which title the priests had their name. In Babylonia, and Chaldea, they were called Urchani. As in these temples there was always a [733]light, and a fire burning on the hearth, some of the Grecians have varied in their etymology, and have derived the name from πυρ, Pur. Suidas supposes it to have been originally called Πυρος ταμειον. [734]Πρυτανειον, πυρος ταμειον, ενθα ην ασβεστον πυρ. The Scholiast upon Thucydides speaks to the same purpose. [735]Αλλοι δε φασιν, ὁτι το Πρυτανειον πυρος ην ταμειον, ενθα ην ασβεστον πυρ. _Others tell us, that the Prutaneion was of old called Puros Tameion, from πυρ, pur: because it was the repository of a perpetual fire_. It was sacred to Hestia, the Vesta of the Romans; which was only another title for Damater: and the sacred hearth had the same name. [736]Ἑστιαν δ' αν κυριωτατα καλοιης την εν Πρυτανειῳ, εφ' ἡς το πυρ το ασβεστον αναπτεται. I have mentioned, that these places were temples, and at the same time courts of justice: hence we find, that in the Prutaneion at Athens, the laws of Solon were [737]engraved. These laws were described upon wooden cylinders: some of which remained to the time of [738]Plutarch. Many of these temples were dedicated to the Deity under the name of Persephone, or Proserpine, the supposed daughter of Ceres. They were in reality the same personage. Persephone was styled Κορα, Cora; which the Greeks misinterpreted Παρθενος, the virgin, or damsel. How could a person, who according to the received accounts had been ravished by Pluto, and been his consort for ages; who was the reputed queen of hell, be styled by way of eminence Παρθενος? Κορα, Cora, which they understood was the same as Cura, a feminine title of the sun: by which Ceres also was called at Cnidos. However mild and gentle Proserpine may have been represented in her virgin state by the Poets; yet her tribunal seems in many places to have been very formidable. In consequence of this we find her with Minos, and Rhadamanthus, condemned to the shades below, as an infernal inquisitor. Nonnus says, [739]Περσεφονη θωρηξεν Εριννυας. _Proserpine armed the furies_. The notion of which Furies arose from the cruelties practised in these Prutaneia. They were called by the Latines, Furiæ; and were originally only priests of fire: but were at last ranked among the hellish tormentors. Ceres the benefactress, and lawgiver, was sometimes enrolled in the list of these dæmons. This is manifest from a passage in Antimachus, quoted by Pausanias, where her temple is spoken of as the shrine of a Fury. [740]Δημητρος, τοθι φασιν Εριννυος ειναι εδεθλον.