Aristomĕnês was told by the Delphic oracle to “flee for his life when he saw a goat drink from the river Neda.” Consequently, all _goats_ were driven from the banks of this river; but one day, Theŏclos observed that the branches of a fig tree bent into the stream, and it immediately flashed into his mind that the Messenian word for _fig tree_ and _goat_ was the same. The pun or equivoke will be better understood by an English reader if for _goat_ we read _ewe_, and bear in mind that _yew_ is to the ear the same word; thus: When an _ewe_ [_yew_] stops to drink of the “Severn,” then fly, And look not behind, for destruction is nigh. =Prophetess= (_The_), Ayē´shah, the second and beloved wife of Mahomet. It does not mean that she prophesied, but, like _Sultana_, it is simply a title of honor. He was the _Prophet_, she the _Prophēta_ or Madam Prophet. =Prose= (_Father of English_), Wycliffe (1324-1384). _Prose_ (_Father of Greek_), Herodotus (B.C. 484-408). _Prose_ (_Father of Italian_), Boccaccio (1313-1375). =Pros´erpine= (3 _syl._), called _Proserpĭna_ in Latin, and “Proser´pin” by Milton, was daughter of Ce´rês. She went to the field of Enna to amuse herself by gathering asphodels, and being tired, fell asleep. Dis, the god of Hell, then carried her off, and made her queen of the infernal reions.[TN-107] Cerês wandered for nine days over the world disconsolate, looking for her daughter, when Hec´ate (2 _syl._) told her she had heard the girl’s cries, but knew not who had carried her off. Both now went to Olympus, when the sun-god told them the true state of the case. N.B.--This is an allegory of seed-corn. Not that fair field Of Enna, where Proser´pin, gathering flowers, Herself a fairer flower, by gloomy Dis Was gathered--which cost Cerês all that pain To seek her thro’ the world. Milton, _Paradise Lost_, iv. 268 (1665). =Prosperity Robinson=, Frederick Robinson, afterwards Viscount Goderich and earl of Ripon, chancellor of the exchequer in 1823. So called by Cobbett, from his boasting about the prosperity of the country just a little before the great commercial crisis of 1825. =Pros´pero=, the banished duke of Milan, and father of Miranda. He was deposed by his brother, Antonio, who sent him to sea with Miranda in a “rotten carcass of a boat,” which was borne to a desert island. Here Prospero practised magic. He liberated Ariel from the rift of a pine tree, where the witch Syc´orax had confined him for twelve years, and was served by that bright spirit with true gratitude. The only other inhabitant of the island was Calĭban, the witch’s “welp.” After a residence in the island of sixteen years, Prospero raised a tempest by magic to cause the shipwreck of the usurping duke and of Ferdinand, his brother’s son. Ferdinand fell in love with his cousin, Miranda, and eventually married her.--Shakespeare, _The Tempest_ (1609).