POLYCRATES. Powerful tyrant of Samos. Frightened by his excessive prosperity, tried to propitiate Nemesis by throwing into the sea a ring that he prized highly; but a fisherman found it in a fish, and returned it, a sign that his offering was rejected. He was lured to Asia by Oroetes, satrap of Sardis, and by him crucified, 522 B.C. POLYDAMAS. Olympic victor, 408 B.C. Marvellous stories are told of his strength. POLYGNOTUS. Famous painter, of Thasos, 422 B.C. POLYNICES. One of the sons of Oedipus, who killed each other. POLYPHEMUS. _See_ CYCLOPES. His story is given _Dialogues of the Sea-Gods_, i. POLYXENA. Daughter of Priam and Hecuba, loved by Achilles, who after his death demanded that she should be sacrificed to his _manes_. She submitted willingly, and was slain by Neoptolemus at his father's tomb. PORCH, THE. _See_ POECILE and STOICS. PORUS. _See_ ALEXANDER (1). POSIDON. Son of Cronus, brother of Zeus and Pluto, received the sea as his province. Assisted Apollo in building the walls of Troy for Laomedon. PRAXITELES. Athenian sculptor, 364 B.C. With Scopas, headed the later Attic school, known less for sublimity than beauty. The Cnidian _Aphrodite_ was his. PRIAPUS. Son of Dionysus and Aphrodite, worshipped especially at Lampsacus. PRODICUS. Sophist of Ceos, often at Athens, where Socrates is said to have attended his lectures, about 430 B.C. Spoken of by Plato with more respect than most sophists, and famous for his apologue of _The Choice of Heracles_, between Pleasure and Virtue. PROETUS. _See_ BELLEROPHON. PROMETHEUS. Son of Iapetus, and therefore first cousin of Zeus, who nailed him up on the Caucasus, and instructed an eagle to devour his liver, which grew again each night. The provocation had been threefold: (1) Prometheus, forming clay figures, had persuaded Athene to breathe life into them, and thus created man; (2) he had stolen fire from Heaven for the use of man; (3) by dividing a slain animal into two portions, one consisting of bones wrapped up in fat, the other of the lean parts, and persuading Zeus to choose the former as his share, he had secured the more desirable portion of sacrificial animals for man. The confusion of the sexes alluded to in the _Literary Prometheus_ (7) is perhaps drawn from Plato's account in the _Symposium_ of the creation of double beings, who possessed the characteristics of both sexes, and referred by Lucian to Prometheus on his own responsibility; though in Phaedrus (Fables, iv. 14) Prometheus is charged with a confusion of the sexes in a different sense. PROTESILAUS. A Thessalian, son of Iphiclus, and the first Greek slain by the Trojans. Permitted to return to life for a few hours to see his wife Laodamia. PROTEUS. The prophetic old man of the sea, from whom it was only possible to obtain information by seizing him; this was difficult, as he changed into many different shapes. Peregrine (whom see) took the name of Proteus.