Palladium , statue
of the goddess Athena holding a shield and a spear. It was believed to
have been hurled from Olympus by the god Zeus at the founding of Troy.
The safety of a city was believed to depend on the careful preservation
of the image in the sanctuary of the goddess. In the tenth year of the
Trojan War the Greek heroes Diomedes and Odysseus stole the Palladium,
thus facilitating the fall of Troy. The Romans, tracing their ancestry
from the Trojans, believed that the Palladium, which was kept at Rome in
the temple of Vesta, goddess of the hearth, was the Trojan original, brought
to Italy by the hero Aeneas after the sack of Troy.
Pan, god of woods, fields,
and fertility, the son of Hermes, messenger of the gods, and a nymph. Part
animal, with the horns, hoofs, and ears of a goat, he was a rollicking
deity, the god of the shepherds and the goatherds. A wonderful musician,
he accompanied, with his pipe of reeds, the woodland nymphs when they danced.
He invented this pipe when the nymph Syrinx, whom he was pursuing, was
transformed into a bed of reeds to escape him; Pan then took reeds of unequal
length and played on them. The god was always wooing one of the nymphs
by playing on his pipes, but was always rejected because of his ugliness.
Pan's haunts were the mountains and caves and all wild places, but his
favorite spot was Arcadia, where he was born. The word panic is supposed
to have been derived from the fears of travelers who heard the sound of
his pipes at night in the wilderness.
Pandarus, Lycian who
fought as an ally of the Trojans in the Trojan War. A famous archer, he
broke the truce between the Greeks and the Trojans by wounding Menelaus,
king of Sparta. Pandarus was later slain by the Greek hero Diomedes.
Pandora, first woman
on earth, created by the god Hephaestus at the request of the god Zeus.
Zeus wished to counteract the blessing of fire, which had been stolen from
the gods by the Titan Prometheus and given to human beings. Endowed by
the gods with every attribute of beauty and goodness, Pandora was sent
to Epimetheus, who was happy to have her for his wife, although he had
been warned by his brother Prometheus never to accept anything from Zeus.
In bestowing their gifts on Pandora, the gods had given her a box, warning
her never to open it. Her curiosity finally overcame her, however, and
she opened the mysterious box, from which flew innumerable plagues for
the body and sorrows for the mind. In terror, she tried to shut the box,
but only Hope, the one good thing among many evils the box had contained,
remained to comfort humanity in its misfortunes. In another legend, the
box contained blessings that would have been preserved if Pandora had not
allowed them to escape.
Paris , also called Alexander,
son of Priam and Hecuba, king and queen of Troy. A prophecy had warned
that Paris would someday be the ruin of Troy and, therefore, Priam exposed
him on Mount Ida, where he was found and brought up by shepherds. He was
tending his sheep when an argument arose among the goddesses Hera, Athena,
and Aphrodite as to who was the most beautiful. The three goddesses asked
him to be the judge. Each tried to bribe him, Hera promising to make him
ruler of Europe and Asia, Athena to help him lead Troy to victory against
the Greeks, and Aphrodite to give him the most beautiful woman in the world,
Helen, the wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta. Paris favored Aphrodite, even
though at the time he was in love with the nymph Oenone. His decision made
Hera and Athena bitter enemies of his country. This and the abduction of
Helen, in Menelaus's absence, brought about the Trojan War. In the tenth
year of the siege of Troy that followed, Paris and Menelaus met in hand-to-hand
combat. Menelaus would easily have been the victor except for Aphrodite,
who enveloped Paris in a cloud, and carried him back to Troy. Before the
fall of the city, Paris was mortally wounded by the archer Philoctetes.
Paris then went to Oenone, who had a magic drug that could cure him. She
refused him, but when he died, Oenone killed herself out of misery.
Patroclus, dearest
friend of the hero Achilles whom he accompanied to the Trojan War. In the
tenth year of the conflict Achilles withdrew his troops, the Myrmidons,
from combat because of a quarrel with Agamemnon, commander of the Greek
forces. Without Achilles, the Greeks began to lose to the Trojans. Finally,
as the Trojans began to burn the Greek ships, Patroclus persuaded Achilles
to allow him to lead the Myrmidons to the rescue. Clad in Achilles' armor,
Patroclus led the Greeks to victory, forcing the Trojans back to the walls
of their city. In his moment of glory, however, Patroclus was slain by
the Trojan commander, Hector. To avenge his friend's death, Achilles rejoined
the battle and killed Hector.
Pegasus , winged horse,
son of Poseidon, god of the sea, and the Gorgon Medusa. Pegasus sprang
from Medusa's neck when she was killed by the hero Perseus. Shortly after
its birth, the magic steed struck the ground on Mount Helicon, and on the
spot a spring, later sacred to the Muses and believed to be a source for
poetic inspiration, began to flow. All longed in vain to catch and tame
the creature, and this became the obsession of Bellerophon, prince of Corinth.
On the advice of a seer, Bellerophon spent a night in the temple of the
goddess Athena. As he slept, the goddess appeared to him with a golden
bridle and told him that it would enable him to capture Pegasus. When Bellerophon
awoke, he found the golden bridle beside him, and with it he easily captured
and tamed the winged horse. Pegasus thereafter proved to be a great help
to Bellerophon and aided the hero in his adventures against the Amazons
and the Chimaera. Bellerophon was overcome by his own pride, however. When
he attempted to fly to the top of Olympus to join the gods, the wise horse
threw him, leaving Bellerophon to wander disconsolately about, hated by
the gods. Pegasus found shelter in the Olympian stalls and was entrusted
by Zeus with bringing him his lightning and thunderbolts.
Peleus, king of the Myrmidons
in Thessalía, the son of Aeacus, king of Aíyina. He took
part in the hunt for the Calydonian boar and the journey of the Argonauts
in search of the Golden Fleece, but he is especially famed for his marriage
to Thetis, one of the Nereids, who was destined to bear a son mightier
than his father. Although Zeus, father of the gods, loved Thetis, he wished
her married to a mortal because of this prophecy. Aided by the gods, Peleus
lay in wait for Thetis by the shore, and in spite of her transformations
into fire, water, and wild beasts, he held her fast until she returned
to her original form. The marriage was attended by all the gods, with the
exception of Eris, goddess of discord and strife, who, enraged at being
excluded, threw into the gathering a golden apple inscribed "To the Most
Beautiful." The award of the apple to Aphrodite, goddess of love, by the
Trojan prince Paris led to the Trojan War. By Thetis, Peleus was the father
of the Greek hero and warrior Achilles. Eventually Peleus and Thetis went
to dwell among the Nereids. Peleus outlived both his son and his grandson
Neoptolemus.
Pelias, son of Poseidon.
Pelias usurped the throne of Iolcus from his uncle Aeson and sent Aeson's
son Jason, the rightful heir, to carry off the Golden Fleece from Colchis,
hoping that he would never return. With the aid of the sorceress Medea,
however, Jason succeeded. Returning with Medea and the fleece, Jason found
that Pelias had forced Jason's father to kill himself. In revenge Medea
tricked Pelias's daughters into cutting him up and boiling him in the hope
of magically restoring his youth.
Pelops, son of Tantalus.
When he was a child, his father killed him and served his boiled flesh
to the gods at a banquet. The gods realized the nature of the meal, punished
Tantalus, and restored Pelops to life. The goddess Demeter, distracted
by the loss of her daughter Persephone, had eaten the flesh of the left
shoulder. When the body was put together again, the shoulder was replaced
with one of ivory. Pelops later won the hand of Princess Hippodamia by
winning a chariot race from her father, King Oenomaus of Pisa. Unknown
to Pelops, the princess had bribed the charioteer Myrtilus to remove the
linchpins from Oenomaus's chariot. Later Pelops quarreled with Myrtilus
and hurled him into the sea. Before he drowned, the charioteer cursed Pelops,
but the curse had no effect on Pelops but did on his children (see Atreus,
House of). The Pelopónnisos Peninsula of southern Greece is named
in his honor.
Penelope, daughter of
Icarus, king of Sparta, wife of Odysseus, king of Ithaca, and mother of
Telemachus. Although her husband was gone for more than 20 years during
and after the Trojan War, Penelope never doubted that he would return,
and she remained faithful to him. She was wooed by many suitors who devoured
and wasted Odysseus's property. Unwilling to choose a new husband, Penelope
kept their advances in check under the pretext of completing a shroud that
she was weaving for Laertes, her father-in-law. Each night she unraveled
the work she completed during the day, and by this means avoided having
to choose a husband. Finally betrayed by a maid, Penelope was compelled
to finish the work. The suitors were preparing to force a decision when
Odysseus returned in disguise, killed them, and revealed his identity to
his faithful wife.
Persephone, daughter
of Zeus, father of the gods, and of Demeter, goddess of the earth and of
agriculture. Hades, god of the underworld, fell in love with Persephone
and wished to marry her. Although Zeus gave his consent, Demeter was unwilling.
Hades, therefore, seized the maiden as she was gathering flowers and carried
her off to his realm. As Demeter wandered in search of her lost daughter,
the earth grew desolate. All vegetation died, and famine devastated the
land. Finally Zeus sent Hermes, the messenger of the gods, to bring Persephone
back to her mother. Before Hades would let her go, he asked her to eat
a pomegranate seed, the food of the dead. She was thus compelled to return
to the underworld for one-third of the year. As both the goddess of the
dead and the goddess of the fertility of the earth, Persephone was a personification
of the revival of nature in spring. The Eleusinian Mysteries were held
in honor of her and her mother. Proserpine was the Latin counterpart of
Persephone.
Perseus , slayer of the
Gorgon Medusa; he was the son of Zeus, father of the gods, and of Danaë,
daughter of Acrisius, king of Argos. Warned that he would be killed by
his grandson, Acrisius locked mother and child in a chest and cast them
into the sea. They drifted to the island of Seriphus, where they were rescued
and where Perseus grew to manhood. Polydectes, king of Seriphus, fell in
love with Danaë, and, fearing that Perseus might interfere with his
plans, sent him to procure the head of Medusa, a monster whose glance turned
men to stone. Aided by Hermes, messenger of the gods, Perseus made his
way to the Gray Women, three old hags who shared one eye between them.
Perseus took their eye and refused to return it until they gave him directions
for reaching the nymphs of the north. From the nymphs he received winged
sandals, a magic wallet that would fit whatever was put into it, and a
cap to make him invisible. Equipped with a sword from Hermes that could
never be bent or broken and a shield from the goddess Athena, which would
protect him from being turned to stone, Perseus found Medusa and killed
her. Invisible in his cap, he was able to escape the wrath of her sisters
and with her head in the wallet flew on his winged sandals toward home.
As he was passing Ethiopia, he rescued the princess Andromeda as she was
about to be sacrificed to a sea monster and took her with him as his wife.
At Seriphus he freed his mother from Polydectes by using Medusa's head
to turn the king and his followers to stone. All then returned to Greece,
where Perseus accidentally killed his grandfather Acrisius with a discus,
thus fulfilling the prophecy. According to one legend, Perseus went to
Asia, where his son Perses ruled over the Persians, from whom they were
said to have gotten their name.
Phaëthon, son of
Helios, god of the sun, and of the nymph Clymene. Helios had rashly promised
to grant his son anything he wished, and Phaëthon chose to drive the
chariot of the sun across the sky. Vainly Helios tried to explain to him
that no mortal could drive the chariot; Phaëthon, however, insisted
that his father keep his promise. Helios, after explaining the dreadful
hazards, reluctantly yielded. Soon Phaëthon realized that his father
had been right. Terrified, he lost control of the horses, and driving too
near the earth set it on fire. To save the world from utter destruction,
the god Zeus hurled his thunderbolt at the rash young driver, killing him
instantly. Phaëthon fell to earth and according to legend was buried
on the banks of the Eridanus River (now Po River).
Philoctetes, famous
archer, the friend of the hero Hercules, who bequeathed to him his bow
and poisoned arrows. On the way to the Trojan War, Philoctetes was bitten
in the foot by a snake, and because the wound failed to heal, he was left
behind on the island of Lemnos. In the final year of the war, when an oracle
declared that the Greeks could not capture Troy without the arrows of Hercules,
the hero Odysseus, accompanied by the warrior Diomedes or by Neoptolemus,
the son of Achilles, went to Lemnos and persuaded Philoctetes to come to
Troy. After being treated for his wound by a Greek physician, Philoctetes
joined the battle and killed the Trojan prince Paris. Returning to his
home in northern Greece after the war, Philoctetes found that a revolt
had broken out against him, whereupon he again set sail and settled in
Italy.
Pleiades , seven daughters
of Atlas and of Pleione, the daughter of Oceanus. Their names were Electra,
Maia, Taygete, Alcyone, Celaeno, Sterope, and Merope. According to some
versions of the myth, they committed suicide from grief at the fate of
their father, Atlas, or at the death of their sisters, the Hyades. Other
versions made them the attendants of Artemis, goddess of wildlife and of
hunting, who were pursued by the giant hunter Orion, but were rescued by
the gods and changed into doves. After their death, or metamorphosis, they
were transformed into stars, but are still pursued across the sky by the
constellation Orion.
Polyphemus, a Cyclops,
the son of Poseidon, god of the sea, and of the nymph Thoösa. During
his wanderings after the Trojan War, the Greek hero Odysseus and his men
were cast ashore on Polyphemus's island home, Sicily. The enormous giant
penned the Greeks in his cave and began to devour them. Odysseus then gave
Polyphemus some strong wine and when the giant had fallen into a drunken
stupor, bored out his one eye with a burning stake. The Greeks then escaped
by clinging to the bellies of his sheep. Poseidon punished Odysseus for
blinding Polyphemus by causing him many troubles in his subsequent wanderings
by sea. In another legend, Polyphemus was depicted as a huge, one-eyed
shepherd, unhappily in love with the sea nymph Galatea.
Poseidon, god of the
sea, the son of the Titans Cronus and Rhea, and the brother of Zeus and
Hades. Poseidon was the husband of Amphitrite, one of the Nereids, by whom
he had a son, Triton. Poseidon had numerous other love affairs, however,
especially with nymphs of springs and fountains, and was the father of
several children famed for their wildness and cruelty, among them the giant
Orion and the Cyclops Polyphemus. Poseidon and the Gorgon Medusa were the
parents of Pegasus, the famous winged horse. Poseidon plays a prominent
part in numerous ancient myths and legends. He contended unsuccessfully
with Athena, goddess of wisdom, for the control of Athens. When he and
Apollo, god of the sun, were cheated of their promised wages after having
helped Laomedon, king of Troy, build the walls of that city, Poseidon's
revenge against Troy knew no bounds. He sent a terrible sea monster to
ravage the land, and during the Trojan War he helped the Greeks. In art,
Poseidon is represented as a bearded and majestic figure, holding a trident
and often accompanied by a dolphin. Every two years the Isthmian Games,
featuring horse and chariot racers, were held in his honor at Corinth.
The Romans identified Poseidon with their god of the sea, Neptune.
Priam, king of Troy. He was the
father of 50 sons, notably the great warrior Hector, and 50 daughters,
including the prophet Cassandra. As a young man Priam fought with the Phrygians
against the Amazons, but by the time of the Trojan War he was too old to
fight. The conflict had begun when the Greeks set out to recapture Helen
of Troy, who had been abducted by Priam's son Paris. During the ten years
of fighting, Priam anxiously watched the course of battle from the walls
of Troy with his wife, Queen Hecuba. After his son Hector was slain by
the Greek hero Achilles, Priam went to the Greek camp to beg for his body.
Achilles spared Priam's life and gave him Hector's body for burial, but
during the sack of Troy, Priam was killed by Achilles' son Neoptolemus.
Priapus, god of fertility,
protector of gardens and herds. He was the son of Aphrodite, goddess of
love, and of Dionysus, god of wine, or, according to some accounts, of
Hermes, messenger of the gods. He was usually represented as a grotesque
individual with a huge phallus. The Romans set up crude images of Priapus
in their gardens as scarecrows.
Procrustes, a robber
who lived near Eleusis in Attica. Originally named Damastes or Polypemon,
he acquired the name Procrustes ("The Stretcher") because he tortured his
victims by cutting them down to fit his bed if they were too tall, or hammering
and stretching them if they were too short. He was captured by the Greek
hero Theseus, who inflicted upon Procrustes the same kind of torture that
he had imposed upon his victims.
Prometheus, one of
the Titans, known as the friend and benefactor of humanity, the son of
the Titan Iapetus by the sea nymph Clymene or the Titaness Themis. Prometheus
and his brother Epimetheus were given the task of creating humanity and
providing humans and all the animals on earth with the endowments they
would need to survive. Epimetheus (whose name means afterthought) accordingly
proceeded to bestow on the various animals gifts of courage, strength,
swiftness, and feathers, fur, and other protective coverings. When it came
time to create a being who was to be superior to all other living creatures,
Epimetheus found he had been so reckless with his resources that he had
nothing left to bestow. He was forced to ask his brother's help, and Prometheus
(whose name means forethought) took over the task of creation. To make
humans superior to the animals, he fashioned them in nobler form and enabled
them to walk upright. He then went up to heaven and lit a torch with fire
from the sun. The gift of fire that Prometheus bestowed upon humanity was
more valuable than any of the gifts the animals had received. Because of
his actions Prometheus incurred the wrath of the god Zeus. Not only did
he steal the fire he gave to humans, but he also tricked the gods so that
they should get the worst parts of any animal sacrificed to them, and human
beings the best. In one pile, Prometheus arranged the edible parts of an
ox in a hide and disguised them with a covering of entrails. In the other,
he placed the bones, which he covered with fat. Zeus, asked to choose between
the two, took the fat and was very angry when he discovered that it covered
a pile of bones. Thereafter, only fat and bones were sacrificed to the
gods; the good meat was kept for mortals. For Prometheus's transgressions,
Zeus had him chained to a rock in the Caucasus, where he was constantly
preyed upon by an eagle. Finally he was freed by the hero Hercules, who
slew the eagle.
Protesilaus, king
of Phylace in Thessaly, who was killed in the Trojan War. An oracle had
proclaimed that the first Greek to touch the Trojan soil would be the first
to die. Aware of it, Protesilaus bravely leaped ashore and was slain. His
wife, Laodamia, grieved so that the gods permitted him to visit her for
three hours.
Proteus, son of Poseidon,
god of the sea, or his attendant and the keeper of his seals. Proteus knew
all things past, present, and future but was able to change his shape at
will to avoid the necessity of prophesying. Each day at noon Proteus would
rise from the sea and sleep in the shade of the rocks on the island of
Pharos in Egypt with his seals lying around him. Persons wishing to learn
the future had to catch hold of him at that time and hold on as he assumed
dreadful shapes, including those of wild animals and terrible monsters.
If all his ruses proved unavailing, Proteus resumed his usual form and
told the truth. Among those who fought with Proteus to learn the truth
was Menelaus, king of Sparta.
Psyche, in Roman mythology,
beautiful princess loved by Cupid, god of love. Jealous of Psyche's beauty,
Venus, goddess of love, ordered her son, Cupid, to make Psyche fall in
love with the ugliest man in the world. Fortunately for Psyche, Cupid instead
fell in love with her and carried her off to a secluded palace where he
visited her only by night, unseen and unrecognized by her. Although Cupid
had forbidden her ever to look upon his face, one night Psyche lit a lamp
and looked upon him while he slept. Because she had disobeyed him, Cupid
abandoned her, and Psyche was left to wander desolately throughout the
world in search of him. Finally, after many trials she was reunited with
Cupid and was made immortal by Jupiter, king of the gods.
Python , great serpent,
the son of Gaea, Mother Earth, produced from the slime left on the earth
after the great flood. The monster lived in a cave near Delphi on Mount
Parnassus and guarded the oracle there. The god Apollo slew the Python,
claimed the oracle for himself, and was thereafter known as Pythian Apollo.
The god was said to have established the Pythian Games to commemorate his
victory.
