=Pe´lias.= Son of Neptune and Tyro. On his birth he was exposed in the woods, but his life was preserved by some shepherds. Subsequently Tyro was married to Cretheus, king of Iolchos. They had three children, of whom Æson was the eldest. Pelias visited his mother after the death of Cretheus, and usurped the authority which properly belonged to the children of the deceased monarch. Jason, the son of Æson, who had been educated by Chiron, on attaining manhood demanded the kingdom, the government of which Pelias had usurped. Jason was persuaded by Pelias to waive his claim for the present, and start on the Argonautic expedition. On his return, accompanied by the sorceress Medea, she undertook to restore Pelias to youth, explaining that it was necessary first to cut his body to pieces and place the limbs in a caldron of boiling water. This was done, when Medea refused to fulfill her promise, which she had solemnly made to the daughters of Pelias, who were four in number, and who had received the patronymic of the "Peliades." =Pe´lion=, sometimes called Pelios. A celebrated mountain of Thessaly, the top of which is covered with pine-trees. =Pelop´idas.= A celebrated general of Thebes, son of Hippoclus. It was owing to his valor and prudence, combined with the ability of Epaminondas, that the famous victory of Leuctra was won. =Pe´lops.= A celebrated prince, son of Tantalus, king of Phrygia. He was killed by his father, and served up as a feast to the gods, who had visited Phrygia. He was restored to life, and married Hippodamia, having won her through defeating her father in a chariot race. =Pena´tes.= Certain inferior deities among the Romans, who presided over the domestic affairs of families. =Penel´ope.= A celebrated princess of Greece, daughter of Icarius, and wife of Ulysses, king of Ithaca. She became the mother of Telemachus, and was obliged to part, with great reluctance, from her husband, when the Greeks obliged him to go to the Trojan war. The strife between the hostile forces continued for ten years, and when Ulysses did not return home at the conclusion of the war her fears and anxieties became overwhelming. She was beset by a number of suitors, who told her that her husband would never return, and she ought to give herself to one of her admirers. She received their advances with coldness, but as she was devoid of power, and, as it were, almost a prisoner in their hands, she temporized with them. After twenty years' absence Ulysses returned, and at once delivered her from the persecutions of her suitors. Penelope is described by Homer as a model of female propriety, whilst some more modern writers dispute the correctness of this view. The accounts given by different authors respecting her, in fact, differ materially. By some she is said to have been the mother of Pan. =Penthesile´a.= A queen of the Amazons, daughter of Mars. She came to assist Priam in the last years of the Trojan war, and was slain by Achilles.