PALAMEDES. A Greek hero in the Trojan War. _See under_ ODYSSEUS. Said to have added certain letters to the Greek alphabet. PAN. A rustic God, son of Hermes and Penelope. Invented the Pan's pipe, and attended upon Dionysus. Represented with horns and goat's legs. PANATHENAEA. Two festivals of this name were celebrated at Athens with games, sacrifices, &c.; the Lesser annually, the Greater every fourth year. PANCRATIUM. A contest in the public games, in which both boxing and wrestling were employed. PANGAEUS. A range of mountains in Macedonia, famous for gold and silver mines. PANTHEA (1). Wife of Abradatas, king of Susa. Her spirit and loyalty are commended by Xenophon. PANTHEA (2). Presumably the mistress of the Emperor Lucius Verus. PARIS. Son of Priam king of Troy. PARMENIO. An able lieutenant of Alexander. PARTHENIUS. A Greek elegiac poet, about 30 B.C. PARTHIANS. The successors in Asia of the Persian monarchy. The war between their king Vologesus III and Rome, 162-165 A.D., was conducted on the Roman side by the Emperor Lucius Verus. He brought it to a successful conclusion, more by the merits of his lieutenants, Cassius and Statius Priscus, than his own. PARTHONICE. 'Conquest of the Parthians,' quoted as an affected poetical-sounding title. PATROCLUS. Friend and follower of Achilles, who, when he sulked himself, lent him his armour, in which Patroclus won great renown; but Apollo struck him senseless, Euphorbus ran him through, and Hector gave him the last fatal blow. PEGASUS. _See_ BELLEROPHON. PELASGICUM. A space under the Acropolis at Athens, unoccupied till the Spartan invasions in the Peloponnesian war brought the country Attics into the town. PELEUS. Father of Achilles. PELIAS. King of Iolcus, usurper of his nephew Jason's rights. When Medea restored Jason's father Aeson to youth by cutting him to pieces and boiling him, she persuaded the daughters of Pelias to try the same system with their father, which resulted in his death. PELOPIDS. The descendants of Pelops, many of them, as Atreus and Thyestes, Agamemnon and Menelaus, Orestes, Electra and Iphigenia, famous in tragic story. PENELOPE. Wife of Odysseus. PENTHEUS. King of Thebes, resisted the introduction of Dionysus's rites; the God caused his Bacchantes, among them Pentheus's mother Agave, to tear him to pieces in their frenzy. PERDICCAS. One of Alexander's generals, who, on the strength of the dying king's having handed him his ring, claimed the succession, but was defeated by the combination of Ptolemy, Antipater, and other generals, and finally assassinated. PEREGRINE. Nothing can be added to Lucian's description of him in the _Death of Peregrine_, but that he is a historical character. PERIANDER. Son of Cypselus, and tyrant of Corinth. A patron of literature, and one of the Seven Sages.