Part 214

=Numitor= (_nū´mi-tor_).--A king of Alba, grandfather of Romulus and Remus.

=Nymphæ= (_nim´fē_), or =Nymphs=.--Lesser female divinities supposed by the Greeks to dwell in the sea, springs, rivers, grottoes, trees and mountains. They had distinctive names, according to their habitat, as follows:

(i) The sea-nymphs, which were divided into two classes--the Oceanides (_ō-se-an´id-ēz_), or Nymphs of the Ocean, who were daughters of Oceanus (_ō-sē´an-us_); and the Nereides (_nē´re-id-ēz_ or _nē-rē´id-ēz_), or Nereids (_nē´re-ids_), the nymphs of the Mediterranean, who were the daughters of Nereus.

(ii) The nymphs of fresh-water (rivers, lakes, brooks or springs); called Naiades (_nā´i-a-dēz_), or Naiads (_nā´yads_).

(iii) Oreades (_o-rē´ad-ēz_), the nymphs of mountains and grottoes.

(iv) Napææ (_na-pē´ē_), the nymphs of glens.

(v) Dryades (_drī´ad-ēz_), or Dryads, and Hamadryades (_ham-a-dri´ad-ēz_), the nymphs of trees; these nymphs died with the trees that had been their abode, and with which they had come into existence.

=Nysa= (_nī´sa_).--A city in India, where Bacchus was brought up.

=O=

=Oceanus= (_ō-sē´an-us_).--Son of Heaven and Earth, the god of the water that was supposed to surround the whole earth, the husband of Tethys, and the father of all the river-gods and water-nymphs of the whole earth. The ancient Greeks imagined the earth to be flat and circular, and to be surrounded by a river, which flowed perpetually around it, and which they called Oceanus. It was the great Outward Sea, opposed to the Inward or Mediterranean.

=Odhærir.=--In Scandinavian mythology the mead or nectar made of Kvasir´s blood, kept in three jars. The second of these jars is called “Sohn,” and the third “Bohn.” Probably the nectar is the “spirit of poetry.”

=Odin.=--The king of gods and men, and the reputed progenitor of the Scandinavian kings. He corresponds both to the Jupiter and the Mars of classical mythology. As god of war, he holds his court in Valhalla, surrounded by all warriors who have fallen in battle, and attended by two wolves, to whom he gives his share of food; for he himself lives on wine alone. On his shoulders he carries two ravens, Hugin (mind) and Munin (memory), whom he dispatches every day to bring him news of all that is doing throughout the world. He has three great treasures, namely, Sleipnir, an eight-footed horse of marvelous swiftness; Gungnir, a spear, which never fails to strike what it is aimed at; and Draupnir, a magic ring, which every ninth night drops eight other rings of equal value. The German tribes worshiped Odin under the name of “Woden.” The fourth day of the week, Wednesday, was sacred to him.

=Odur.=--In Scandinavian mythology, husband of Freyja, whom he deserted. He abandoned his wife on her loss of youth and beauty, and was punished.

=Odysseus= (_od-is´sūs_).--The Greek form of Ulysses, king of Ithaca, whose return from Troy to Ithaca forms the subject of the Odyssey. See “Ulysses.”

=Œneus= (_ē´nūs_).--King of Pleuron and Calydon, in Ætolia, husband of Althæa, and father of Meleager, Deianira, and other children. During his reign the boar that laid waste the lands of Calydon gave rise to the celebrated Calydonian boar hunt.

=Œnone= (_ē-nō´nē_).--Wife of Paris of Troy, before he carried off Helen.

=Oileus= (_o-ī´lūs_).--King of the Locrians, father of the lesser Ajax, and one of the Argonauts.

=Olympia= (_o-lim´pi-a_).--A plain in Elis, where the Olympian games were held. In the plain was the sacred grove of Jupiter, which contained the masterpiece of Greek art--the colossal statue of Jupiter by Phidias. The Olympic games were held every four years, this interval being called an Olympiad.

=Olympus= (_o-lim´pus_).--A mountain range on the boundary of Macedonia and Thessaly, of great height, and consequently regarded as the abode of the gods. Once the giants tried to reach heaven, and to do so piled Mount Pelion on Mount Ossa (both being high mountains in the neighborhood of Olympus); but Jupiter used his thunderbolts against them, and, with the assistance of Hercules, destroyed them all, and buried them under Mount Ætna.

=Omphale= (_om´fa-lē_).--A queen of Lydia, whom Hercules served as a slave a short time. She put on his lion´s skin, and carried his club, whilst he donned woman´s attire and spun wool.

=Ops.=--Wife of Saturn, the goddess of plenty and fertility, and especially the patroness of husbandry.

=Oreades.=--See “Nymphæ.”

=Orestes= (_o-res´tēz_).--Son of Agamemnon and Clytæmnestra, who, on the murder of Agamemnon, after his return from Troy, by Clytæmnestra and her paramour Ægisthus, was saved from the same fate by his sister Electra. He went to Strophius, king of Phocis, who was the husband of his aunt Anaxibia. Here he formed a memorable friendship with Pylades (_pī´la-dēz_), the king’s son. Later he avenged his father’s death by slaying his mother and Ægisthus; but was, in consequence, seized with madness and wandered from place to place. Apollo told him he could recover from his madness only by bringing the statue of Diana from the Tauric Chersonesus. Accordingly he set out, in company with his friend Pylades; but on their arrival they would have been sacrificed by the Tauri (_q.v._) to Diana had not Orestes’ sister Iphigenia, who was the priestess of Diana, recognized him and intervened in time to save their lives. All three then escaped with the statue of the goddess. After this Orestes became king of Mycenæ, his father’s kingdom, and married the beautiful Hermione, daughter of Menelaus and Helen (of Troy), after slaying Neoptolemus (_q.v._).

=Orion= (_o-rī´on_).--A handsome giant and hunter. He was beloved by Diana, which so displeased Apollo that he asserted that she was unable to hit, with one of her arrows, a distant point he showed her in the sea. This point was the head of Orion, who was swimming in the sea. Thus Orion perished, and he was placed among the stars, where he appears as a giant with a girdle, sword, a lion’s skin, and a club.

=Orlog.=--A god of Norse fable personifying the eternal law of the universe, from whose decree there was no appeal.

=Ormuzd.=--The name of the supreme deity of the ancient Persians, and of their descendants, the Parsees and Ghebers. He is an embodiment of the principle of good, and was created by the will of the great eternal spirit, Zervan-Akharana, simultaneously with Ahriman, the principle of evil, with whom he is in perpetual conflict. Ormuzd is the creator of the earth, sun, moon, and stars, to each of which he originally assigned its proper place, and whose various movements he continues to regulate.

=Orpheus= (_or´fe-us_).--A pre-Homeric poet, son of Œagrus and Calliope, lived in Thrace, and accompanied the Argonauts in their celebrated expedition. He played so skillfully on the lyre, which had been presented to him by Apollo, and which he had been taught to play by the Muses, that not only were wild beasts made tame, but even the rocks and trees moved from their places to follow him. He married the nymph Eurydice (_ū-rid´is-ē_), who died from the bite of a snake. He followed her into the lower world, where his beautiful strains of music even suspended the punishment of the wicked. Pluto promised to yield back his wife to him on the condition that he did not look back until he arrived in the upper world again. At the very moment, however, of passing the fatal bounds, Orpheus glanced back to see if she were following him, and just beheld her snatched back into the infernal regions. His grief for the loss of Eurydice was such that he treated all the Thracian women with contempt, and they in revenge, during the Bacchanalian orgies, tore him to pieces.

=Ortygia= (_or-tij´i-a_).--The ancient name of Delos, where Apollo and Diana were born.

=Osiris= (_o-sī´ris_).--A great deity of the Egyptians, husband of Isis. The ancients differ in opinion concerning this celebrated god, but they all agree that as ruler of Egypt he took care to civilize his subjects, to improve their morals, to give them good and salutary laws, and to teach them agriculture. He was worshiped under the form of an ox.

=Ossa= (_os’sa_).--A celebrated mountain in the northeast of Thessaly, near Mount Olympus. When the giants tried to scale heaven, they heaped Pelion, another mountain, on Ossa in order to reach the lofty mount Olympus, on the top of which Jupiter and the other gods dwelt.

=P=

=Pæan= (_pē´an_)--_lit._ “physician” (Gr.).--The name of the physician of the gods. Later the name was transferred to Apollo, and afterwards it was applied to a choral song, hymn or chant addressed to Apollo, and also to a war song before battle or after a victory.

=Pagasæ= (_pag´a-sē_), or =Pagasa=.--A maritime town of Thessaly, where the Argo (see “Argonautæ”) was built.

=Paimosaid.=--In American Indian myths a walking thief, especially one who walks through cornfields about harvest time to pluck the ears of maize or corn.

=Palæmon= (_pal-ē´mon_).--A sea-god; originally called Melicerta (_q.v._).

=Palamedes= (_pal-a-mē´dēz_).--Son of Mauplius, and one of the Greek heroes who sailed against Troy. Having exposed Ulysses (_q.v._) when he feigned madness in order to avoid going to Troy, the latter, who was famous for his craft, revenged himself by contriving to get a letter, purporting to be written by Priam, king of Troy, concealed under Palamedes’ bed. Ulysses then accused Palamedes of treachery, the fatal letter apparently established the charge, and Palamedes was stoned to death by the Greeks. Palamedes is credited with having added four letters--θ, ξ, χ, φ--to the original Greek alphabet of Cadmus, and also with the invention of quoits, dice, lighthouses, measures, scales, etc.

=Pales= (_pal´ēz_).--The Roman protecting deity of flocks and shepherds.

=Palici= (_pal-ī´sī_).--Twin sons of Jupiter and the nymph Thalia. They were worshiped in Sicily, in the neighborhood of Mount Ætna.

=Palinurus= (_pal-i-nū´rus_).--The pilot of Æneas, who fell into the sea off the west coast of Lucania.

=Palladium= (_pal-lad´i-um_).--Properly any statue of Pallas--_i. e._ Minerva; but the Palladium was an ancient image of the goddess at Troy, on the preservation of which the safety of the city was supposed to depend. Ulysses and Diomedes succeeded in carrying it off and afterwards took it to Greece. See “Troy.”

=Pallas= (_pal´las_).--The Greek name of Minerva (_q.v._).

=Pan.=--The chief god of shepherds and flocks; son of Mercury, and the inventor of the syrinx or shepherd’s flute. He was also god of woods, in which he dwelt, and occasionally appeared suddenly before travelers, whose consequent fright was hence called “Panic fear.” Pan is usually represented as a being with horns, puck-nose and goat’s legs and feet.

=Pandarus= (_pan´da-rus_).--A celebrated archer in the Trojan army.

=Pandora= (_pan-dō´ra_)--_lit._ “giver of all” (Gr.).--A beautiful woman, made by Vulcan at Jupiter’s command, _who received presents from the gods_--hence her name. She was the first woman on earth, and was designed to work the ruin of man in revenge for Prometheus having stolen fire from heaven and thus benefited mankind against the will of Jupiter. Venus adorned her with beauty, Mercury endowed her with boldness and cunning, and the gods, each and all, provided her with a combination of destructive powers wherewith to work out the ruin of man. Thus provided, Mercury took her to Epimetheus (_i. e._ afterthought), who made her his wife, forgetting, till _too late_, that his brother Prometheus (_i. e._ forethought) had strictly enjoined him not to receive any gifts from the gods. Pandora brought with her from heaven a box containing every human ill, which, with feminine curiosity, she opened, and out of it they all flew, to afflict mankind, Hope alone remaining.

=Paphos= (_paf´os_).--A town in Cyprus; the chief seat of the worship of Venus.

=Parcæ= (_par´sē_).--The Fates; called by the Greeks Moiræ (_moy´rē_).--They were three in number; and their names were:

(i) Clotho (_klō´tho_), the spinner of the thread of life.

(ii) Lachesis (_lak´e-sis_), the disposer of lots in life.

(iii) Atropos (_at´ro-pos_)--_lit._ “the inflexible”--the fate that cannot be avoided. To these mighty goddesses both gods and men must submit. Sometimes Atropos is represented as cutting the thread of life spun by Clotho.

=Paris=, usually called Alexander (_lit._ “defending men”) in the _Iliad_. The second son of Priam, king of Troy, and Hecuba. He was brought up on Mount Ida by a shepherd, who gave him the name Paris. He was afterwards called Alexander on account of the bravery he displayed in defending the flocks and shepherds. He married Œnone (_ē-nō´nē_), the daughter of the river-god Cebren. He soon deserted her, however, in the following manner: At the marriage of Peleus and the Nereid Thetis all the gods, with the single exception of the goddess of Discord, were invited. Annoyed at being thus passed over, she threw among the guests a golden apple--usually called the Apple of Discord--with the inscription, “To the fairest.” Three were claimants for it--Juno, Venus and Minerva. Jupiter ordered Mercury to take the three goddesses to Mount Ida, and submit the matter to the judgment of the shepherd Paris, hence giving rise to the celebrated “Judgment of Paris,” which has formed the subject of so many masterpieces of art. In order to influence him in their favor severally, Juno promised him the sovereignty of Asia, Minerva renown in war, and Venus the most beautiful woman in the world for his wife. Paris decided in favor of Venus, and awarded her the golden apple. He then, under the guidance of Venus, sailed for Greece, to the court of Menelaus, king of Sparta, whose wife, Helen, was the most beautiful of women. He succeeded in carrying Helen off, and so gave rise to the famous Trojan war, as all the chiefs in Greece joined with Menelaus in an expedition to fetch her back from Troy (see “Helena”). Paris fought with Menelaus before the walls of Troy, and would have been slain by him, had not Venus interposed and carried him off in a cloud. He was killed by the celebrated archer Philoctetes, who shot him with one of the poisoned arrows of Hercules. When wounded he returned to his long-neglected wife Œnone, and requested her to heal the wound; but she refused, and he died in consequence. Œnone soon repented, however, and put an end to her own life. During the Trojan war Paris killed Achilles (_q.v._).

=Parnassus= (_par-nas´sus_).--A high mountain in Phocis (Greece), with two peaks, sacred to Apollo and the Muses. Near it was the town of Delphi; and on the mountain was the famous Castalian spring, also sacred to Apollo and the Muses, in which the Pythia, the priestess, at Delphi, used to bathe.

=Parthenopæus= (_par´then-o-pē´us_).--Son of Meleager and Atalanta, and one of the “Seven against Thebes.”

=Parthenope= (_par-then´o-pē_).--One of the Sirens (_q.v._), and the name of an ancient city forming the site of the present city of Naples (Neapolis).

=Pasiphae= (_pā-sif´a-ē_).--Daughter of the Sun and Perseis, wife of Minos and mother of Androgeos, Ariadne and Phædra; also of the Minotaur (see “Minos”).

=Patroclus= (_pa-trok´lus_).--The beloved friend of Achilles. Whilst Achilles remained inactive during part of the Trojan war, Patroclus was allowed by Achilles to lead the latter’s Myrmidons against the Trojans at a critical time. Achilles, in order to enhance the effect, equipped him with his own armor and arms. Patroclus, whom the Trojans supposed to be Achilles himself, drove them back to the walls of Troy, where, however, he was slain by Hector. To avenge his death, Achilles quickly reappeared in the field, and slew Hector in single combat.

=Pauguk.=--Name given to the great power, death, in American Indian mythology.

=Pau-Puk-Keewis.=--In American Indian folk-lore a mischievous magician, who is pursued by Hiawatha, goes through a series of wonderful transformations in his endeavors to escape, and finally becomes an eagle.

=Peboan.=--In American Indian folk-lore the personification of winter in form of a great giant who shook the snow from his hair and turned water into stone by his breath.

=Pegasus= (_peg´a-sus_).--The winged horse which sprang from the blood of the Gorgon Medusa, when her head was struck off by Perseus (_q.v._). It was named Pegasus from _the springs_ of Ocean, near which Medusa was killed. With a blow of his hoof he caused the fountain of the Muses (Hippocrene) to spring from Mount Helicon. Bellerophon rode him when he slew the Chimæra (_ki-mē´ra_).

=Peleus= (_pē´lūs_).--Son of Æacus, king of the Myrmidons in Thessaly, husband of Thetis and father of Achilles. The Nereid Thetis, who was his second wife, had the power, possessed also by Proteus, of assuming any form she pleased, a power she exercised in order to escape from Peleus. But the latter, having been taught by Chiron, held the goddess fast till she promised to marry him. At their marriage all the gods, save one, were present, and the uninvited one, the goddess of strife, threw the celebrated golden apple among the guests (see “Paris”). Peleus survived the death of his famous son Achilles.

=Pelias= (_pe´li-as_).--King of Ioclus, in Thessaly. In order to get rid of his nephew Jason, who claimed the throne, he sent him to fetch the golden fleece, thus giving rise to the celebrated expedition of the Argonauts (see “Argonautæ”). When Jason returned with Medea, the latter persuaded the daughters of Pelias to cut him in pieces and boil him, with the idea of thus restoring him to youth and vigor. In this way he perished. See “Jason.”

=Pelion= (_pē´li-on_).--A lofty range of well-wooded mountains in Thessaly. The giants heaped it on Mount Ossa, in their attempt to scale heaven (see “Ossa” and “Olympus”). The Centaur Chiron dwelt in a cave near its summit. The Argo (see “Argonautæ”) was built from timber felled here.

=Pelops= (_pē´lops_).--Son of Tantalus, king of Phrygia, father of Atreus and Thyestes, grandfather of Agamemnon and Menelaus. When a boy he was cut in pieces and boiled to make a savory dish to set before the gods, whom Tantalus, the favorite of the gods, had invited to a repast; but the gods would not touch it, and ordered Mercury to again put him into a caldron, whereby he was restored to life. Being driven out of Phrygia, he went to Elis, a province of Peloponnesus, and there obtained the hand of Hippodamia, daughter of King Œnomaus, whom he succeeded on the throne. He afterwards became so powerful that the whole peninsula was called after him “the island of Pelops.” In order to gain Hippodamia (_hip-po-da-mī´a_) he had first to engage in a chariot race with Œnomaus (_ē-nom´a-us_), a condition which the latter imposed on every suitor for his daughter’s hand, as an oracle had declared that he would be killed by his son-in-law. His horses being swifter than those of any mortal, many a suitor had suffered death, the stipulated penalty of defeat. Pelops, however, bribed Myrtilus, the charioteer of Œnomaus, to remove the linchpins of his master’s chariot, the bribe being the promise of half the kingdom. In the race the wheels of Œnomaus’ chariot soon came off, and Œnomaus was thrown out, and killed. Pelops thus gained Hippodamia, but was unwilling to keep faith with Myrtilus, whom he threw from a cliff into the sea.

=Penates= (_pē-nā´tēz_).--Old Latin guardian deities both of a household and of the state. The images of these gods were kept in the penetralia (_pen-e-trā´li-a_)--that is, the _innermost_ or central part of the house. The Lares (_q.v._) formed part of the Penates. On the hearth a perpetual fire was kept up in their honor, and the table, which was also sacred to them, always contained the salt-cellar and offerings of first fruits for them.

=Penelope= (_pe-nel´o-pē_).--The wife of Ulysses; celebrated for her constancy to her husband during his twenty years’ absence from Ithaca. She was the daughter of Icarius and Peribœa, of Sparta, and was won by Ulysses in the following way: Her father promised her to the suitor who should win a foot-race; but when Ulysses was the successful competitor her father tried to persuade her not to leave him. Ulysses left her free to act as she pleased in the matter, whereupon she covered her face with her veil to hide her blushes, and thus intimated that she preferred to accompany him as her husband. By Ulysses she became the mother of an only child, Telemachus. During Ulysses’ long absence she was the object of much undesired attention on the part of a host of importunate suitors, who declared that Ulysses must surely be dead. Penelope at last promised to make a selection of one of their number to be her husband as soon as she had finished a robe she was making for Ulysses’ aged father, Laërtes (_lā-er´tēz_). This was only a ruse (generally referred to as “Penelope’s web”), however, to put them off, as she undid every night the work done during the day. At last the secret was betrayed by one of her servants, and she was importuned more than ever. Ulysses now arrived home after twenty years’ absence at Troy and his subsequent celebrated wanderings, and came at first disguised as a beggar to see how the land lay. Having soon ascertained his wife’s noble fidelity, he still further tested her by getting her to promise her hand to the suitor who could draw his bow. This none of them could do, so Ulysses took it up and slew them all. He then made himself known to Penelope, and went to see his aged father.

=Peneus= (_pē-nē´us_).--The principal river of Thessaly, which flows in the valley of Tempe, between Mount Pelion and Mount Ossa, into the sea; also the river-god, who was the father of Daphne and Cyrene.

=Penthesilea= (_pen-thes-i-lē´a_).--The young and beautiful queen of the Amazons, who fought against the Greeks before Troy, and was slain by Achilles.

=Pentheus= (_pen´thūs_).--Grandson of Cadmus, whom he succeeded as king of Thebes. He was opposed to the introduction of the worship of Bacchus into his kingdom, and in consequence was torn to pieces by his mother and her sisters, who in their Bacchic frenzy imagined him to be a wild beast.

=Perdix= (_per´diks_).--The nephew of Dædalus (_q.v._), the inventor of the chisel, saw, compasses, etc.

=Peri.=--Peris are delicate, gentle, fairy-like beings of eastern mythology, begotten by fallen spirits. They direct with a wand the pure in mind the way to heaven. These lovely creatures, according to the Koran, are under the sovereignty of Eblis; and Mohammed was sent for their conversion, as well as for that of man.

=Persephone= (_per-sef´on-ē_).--The Greek name for Proserpina (_q.v._).