Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/618

Rh 606 PYGMALION. triumph of Cn. Manlius Vulso [VuLSo]. He was one of the candidates for the censorship in B. c. 184, when L. Valerius Flaccus and M. Porcius Cato were elected. In the following year, B. c. 183, he was sent, with two other senators, as am- bassador to Transalpine Gaul ; and this is the last time that his name occurs. (Liv. xxvii. 2, xxxi. 4, 6, 10, 21, 47—49, xxxiii. 24, 37, xxxiv. 53, XXXV. 41, xxxvii. 55, xxxviii. 44, 45, 54, xxxix. 40, 54.) PU'SIO, C. FLA'VIUS, is mentioned by Cicero {pro Cliient. 56) as one of the Roman equites, who opposed the tribune M. Drusus. PUTON. [Plution.] P YGMAEUS (nu7iuatos), a being whose length is a 7ru7;UT), that is, from the elbow to the hand. (Eustath. ad Horn. p. 372.) The Pj'gmaei, in the plural, is the name of a fabulous nation of dwarfs, the Liliputians of antiquity, who, accord- ing to Homer, had every spring to sustain a war against the cranes on the banks of Oceanus. (Horn. IL iii, 5, &c.) They were believed to have been descended from Pygmaeus, a son of Dorus and grandson of Epaphus. (Steph. Byz. $. v. Tlvyiialoi.) Later writers usually place them near the sources of the Nile, whither the cranes are said to have migrated every year to take possession of the fields of the pygmies. (Eustath. p. 372 ; Aristot. Hist. Animal, viii. 12 ; Strab. i. p. 42, xvii. p. 821.) The reports of them have been embellished in a variety of ways by the ancients. Hecataeus, for example, related that they cut down every corn ear with an axe, for they were conceived to be an agricultural people. When Heracles came into their countrj-, they climbed with ladders to tlie edge of his goblet to drink from it ; and when they attacked the hero, a whole army of them made an assault upon his left hand, while two others made the attack on his right hand. (Philostr. Icon. ii. 21.) Aristotle did not believe that the accounts of the Pygmies were altogether fabulous, but thought that they were a tribe in Upper Egypt, who had exceedingly small horses, and lived in caves. {Hist. Animal, viii. 14.) In later times we also hear of northern Pygmies, who lived in the neighbourhood of Thule ; they are described as very shortlived, small, and armed with spears like needles. (Eustath. ad Horn. p. 372.) Lastly, we also have mention of Indian pygmies, who lived under the earth on the east of the river Ganges. (Ctesias, Ind. ii. pp. 250, 294 ; Philostr. Vit. Apollon. iii. 47 ; Plin. H. N, vi. 22.) Various attempts have been made to account for the sin- gular belief in the existence of such a dwarfish nation, but it seems to have its origin in the love of the marvellous, and the desire to imagine human beings, in different climes and in different ages, to be either much greater or much smaller than ourselves. (Comp. Ov. Fast. vi. 176, Met. vi. 90 ; Aelian, Hist. An. xv. 29.) [L. S.] PYGMA'LION {TivytiaXitov). 1. A king of Cyprus and father of Metharme. (Apollod. iii. 14. $ 3.) He is said to have fallen in love with the ivory image of a maiden which he himself had made, and therefore to have prayed to Aphrodite to breathe life into it. When the request was granted, Pygmalion married his beloved, and be- came by her the father of Paphus. (Ov. Met. x. 243, &c.) 2. A son of Belus and brother of Dido. (Virg. Aen. i. 347 j Ov. Fait. iu. 574.) [L. S.J PYLAEMENES. PYGMON {Tivyixwv), the engraver of a gem in the Florentine Museum, the inscription on which has been variously read IlEirMO, IlEPrAMOT, and IITrMilN, but the latter appears to be the true fonn. There is another gem on which the name of Peryamus is found distinctly inscribed. (R. Rochette, Lett-e. a M. Schorn, p. 149, 2d ed. ; comp. Pergamus.) [P. S.] PY'LADES {UvdS7]s), a son of Strophius and Anaxibia, Cydragora or Astyochea. (Pans. ii. 29. § 4 ; Schol. ad Eurip. Orest. 33, 753 ; Hygin. Fab. 117.) He was a friend of Orestes, who was received by him in Phocis in a brotherly manner. (Pind. Pyth. xi. 23.) He afterwards married Electra, the sister of Orestes, and became by her the father of Hellanicus, Medon, and Strophius. (Pans. ii. 16. § 5 ; Orestes, Electra.) [L. S.] PY'LADES, the pantomime dancer in the reign of Augustus, is spoken of under Bathvllus. He was banished on one occasion by Augustus, but afterwards restored to the city (Dion Cass. liv. 17; Suet. Aug. 45.) P Y'LADES (IluAaSTjs), the engraver of a beau- tiful gem in the Museum of the King of the Netherlands, representing an eagle, carrying a crown in its beak. It is described by Jonghe {Catal. Mus. Batav. p. 167, n. 4), and more mi- nutely by Visconti (Op. Var. vol. ii. p. 162, n. 21), who, without assigning any reason for his opinion, supposes the inscription IITAAAOT to denote the owner rather than the artist. It has been engraved by Venuti {Collectan. Aniiq. Roman, tab. Ixxiv. Rom. 1736, folio), and in the work of the Count de Thoms, pi. xiii. n. 5. (Com- pare R. Rochette, LeUre a M. Schorn, p. 150, 2nd ed.) [P. S.] PYLAE'MENES (Uvaifxh-ns a king of the Paphlagonians and an ally of Priam in the Trojan v/ar. (Hom. II. ii. 851 ; Strab. xii. pp. 541, 543.) [L. S.] PYLAE'MENES {TlnXaifxeirqs), appears to have been the name of many kings of Paplila- gonia, so as to have become a kind of hereditary appellation, like that of Ptolemy in Egypt, and Arsaces in Parthia. The only ones concerning whom we have any definite information are the following : — 1. A king of Paphlagonia, who in B. c. 131 assisted the Romans in the war against Aris- tonicus, the pretender to the throne of Pergannis. (Eutrop. iv. 20). At his death the race of the ancient kings of Paphlagonia appears to have become extinct, and it was asserted that he had by his testament bequeathed his kingdom to Mi- thridates V., king of Pontus. (Justin, xxxviii. 5.) 2. A son of Nicomedes II., king of Bith3'nia, who was placed by his father on the throne of Paphlagonia, and made to assume the name of Pylaemenes, in order that he might appear to belong to the rightful line of the kings of that country. (Justin, xxxvii. 4.) He was afterwards expelled by Mithridates the Great, in B. c. 90 (Eutrop. V. 5), and it does not appear that he himself ever recovered his throne : but after the final overthrow of Mithridates, the sons of Pylae- menes were reinstated by Pompey in the possession of some part of their father's dominions with the title of king. (Strab. xii. p. 541.) There are extant coins bearing the titles BA- ^lAEnS nTAAIMENOT EYEPrETOY, which may probably be ascribed to one of the two pre-