PITYOCAMPTES. 'Pine-bender,' descriptive surname of the robber Sinis, who killed travellers by fastening them to the top of a pine bent down and then allowed to spring up. He was killed by Theseus in the same way. PLATAEA. A town in Boeotia, near which the final battle of the Graeco-Persian war was fought, 478 B.C. The Persians were defeated. PLATO. An Athenian philosopher (428-347 B.C.), and pupil of Socrates, whom in his dialogues he often makes the mouthpiece of his own doctrines. He studied in Africa, Egypt, Italy, and Sicily, and returned to Athens in 386 B.C. to lecture in the gymnasium of the Academy. He paid three visits to the Syracusan court of Dionysius I and II. The Platonic theory of Ideas is an attempt to secure accuracy of definition (which is the first step towards knowledge), by contemplation of those abstract types or Ideas of things, of which external objects are in every case only an imperfect manifestation, and which are perceptible to us by reason of our familiarity with them in a previous existence; for the soul is immortal, and what we call the acquisition of knowledge is in fact only recollection. In his _Republic_ we have a sketch of a model state, in which philosophers are to be kings, and community of women is recommended as a means of securing scientific breeding. PLUTO. 'Rich' in dead, according to Lucian's derivation; also called Hades. Drew lots with his brothers Zeus and Posidon, and received the Lower World for his share. His wife was Persephone. PLUTUS. Son of Iasion and Demeter, and God of wealth. Blinded by Zeus. PNYX. The place where the Athenian Assembly was held. It was cut out of the side of a small hill west of the Acropolis. PODALIRIUS. Son of Asclepius, and brother of Machaon, with whom he led the Thessalians of Tricca against Troy. Both brothers inherited their father's medical skill. POECILE. The 'Painted' Porch in the Athenian market-place, adorned with paintings of Polygnotus. Here Zeno, the founder of the Stoic philosophy, opened his school, which was accordingly often spoken of as 'The Porch.' POENAE. 'Punishments.' Infernal spirits, akin to the Erinyes. POLEMON. Athenian philosopher, head of the Academy, 315 B.C. Had been dissolute in youth, but was converted, as related in _The Double Indictment_, by Xenocrates. POLIAS. _See_ ATHENE. POLLUX (1). _See_ CASTOR. POLLUX (2). _See_ HERODES. POLUS (1). A rhetorician of Agrigentum, pupil of Gorgias, with whom he is introduced by Plato in the _Gorgias_. POLUS (2). A celebrated tragic actor. POLYCLITUS. 452-412 B.C. A Sicyonian sculptor, reckoned the equal of Phidias. His 'canon' was a bronze statue in which he exemplified the principles that he had laid down in a book to which he gave the same name. The _Diadumenus_, or youth tying on a fillet, was one of his most famous works.