Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/196

Rh 184 PENTADIUS. Sparta, and thence to Mantineia, where her tomb was shown in after times. (Pans. viii. 12. § 3.) According to another tradition, Penelope, with Telemachus and Telegonus, who had killed his father Odj'sseus, went to Aeaea, and there mar- ried Telegonus ; whereas, according to others again, she married Telegonus in the islands of the Blessed. (Hygin. Fab. 127 ; Tzetz. ad Lycophr. 805.) [L.S.] PENETRA'LIS, a surname or epithet given to the several divinities at Rome, that were wor- shipped in the Penetrale, or the central part of the house, such as Jupiter, Vesta, the Penates, &c. (Senec. Oed. 265 ; Fest. s. v. Herceus ; comp. Penates.) [L. S.] PENNUS, i. e. " sharp" {ppMraim antiqui acu- tum dicehant, Isid. Orig. xix. 1.9), was a family- name in the Junia and Quinctia gentes. In the latter gens it always occurs with other surnames, under which the Quinctii with this cognomen are given [Capitolinus, Quinctius, Nos. 7, 8, 9 ; CiNCiNNATUS, No. 3] : the Penni of the Junia gens are given below. 1. M. Junius Pennus, cunile aedile, b. c. 205, and praetor urbanus, B. c. 201. (Liv. xxix. 11, XXX. 40, xxxi. 4.) 2. M. Junius M. p. M. n. Pennus, son of No. 1, was praetor b. c. 172, and obtained Nearer Spain for his province. The reinforcements for his army, which he urgently demanded from the se- nate, did not arrive till he had to give up the province to his successor. He was consul B. c. 167, with Q. Aelius Paetus, and obtained Fisae as his pro- vince. (Liv. xlii. 9, 10, J 8, xlv. 16, 17 ; Cic. Brut 28 ; Fasti Capit.) 3. M. Junius Pennus, son of No. 2, was tri- bune of the plebs, B.C. 126, in which year he brought forward a law for expelling all strangers or foreigners {peregrini) from Rome. This law was opposed by C. Gracchus, because the peregrini were of assistance to him in his struggle with the aristocracy, but it was carried notwithstanding. Pennus was afterwards elected to the aedileship, but died before obtaining any higher honour in the state. (Cic. Brut. 28, de Off. iii. 11 ; Fest. s. v. Resjjuhlica.) PENTA'DIUS, the name prefixed in MSS. to ten short elegies or epigrams, extending in all to ninety-eight lines, which are severally entitled : — 1. De Fortuna., 18 couplets. 2. De Adventu Verisy 1 1 couplets. 3, 4, 5, 6. De Narcisso^ re- spectively 5, 1, 2, 1, couplets. 7. Tumulus Acidic, 4 couplets. 8. Tumulus Hectoris, 5 couplets. 9. De Ckri/socome, 1 couplet. 10. In Virgilium, 1 couplet. The first three, which it will be observed are much longer than the rest, are all constnicted in such a manner that the words which form the first penthemimer of the Hexameter recur as the second pentheraimer of the pentameter, thus ; — Res eadem assidue momento volvitnr horae Atque redit dispar res eadem assidue : and Vindice facta manu Progne pia dicta sorori Irapia sed nato vindice facta manu : On this species of trifling critics have bestowed the name of Ophites or Carmen Serpentinum, because, like the ancient symbol of the snake with its tail in its mouth, the beginning and the end meet after PENTHESILEIA. a circular revolution (Scalig. Poet, ii, 30). Poetg of a higher stamp have occasionally had recourse to a similar artifice, but merely for tlie sake of making a passing impression, as when we read in Ovid {Amor. i. 9), Militat omnis amans et habet sua castra Cupido, Attlce, crede mihi, militat omnis amans. (Compare Fast. iv. 365 ; Martial, ix. 98.) But we have no example among the purer writers of a serious composition in which such a conceit is pro- longed through a series of couplets. We know nothing with regard to the personal history of the author of these pieces nor of the period when he may have flourished, although from the tone in which they are conceived we may safely assign him to the later empire, and one ex- pression (i. 33) might lead us to believe that he was a christian. He is generally supposed to be the person to whom Lactantius dedicates the Epi- tome of his Divine Institutions, and whom he styles "brother," but beyond the identity of name we are not aware that any evidence can be adduced in support of this position. Certain short poems included in the Catalecta Pe- troniana are in some MSS. given to Pentadius, par- ticularly two elegiac couplets on the faithlessness of woman (Burmann, Anthol. Lat. iii. 88, or No. 245, ed. Meyer), and fourteen hendecasyllabics, De Vita Beata, which certainly bear the impress of a better age than the verses discussed above (Bur- mann, Anthol. Lat. iii. 93, or No. 250, ed. Meyer ; Wernsdorf, Pott. Lat. Min. vol. iii. p. 405). There is also an Epitaphium A chilli (Burm. Anthol. i. 98, Meyer, append. 1614), which has a strong resem- blance to the Tumulus Hectoris generally given to an Eusebius or an Eusthenius, but by Scaliger and Wernsdorf to Pentadius. Wernsdorf, in one portion of his work, endeavoured to prove that the Epitome Iliados Homeri., which bears the name of Pindarus., ought in reality to be assigned to Pen- tadius, but this idea he afterwards abandoned. (Wernsdorf, Poet. Lat. Min. vol. iii. p. 256, iv. p. 546 ; Bui-mann, Anthol. Lat. iii. 105, Meyer, vol. i. p. xxvii. and Epp. No. 241 — 252, and append, ^/j. No. 1614 ; see also Burmann, i. 98, 102, 139, 140, 141, 142, 148, 165, ii. 203, iii. 88, 93, 105, v. Q9.) [W.R.] PENTHESILEIA {U6ve^<ri^ia), a daughter of Ares and Otrera, and queen of the Amazons. (Hygin. Fab. 112; Serv. ad Aen. i. 491 ; comp. Hygin. Fob. 225 ; Justin, ii. 4 ; Lycoph. 997.) In the Trojan war she assisted the Trojans, and offered gallant resistance to the Greeks. (Diet. Cret. iii. 15; Ov. Heroid. xxi. 118.) After the fall of Hector she fought a battle against the Greeks, but was defeated : she herself fell by the hand of Achilles, who mourned over the dying queen on account of her beauty, youth, and valour. (Diet. Cret. iv. 2; Schol. ad Horn. II. ii. 219 ; Pans. v. 11. § 2, x. 31 ; Quint. Smyrn. i. 40, &c.) She was frequently represented by ancient artists, and among others by Poh'gnotus, in the Lesche at Delphi. (Pans, x, 31.) 'When Achilles slew Penthesileia he is said to have .ilso killed Thersites because he treated her body with con- tempt, and reproached Achilles for his love to- wards her. (Schol. ad Horn. I. c, ad Sof)h. Philoct. 445.) Diomedes, a relative of Thersites, is said then to have thrown the body of Penthesileia into the river Scaraander, whereas, according to others,