Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/245

Rh P L U P L U 235 that deity along with the Muses. It is amply illustrated by poetical quotations. In 24. mention is made of the emperor Vespasian. It is followed by a short treatise entitled Lore Stories, giving a few narratives of sensational adventures of lovers. Short Sayings (airo&amp;lt;pOey/j.a.Ta), dedicated to Trajan, extend to a great length, and are divided into three parts : (1) of kings and commanders (including many Roman) ; (2) of Spartans ; (3) of Spartan women (a short treatise on Spartan institutions being interposed between the last two). The names of the authors are added, and to some of them a large number of maxims are attributed. Many are terse, shrewd, wise, or pointed with strong common- sense ; but a good many seem to us now somewhat commonplace. A rather long treatise On the Virtues of Women contains a series of narratives of noble deeds done by the sex in times of danger and trouble, especially from &quot;tyrants.&quot; Many of the stories are interesting, and the style is easy and good. Another long and learned work bears the rather obscure title K.f(f&amp;gt;aaionv Kara.ypa,(pT]. It is generally known as Qusestiones Rmnnnx and Gra&cie, in two parts. In the former, which contains one hundred and thirteen headings, the inquiry (on some matter political, religious, or antiquarian) always commences with 8i ri, usually followed by Trorfpov, with alternative explanations. In the Greek Questions the form of inquiry is more often rls or -rivts, not followed by ir^repoi/. This treatise is of great interest and import ance to classical archaeology, though the inquiries seem occasionally trifling, and sometimes the answers are clearly wrong. Parallels are a series of similar incidents which occurred respec tively to Greeks and Romans, the Greek standing first and the Roman counterpart following. Many of the characters are mytho logical, though Plutarch regards them as historical, On the Fortune of the liomans discusses whether, on the whole, good luck or valour had more influence in giving the Romans the supremacy. This is followed by two discourses (yoi) on the same question as applicable to the career of Alexander the Great, Whether the Athenians were more renowned for War or for Wisdom ? The conclusion is ( 7) that it was not so much by the fame of their poets as by the deeds of their heroes that Athens became renowned. Gryllus is a most amusing dialogue, in which Circe, Ulysses, and a talking pig take part. Ulysses wishes that all the human beings that have been changed by the sorceress into bestial forms should be restored ; but &quot; piggy &quot; is quite opposed to the return, arguing that in moral virtues, such as true bravery, chastity, temperance, and general simplicity of life and contentment, animals are very far superior to man. Whether Land Animals or Water Animals are the Cleverer is a rather long dialogue on the intelligence of ants, bees, elephants, spiders, dogs, &c., on the one hand, and the crocodile, the dolphin, the tunny, and many kinds of fish, on the other. This is a good essay, much in the style of Aristotle s History of Animals. On Flesh- Eating, in two orations, discusses the origin of the practice, viz., necessity, and makes a touching appeal to man not to destroy life for mere gluttony ( 4). This is a short but very sensible and interesting argument. Questions on Plato are ten in number, each heading subdivided into several speculative replies. The subjects are for the most part metaphysical; the essay is not long, hut it concerns Platonists only. Whether Water or Fire is more Useful^ is also short; after discussing the uses of both elements it decides in favour of the latter, since nothing can exceed in importance the warmth of life and the light of the sun. On Primary Cold is a physical speculation on the true nature and origin of the quality antithetical to heat. Physical Reasons (Qusestiones Naturales) are replies to inquiries as to why certain facts or phenomena occur ; e.g., &quot; Why is salt the only flavour not in fruits?&quot; &quot;Why do fishing-nets rot in winter more than in summer ? &quot; &quot; Why does pouring oil on the sea produce a calm ? &quot; On the Opinions accepted by the Philosophers, in five books, is a valuable compendium of the views of the Ionic school and the Stoics on the phenomena of the universe and of life. On the Ill- nature of Herodotus is a well-known critique of the historian for his unfairness, not only to the Bceotians and Lacedaemonians, but to the Corinthians and other Greek states. It is easy to say that this essay &quot; neither requires nor merits refutation &quot; ; but Plutarch knew history, and he writes like one who thoroughly understands the charges which he brings against the historian. The Lives of the Ten Orators, from Antipho to Dinarchus, are biographies of various length, compiled, doubtless, from materials now lost. Two rather long essays, Should a Man engage in Politics when he w no longer Young, and. Precepts for Governing (TTO^TIKO, irapayyf- /wro), are interspersed with valuable quotations. In favour of the former view the administrations of Pericles, of Agesilaus, of Augustus, are cited ( 2), and the preference of older men for the pleasures of doing good over the pleasures of the senses ( 5). In the latter, the true use of eloquence is discussed, and a con trast drawn between the brilliant and risky and the slow and safe policy ( 10). The choice of friends, and the caution against enmi ties, the dangers of love, of gain, and of ambition, with many topics of the like kind, are sensibly advanced and illustrated by examples. Besides the numerous works that have come down to us, Plutarch speaks of a work called A2V&amp;lt;a, the same title with the lost poem of Callimachus (Romulus, 15). The Lives have often been translated ; the most popular vers-ion into English is that by John and William Langhorne ; more recently manv of the Roman lives have been translated, with notes, by the lute Mr GeoVfiu Long. An excellent and convenient edition of the Greek text, in 5 vols. 12mo has been published in the Teubncr series by Carl Sintcnis. It seems strange that no modern edition of the Opera Aforalia exists, and that the student lias to fall back on the old-fashioned volumes of Wyttenbach (G vols. 4to Oxford also printed in 8vo), Reiske (in 12 vols. 8vo), and Hutten (14 vols. 8vo). Whether there is any hope of Rudolph Hercher s single volume (1872) in the Teubncr series being followed by others, we have no information. (F. A. P.) PLUTO, the god of the dead in Greek mythology. His oldest name was Hades ( Aflfys, &quot;Ai6V, *AoV), &quot; the Unseen&quot;; the name Pluto (IIAouYwv) was given him as the bestower of the riches (TrAowo?) of the mine, and in ordinary language it ousted the dread name of Hades, which was, however, retained in poetry. He was the son of Cronus and Pihea, and brother of Zeus and Poseidon. Having deposed Cronus, the brothers cast lots for the king doms of the heaven, the sea, and the infernal regions, and Pluto obtained the infernal regions, which from their ruler were afterwards known as Hades. The &quot; house of Hades &quot; was a dark and dreadful abode deep down in the earth. How literally the god was supposed to dwell underground is shown by the method of invoking him, which was by rapping on the ground to attract his attention. According to another view the realm of Hades was in a land beyond the ocean in the far west, which to the Greek was always the region of darkness and death, as the east of light and life. This is the view of Hades presented in the Odyssey. Ulysses sails all day with a north wind, and at sunset reaches a land at the limits of ocean. Here, wrapped in mist and cloud, dwell the Cimmerians, who never see the sun. He lands, and moving along the shore he calls the ghosts of the departed to meet him. In the description of the Cimmerians we have perhaps a traveller s tale of the long dark winters of the north. Besides this gloomy region, we find in another passage of the Odyssey (iv. 561 sq.) a picture of Elysium, a happy land at the ends of the earth, where rain and snow fall not, but the cool west wind blows and men live at ease. After Homer this happy land, the abode of the good after death, w T as known as the Islands of the Blest, and these in later times were identified with Madeira and the Canary Islands. 1 But in the oldest Greek mythology the &quot; house of Hades &quot; was a place neither of reward nor punishment ; it was simply the home of the dead, good and bad alike, who led a dim and shadowy reflexion of life on earth. The differentiation of this &quot;home of Hades &quot; into a heaven and a hell was the result of pro gressive thought and morality. Pluto was himself simply the ruler of the dead ; in no sense was he a tempter and seducer of mankind like the devil of Christian theology, [ndeed the very conception of a devil, as a principle of evil in continual conflict with God or the principle of good, is totally foreign to Greek mythology, as it was also to Indian and Teutonic mythology. Pluto was certainly depicted as 1 The conception of the land of the dead, whether in the far west or beneath the earth, might be paralleled from the beliefs of many savage tribes. The Samoan Islanders unite the two conceptions : the entrance to their spirit-land is at the westernmost point of the westernmost island, where the ghosts descend by two holes into the under-world. Long ago the inhabitants of the French coast of the English Channel believed that the souls of the dead were ferried across to Britain, and there are still traces of this belief in the folk-lore of Brittany (Tylor, Primitive Culture, ii. p. 64; Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, ii, p. 694). In classical mythology the underground Hades prevailed over the western. It was an Etruscan custom at the foundation of a city to dig a deep hole in the earth, and close it with a stone ; on three days in the year this stone was removed, and the ghosts were then supposed to ascend from the lower world. In Asia Minor caves filled with mephitic vapours or containing hot springs were known as Plutonia or Charonia. The most famous entrances to the under-world were at Taenarum in Laconia, and at the Lake Avernus in Italy.