Cheops, who suc- they were meant for granaries! (Steph. Byz, §. V. ceeded this prince, degenerated into extreme profli--Etymol. Mag., s. v.) It is surprising that this silly gacy of conduct. He barred the avenues of every derivation should have been approved of by Vossius. temple, and forbade the Egyptians from offering sac- Another class of etymologists deduce the term from rifices. He next proceeded to make them labour ser- the Greek word rup, "fire," in allusion to the flamevilely for himself by building the first pyramid. Che-shaped appearance of the structure, as it tapers to a ops reigned fifty years. His brother Chephrenes suc- point. (Etymol. Mag., s. v.-Sylburg, ad loc.ceeded, and adopted a similar course; he reigned fifty- Schol. ad Horat., Od., 3, 30, 2.—Ámm. Marcell., 22, six years. Thus, for the space of 106 years, were the 15.) These and other derivations proceed upon the Egyptians exposed to every species of oppression and supposition that the word pyramid is of Greek origin, calamity; not having, during all this period, permis- than which nothing can be more erroneous.. (Jablonsion even to worship in their temples. The Egyp-ski, Voc. Egypt.-Opusc., vol. 1, p. 221.) Some, tians had so strong an aversion to the memory of taking the passage of Pliny for their guide, where he these two monarchs, that they would never mention explains the term obeliscus by "radius Solis,” and, their names, but always attributed their pyramids to regarding the obelisk as a species of pyramid, deduce one Philitis, a shepherd who kept his cattle in those the latter word from the Coptic Pi-ra-mu-e, which parts. We have here very plain traces of a govern- they make to signify "a ray of the sun." (Jablonskı, ment by a foreign family; and of a worship contrary p. 222.)___ Wilkins thinks that pyramis comes from the to that which had been previously established in Egypt, Coptic Poura misi, equivalent to "regia generatio,” as appears in the prohibition of sacrifices. In its con- the pyramids being so called, according to him, detinuance, moreover, of 106 years, it coincides with the cause they served as places of sepulture for lines of bondage of the Israelites. There appears to be some-kings. Jablonski, however, well observes, that Poura thing mysterious concealed under the name and men- (or Pouro) misi can signify nothing else but “detion of the shepherd Philitis. It is clear that the scended from kings." Finally, De Sacy, the late emiEgyptians did not call the kings, by whose orders the [nent Oriental scholar of France, favours us with the 4. Various etymologies of the word Pyramid (Πυραμίς). following. He makes is, in the word IIupauís, a mere Greek termination. II is then the Egyptian article, for which the Greeks wrote IIv, in their wish to deduce the term from up, "fire." The syllable pau he refers to the root ram, which, according to him, had in the Egyptian tongue the meaning of separating, or setting anything apart from common use. Ilvpauís, therefore, will denote a sacred place or edifice, set apart for some religious purpose. (De Sacy, Observations sur l'origine du nom donné par les Grecs et les Arabes aux Pyramides d'Egypte.-Te Water, ad Jablonsk., Voc. Egypt., p. 224.) PYRAMUS, I. a youth of Babylon. (Vid. Thisbe.) -II. A river of Cilicia Campestris, rising in Mount Taurus, and falling into the Sinus Issicus. It is now the Geihoon. This river forces its way, by a deep and narrow channel, through the barrier of Taurus; and such was the quantity of soil which it carried down, that an oracle affirmed that one day it would reach the sacred isle of Cyprus. (Strab., 536.) This, how-writers, or give any credit to the general history of his ever, has not taken place; but a remarkable change has occurred with respect to the course of this river, which now finds its way into the sea, twenty-three miles more to the east, in the Gulf of Scanderoon. (Cramer's Asia Minor, vol. 2, p. 351.) PYRENEI, a well-known range of mountains, separating Gallia from Hispania. The name was commonly supposed to be derived from the Greek term Top, "fire," and various explanations were attempted to be given of this etymology. According to some, these mountains had once been devastated by fire, an opinion which Posidonius deemed not improbable. Diod. Sic., 5, 35.—Strab., 146.-Lucret., 5, 12, 42.) The true derivation, however, is evidently the Celtic Pyren or Pyrn, "a high mountain," and from this same may in like manner be deduced the name of Mount Brenner in the Tyrol; that of Pyern, in upper Austria, that of Fernor, in the Tyrol, and many others. (Adelung, Mithradates, vol. 2, p. 67.)—The range of the Pyrenees is about 294 miles in length. These mountains are steep, difficult of access, and only passable at five places: 1st, From Languedoc to Catalonia; 2d, from Comminge into Aragon; 3d, at Taraffa; 4th, at Maya and Pampeluna, in Navarre; and 5th, at Sebastians, in Biscay, which is the easiest of all. (Polyb., 3, 34, seqq.-Mela, 2, 5.—Plin., 3, 3.) PYRGOTELES, a celebrated engraver on gems in the age of Alexander the Great. He had the exclusive privilege of engraving the conqueror, as Lysippus was the only sculptor who was permitted to make statues of him. Two gems carved by this artist are said to be extant (Bracci, Memorie, tab. 98, 99); but Winckelmann has, by many powerful arguments, proved them to be spurious. (Op., 6, 1, p. 107, seqq.) was cherished by his master, who had formerly been a disciple of a sceptical philosopher, Metrodorus of Chios. Every advance which Pyrrho made in the study of philosophy involving him in fresh uncertainty, he left the school of the Dogmatists (so those philosophers were called who professed to be possessed of a certain knowledge), and established a new school, in which he taught that every object of human knowledge is involved in uncertainty, so that it is impossible ever to arrive at the knowledge of truth. (Diog. Laert., 58, seqq.) It is related of this philosopher that he acted upon his own principles, and carried his scepticism to so ridiculous an extreme, that his friends were obliged to accompany him wherever he went, that he might not be run over by carriages or fall down precipices. If this was true, it was not without reason that he was ranked among those whose intellects were disturbed by intense study. But, if we pay any attention to the respect with which he is mentioned by ancient life, we must conclude these reports to have been calumnies invented by the Dogmatists, whom he opposed. He spent a great part of his life in solitude, and always preserved a settled composure of countenance, undisturbed by fear, or joy, or grief. He endured bodily pain with great fortitude, and in the midst of dangers discovered no signs of apprehension. In disputation he was celebrated for the subtlety of his arguments and the perspicuity of his language. Epicurus, though no friend to scepticism, was an admirer of Pyrrho, because he recommended and practised that self-command which produces undisturbed tranquillity, the great end, in the judgment of Epicurus, of all physical and moral science. So highly was Pyrrho esteemed by his countrymen, that they honoured him with the office of chief priest, and, out of respect to him, passed a decree, by which all philosophers were indulged with immunity from public taxes. He was a great admirer of the poets, particularly of Homer, and frequently repeated passages from his poems. Could such a man be so foolishly enslaved by an absurd system as to need a guide to keep him out of danger? Pyrrho flourished about B.C. 340, and died about the ninetieth year of his age, probably about B.C. 228. After his death, the Athenians honoured his memory with a statue, and a monument to him was erected in his own country. (Enfield, History of Philosophy, vol. 1, p. 482.) PYRRHUS, I. a son of Achilles and Deïdamia, the daughter of King Lycomedes, who received this name from the yellowness of his hair. He was also called Neoptolemus, or new warrior, because he came to the Trojan war in the last years of the celebrated siege of the capital of Troas. He was brought up, and rePYRRHA, I. a daughter of Epimetheus and Pandora, mained at the court of his maternal grandfather until and wife of Deucalion. (Vid. Deucalion.)-II. A after his father's death. The Greeks, then, according promontory of Thessaly, on the western coast of the to an oracle, which had declared that Troy could not Sinus Pagasæus, and a short distance below Demetri- be taken unless one of the descendants of Æacus were as. It is now Cape Ankistri.-III. A rock, with an- among the besiegers, despatched Ulysses and Phoenix other in its vicinity named Deucalion, near the prom- to Scyros for the young prince. He had no sooner arontory mentioned in the preceding paragraph. (Stra-rived before Troy, than, having paid a visit to the tomb bo, 435.) of Achilles, he was appointed to accompany Ulysses in PYRRHO, a celebrated Greek philosopher, a native his expedition to Lemnos, for the purpose of prevailing of Elea. In his youth he practised the art of paint-on Philoctetes to repair with the arrows of Hercules ing; but, either through disinclination, or because his mind aspired to higher pursuits, he passed over from the school of painting to that of philosophy. He studied and admired the writings of Democritus, and had, as his first preceptor, Bryson, the son of Stilpo, a disciple of Clinomachus. After this he became a disciple of Anaxarchus, who was contemporary with Alexander, and he accompanied his master, in the train of Alexander, into Asia. Here he conversed with the Brahmans and Gymnosophists, imbibing from their doctrine whatever might seem favourable to his natural disposition towards doubting: a disposition which to the scene of action. Pyrrhus greatly signalized himself during the siege, and was the first, according to some accounts, that entered the wooden horse. He was not inferior to his father in cruel and vindictive feelings. After breaking down the gates of Priam's palace, he pursued the unhappy monarch to the altar of Jupiter, and there, according to some accounts, he slaughtered him; while, according to others, he dragged him by the hair to the tomb of Achilles, where he sacrificed him to the manes of his father. Pyrrhus is also among the number of those to whom the precipitation of the young Astyanax from the summit of a emies reciprocally claimed the victory as their own. Pyrrhus still continued the war in favour of the Tarentines, when he was invited into Sicily by the inhab tants, who laboured under the yoke of Carthage and the cruelty of their own petty tyrants. His fondness for novelty soon determined him to quit Italy. He left a garrison at Tarentum, and crossed over to Scily, where he obtained two victories over the Carthaginians, and took many of their towns. He was for a while successful, and formed the project of invading Africa; but his popularity soon vanished. His troops became insolent, and he behaved with haughtiness, and showed himself oppressive, so that his return to Italy was deemed a fortunate event for all Sicily. He had no sooner arrived at Tarentum than he renewed hostilities with the Romans with great acrimony; but when his army of 80,000 men had been defeated by 20,000 of the enemy under Curius, he left Italy with precipitation, B.C. 274, ashamed of the enterprise, and mortified by the victories which had been obtained over one of the descendants of Achilles. In Epirus he be gan to repair his military character by attacking Art gonus, who was then on the Macedonian throne. He gained some advantages over his enemy, and was at last restored to the throne of Macedonia. He sfterward marched against Sparta at the request of Cleony mus; but, when all his vigorous operations were insufficient to take the capital of Laconia, he retired w Argos, where the treachery of Aristeus invited him. The Argives desired him to retire, and not to interiere in the affairs of their republic, which were confounded by the ambition of two of their nobles. He compiled with their wishes; but in the night he marched his forces into the town, and might have made h self master of the place had he not retarded his progress by entering it with his elephants. The combat that ensued was obstinate and bloody; and the monarch, to fight with more boldness, and to encounter dangers with more facility, exchanged his dress. He was atacked by one of the enemy; but, as he was going to run him through in his own defence, the mother of the Argive, who saw her son's danger from the top of house, threw down a tile, and brought Pyrrhus to the tower is attributed; and it was he that immolated Polyxena to his father's shade. In the division of the captives after the termination of the war, Andromache, the widow of Hector, and Helenus, the brother of the latter, were assigned to Pyrrhus. After some time had elapsed, he gave up Andromache to Helenus, and sought and obtained the hand of Hermione, daughter of Menelaus and Helen; but he was slain for this by Orestes, son of Agamemnon. (Eurip., Androm., 1244, seqq.Virg., En., 3, 319, seqq.-Heyne, Excurs., 12, ad En., 3.)-II. A king of Epirus, descended from Achilles on the mother's side. He was saved when an infant, by the fidelity of his servants, from the pursuits of the enemies of his father, who had been banished from his kingdom, and he was carried to the court of Glautias, king of Illyricum, who educated him with great tenderness. Cassander, king of Macedonia, wished to despatch him; but Glautias not only refused to deliver him up into the hands of his enemy, but he even went with an army, and placed him on the throne of Epirus, though only twelve years of age. About five years after, the absence of Pyrrhus to attend the nuptials of one of the daughters of Glautias raised new commotions. The monarch was expelled from his throne by Neoptolemus, who had usurped it after the death of acides; and being still without resources, he applied to his brother-in-law Demetrius for assistance. He accompanied Demetrius at the battle of Ipsus, and fought there with all the prudence and intrepidity of an experienced general. He afterward passed into Egypt, where, by his marriage with Antigone, the daughter of Berenice, he soon obtained a sufficient force to attempt the recovery of his throne. He was successful in the undertaking; but, to remove all causes of quarrel, he took the usurper to share with him the royalty, and some time after he put him to death, under pretence that he had attempted to poison him. In the subsequent years of his reign Pyrrhus engaged in the quarrels which disturbed the peace of the Macedonian monarchy. He marched against Demetrius, and gave the Macedonian soldiers fresh proofs of his valour and activity. By dissimulation he ingratiated himself in the minds of his enemy's subjects; and when Demetrius laboured under a momentary ill-ground. His head was cut off and carried to Antiness, Pyrrhus made an attempt upon the crown of Macedonia, which, if not then successful, soon after rendered him master of the kingdom. This he shared with Lysimachus for seven months, till the jealousy of the Macedonians and the ambition of his colleague obliged him to retire. Pyrrhus was meditating new conquests, when the Tarentines invited him to Italy to assist them against the encroaching power of Rome. He gladly accepted the invitation, but his passage across the Adriatic proved nearly fatal, and he reached the shores of Italy after the loss of the greatest part of his troops in a storm. At his entrance into Tarentum, B.C. 280, he began to reform the manners of the inhabitants, and, by introducing the strictest discipline among their troops, to accustom them to bear fatigue and to despise dangers. In the first battle which he fought with the Romans he obtained the victory; but for this he was more particularly indebted to his elephants, whose bulk and uncommon appearance astonished the Romans, and terrified their cavalry. The number of the slain was equal on both sides, and the conqueror said that another such victory would ruin gonus, who gave his remains a magnificent fumeral, and presented his ashes to his son Helenus, 272 years before the Christian era. In person Pyrrhus was athletic and commanding, and his strength and power of bearing the severest fatigue were such as called forth the admiration of all who knew him. The turn and character of his mind corresponded with such powers of body; and he seemed to be formed for war as much by his spirit of enterprise and resolution, as by his skill in the use of arms and the power of enduring priva tions. His patience was not merely the endurance of physical evils; it was a moral quality of much bigber value, which showed that he had not naturally an atbitrary and tyrannical disposition; and it was admirably exemplified in the calmness with which he bore the reproofs of Cineas, and the pleasure he took in listening to the rough and homely truths uttered by Fabrics His admiration of the Romans arose as much from his veneration for their probity as from astonishment at their resoluteness; and though his policy sometimes partook of the tortuous character of the Greek and Asiatic courts, in action he was always magnanimous. He also sent Cineas, his chief minister, to This great quality showed itself even in his domestic Rome, and, though victorious, he sued for peace. intercourse with his friends, and checked that ardour These offers of peace were refused; and when Pyrrhus and quickness, which, without it, would have made questioned Cineas about the manners and the charac- him a tyrant as well as a conqueror. The whole of ter of the Romans, the sagacious minister replied that his history shows that he was misled by passions not their senate was a venerable assembly of kings, and sufficiently controlled, but that his understanding was that to fight against them was to attack another Hydra. powerful, quick, and acute. His rapidity, indeed, in A second battle was soon after fought near Asculum, projecting and executing, hurried him into an excess but the slaughter was so great, and the valour so con- and he seldom allowed himself time enough for delt spicuous on both sides, that the Romans and their en-eration and judgment: hence it was that he might be him. |
