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 240 PELOPS PELVIS the west. The mean height of the mountains is about 1,200 ft., but on the W. side they at- tain a height of from 3,000 to 4,500 ft. Mt. Oyllene, on the N. side of Arcadia, is 7,788 ft. high ; and Mt. Taygetus, the ridge which stretches southward from Arcadia to Cape Matapan (anc. Tmnarum), is at the highest point 7,904 ft. above the sea. The principal rivers are the Alpheus, which rises in Arcadia and flows W. through Elis into the Ionian sea ; and the Eurotas, which rises in N. Laconia and flows southward into the Laconian gulf. The climate is mild and the soil fruitful. The chief productions are corn, wine, oil, and fruits, honey, figs, silk, cotton, and the small raisins called currants, which are the principal article of export. At present the peninsula is divided into five nomarchies or provinces, viz. : Argo- lis and Corinth, the capital of which is Nau- plia ; Achaia and Elis, capital Patras ; Arcadia, capital Tripolitza ; Messenia, capital Kalamata; and Laconia, capital Sparta. Its ancient pop- ulation has been computed at 2,000,000, which is probably an exaggeration, though it was certainly much more populous and flourish- ing than at present. It contains many ruins of famous ancient cities, among which those of Sparta, Mycenae, and Mantinea are the most interesting. About 80 years after the fall of Troy, according to Greek traditions, the Pelo- ponnesus was conquered by the Dorians, led by the descendants of Hercules, who claimed possession of the country by ancestral right. This event is known in history as the return of the Heraclidse. The Dorians established several states, one of which, Sparta or Laco- nia, became under the institutions of Lycur- gus the most powerful in Greece. A com- bination of the Peloponnesian states against Athens in the latter part of the 5th century B. C. gave rise to the great contest known as the Peloponnesian war. In the decline of Greece, in the 3d century B. C. a temporary importance was given to the Peloponnesus by the Achaean league, to which a political organ- ization was given by Aratus in 251, and which played a dominant part in the affairs of Greece till the conquest of the country by the Eomans in 146. On the division of the Roman em- pire the Peloponnesus became subject to the emperor of Constantinople ; and after the capture of that capital by the crusaders in 1204 it became the spoil of various princes and the seat of petty principalities. The Turks conquered it in the latter part of the 15th century, and subsequently waged wars for its possession against the Venetians, who obtained it by the peace of Carlo vitz in 1699, but lost it in 1715. During the Greek war of indepen- dence, which began in 1821, it was the theatre of many interesting events. (See GREECE, and the articles on the ancient and modern divisions of the peninsula.) PELOPS, in Grecian mythology, the son of Tantalus and grandson of Zeus. His father, having invited the gods to a banquet, killed Pelops, and served up his remains at table. Ceres ate a piece of the shoulder ; but the other immortals, perceiving what the dish was, ordered Mercury to restore the youth to life by putting the flesh in a caldron. Pelops was accordingly taken out alive, and in place of the part which Ceres had eaten received a shoulder of ivory, whence all his descendants, the Pelo- pidao, were supposed to have one shoulder remarkably white. Afterward he applied to (Enomaus, king of Pisa in Elis, for the hand of his daughter Hippodamia ; but the king, having been told by an oracle that his son in- law would kill him, refused unless Pelops should conquer him in a chariot race, declaring that he would take his life if he failed. Pelops bribed the king's charioteer Myrtilus to remove the linchpins of the royal chariot, and in the race (Enomaus was thrown out and killed. The victor then took Hippodamia to wife, assumed the government of Pisa, and soon made him- self master of Olympia, where he restored the Olympic games with great splendor. By Hip- podamia he had 15 children, the two eldest of whom were Atreus and Thyestes. He was held in great veneration after his death, and a sanctuary was dedicated to him in the grove Altis at Olympia. PELOIZE, Theophile JnJes, a French chemist, born at Valognes, La Manche, Feb. 26, 1807, died at Bellevue, near Paris, June 1, 1867. He completed his studies under Gay-Lussac, and in 1830 became professor of chemistry at Lille, but soon returned to Paris as lecturer on chem- istry and adjunct of Gay-Lussac at the poly- technic school. He cooperated with Liebig about 1836 in the discovery of oenanthic ether and in other chemical researches. In June, 1837, he succeeded Dumas as titular professor at the polytechnic school, and from 1839 to 1851 filled the chair previously occupied by Thenard at the college de France. He was also assay er of the mint, and in 1848 became presi- dent of the coinage commission. He estab- lished a private laboratory in 1846, which was attended by many pupils. In conjunction with E. Fre"my he published Traite de chimie ge- nerale, ancdytique, industrielle et agricole (3d revised ed., 7 vols., 1862-'5), and Abrege de chimie (4th ed., 3 vols., 1865-'6) ; and among his numerous other works is Memoire sur la poudre-coton (pyroxyle) (1864). PELVIS (Lat., a basin), in anatomy, the low- est of the three great divisions of the trunk, the upper being the thorax and the middle di- vision the abdomen. The term pelvis is gen- erally used to designate the bony framework which supports the lumbar vertebrae and rests upon the thigh bones, while the space included is called the cavity of the pelvis. It is com- posed of four bones, viz. : two ossa innomi- nata, a a, and, included between them posteri- orly, the sacrum, s s, and coccyx, x. Each os 'innominatum is divided into three parts, the ilium, the ischium, and the pubis. The ilium is the wing or more expanded division marked