Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/534

Rh 522 PRIAMUS. Fam. vii. 8). His name shows that his original name was Precius, and that he was adopted by a member of another gens. L. PRE'CIUS, a distinguished Roman eques, who carried on business at Panormus, when Verres •was governor of Sicily (Cic. Verr. v. 62, Q5). A certain Precius left some property to Cicero, which is mentioned two or three times in his correspond- ence under the name of Preciana hereditas {ad Fam. xiv. b. § 2, ad Att. vi. 9. § 2, vii. 1. § 9) ; but who this Precius was is not known. PREPELAUS (npeTreAaos), a general in the service of Cassander, king of Macedonia. He is first mentioned in B. c. 31,5, when he was sent by Cassander on a secret mission to Alexander the son of Polysperchon, whom he succeeded in detaching from the cause of Antigonus and inducing to join his arms with those of Cassander (Diod. xix. 64). Shortly after we find him commanding an army which was sent to support Asander in Caria, and co-operating with that general against Ptolemy, the nephew of Antigonus (Id. ib. 68). From this time we hear no more of him till B. c. 303, when he held the important fortress of Corinth with a large force, but was unable to prevent its falling into the hands of Demetrius, and only saved himself by a hasty flight (Id. xx. 103). In the following summer (b. c. 302) he was sent by Cassander, with a considerable army, to co-operate with Lysimachus in Asia, where his arms were crowned with the most brilliant successes ; he reduced in a short space of time the important cities of Adramy ttium, Ephesus, and Sardes, and made himself master of almost the whole of Aeolia and Ionia. But he was unable to prevent the recovery of a great part of these conquests by Demetrius, before the close of the same autumn (Id. xx. 107, 111). After this we hear no more of him. [E. H. B.J PRESBON (npeVgov), a son of Phrixus, by a daughter of Aeetes, king of Colchis. He him- self was the father of Clymenus, who is hence called Presboniades. (Paus. ix. 34. § 5, 37. § 2 ; Schol. ad ApoUon. Rhod. ii. 1125.) A son of Minyas was likewise called Presbon. (Schol. ad ApoUdn. Rhod. i. 230.) [L. S.] P. PRESENTEIUS, one of the commanders of the allies in the Marsic war, defeated the legate Perpema in B. c. 90. (Appian, B. C. i. 41.) PRI'AMUS {Ilpia^l05 the famous king of Troy, at the time of the Trojan war. He was a son of Laomedon and Strymo or Placia. His ori- ginal name is said to have been Podarces, i. e. " the Bwift-footed," which was changed into Priamus, "the ransomed" (from Trpiauot), because he was the only surviving son of Laomedon and was ran- somed by his sister Hesione, after he had fallen into the hands of Heracles (Apollod. ii. 6. § 4, iii. 12. § 3). He is said to have been first married to Arisbe, the daughter of Merops, by whom he be- came the father of Aesacus ; but afterwards he gave up Arisbe to Hyrtacus, and married Hecabe (Hecuba), by whom he had the following children : Hector, Alexander or Paris, Deiphobus, Helenus, Pamraon, Polites, Antiphus, Hipponous, Polydonis, Troilus, Creusa, Laodice, Polyxena, and Cassandra. By other women he had a great many children be- sides (Apollod. iii. 12. § 5). According to the Ho- meric tradition, he was the father of fifty sons, nineteen of whom were children of Hecabe, to whom others add an equal number of daughters (Horn. II. xxiv. 495,&c.,with the note of Eustath.; PRIAPUS. comp. Hygin. Fah. 90 ; Theocr. xv. 139 ; Cic. Tusc. i. 35). Previous to the outbreak of the war of the Greeks against his kingdom, he is said to have supported the Phrygians in their war against the Amazons (Hom. //. iii. 184j. When the Greeks landed on the Trojan coast Priam was already advanced in years, and took no active part in the war (xxiv. 487, 500). Only once did he venture upon the field of battle, to conclude the agreement respecting the single combat between Paris and Menelaus (iii. 250, &c.). After the death of his son Hector, Priam, accompanied by Hermes, went to the tent of Achilles to ransom Hector's body for burial, and obtained it (xxiv. 470). His death is not mentioned by Homer, but later poets have filled up this gap in the legend. When the Greeks entered the city of Troy, the aged king, it is said, put on his armour, and was on the point of rushing into the crowd of the enemy, but he was prevailed on by Hecabe to take refuge with herself and her daughters, as a suppliant at the altar of Zeus Herceius. While he was tarry- ing in the temple, his son Polites, pursued by Pyrrhus, rushed into the temple, and expired at the feet of his father, whereupon Priam aimed at Pvrrhus, but was killed by him. (Virg. Aen. ii. 512, &c. ; Eurip. Troad. 17 ; Pans. ii. 24. § 5, iv. 17. § 3.) His body remained unburied. (Virg. Ae.n. ii. 558 ; Senec. Troad. 50, &c. ; Q. Smyrn. xiii. 240, &c.) Another Priam is mentioned by Virgil {Aen. v. 564), as a son of Polites, and is accordingly a grandson of king Priam. [L. S.] PRFAMUS, a Greek by birth, and a Roman freedman, whose name occurs in an inscription as Sidnius Priamus, with the designation Aurik, that is, a worker in gold. (Muratori, Thes. vol. ii. p. cmlxxvii. n. 9 ; R. Rochette, Lettre a M. Schorn, p. 393.) IF. S.] PRI APA'TIUS, a king of Parthia. [ Arsaces, IV.] PRIA'PUS (nptaTTos), a son of Dionysus and Aphrodite (Paus. ix. 31. § 2 ; Diod. iv. 6 ; Tibull. i. 4. 7 ; Schol. ad ApoUon. Rhod. i. 932). Aphro- dite, it is said, had yielded to the embraces of Dionysus, but during his expedition to India, she became faithless to him, and lived with Adonis. On Dionysus' return from India, she indeed went to meet him, but soon left him again, and went to Lampsacus on the Hellespont, to give birth to the child of the god. But Hera, dissatisfied with her conduct, touched her, and, by her magic power, caused Aphrodite to give birth to a child of extreme ugliness, and with unusually large genitals. This child was Priapus. According to others, however, Priapus was a son of Dionysus and a Naiad or Chione, and gave his name to the town of Priapus (Strab. xiii. p. 587 ; Schol. ad TJteocr. i. 21), while others again describe him as a son of Adonis, by Aphrodite (Tzetz. ad Lye. 831), as a son of Hermes (Hygin. Fah. 160), or as the son of a long-eared father, that is, of Pan or a Satyr (Macrob. Sat. vi. 5). The earliest Greek poets, such as Homer, Hesiod, and others, do not mention this divinity, and Strabo (xiii. p. 558) expressly states, that it was only in later times that he was honoured with divine worship, and that he was worshipped more especially at Lampsacus on the Hellespont, whence he is sometimes called Hellespontiacus (Ov. Fast. i. 440, vi. 341 ; Arnob. iii. 10). We have every reason to believe that he was regarded as the pro-