[♦] ‘labryrinth’ replaced with ‘labyrinth’
Parphŏrus, a native of Colophon, who, at the head of a colony, built a town at the foot of Ida, which was abandoned for a situation nearer his native city. Strabo, bk. 14.—Pausanias, bk. 7, ch. 3.
Parrhăsia, a town of Arcadia, founded by Parrhasius the son of Jupiter. The Arcadians are sometimes called Parrhasians, and Arcas Parrhasis, and Carmenta, Evander’s mother, Parrhasiadea. Lucan, bk. 2, li. 237.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 8, li. 333.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 8, li. 315; Fasti, bk. 1, li. 618; Tristia, bk. 1, li. 190.—Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 27.
Parrhăsius, a famous painter, son of Evenor of Ephesus, in the age of Zeuxis, about 415 years before Christ. He was a great master of his profession, and particularly excelled in strongly expressing the violent passions. He was blessed with a great genius, and much invention, and he was particularly happy in his designs. He acquired himself great reputation by his pieces, but by none more than that in which he allegorically represented the people of Athens with all the injustice, the clemency, the fickleness, timidity, the arrogance and inconsistency, which so eminently characterized that celebrated nation. He once entered the lists against Zeuxis, and when they had produced their respective pieces, the birds came to pick with the greatest avidity the grapes which [♦]Zeuxis had painted. Immediately Parrhasius exhibited his piece, and Zeuxis said, “Remove your curtain, that we may see the painting.” The curtain was the painting, and Zeuxis acknowledged himself conquered, by exclaiming, “Zeuxis has deceived birds, but Parrhasius has deceived Zeuxis himself”. Parrhasius grew so vain of his art, that he clothed himself in purple, and wore a crown of gold, calling himself the king of painters. He was lavish in his own praises, and by his vanity too often exposed himself to the ridicule of his enemies. Plutarch, Theseus; Quomodo Adolescens Poetas Audire Debeat.—Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 28.—Pliny, bk. 35, ch. 10.—Horace, bk. 4, ode 8.——A son of Jupiter, or, according to some, of Mars, by a nymph called Philonomia.
[♦] ‘Xeuxis’ replaced with ‘Zeuxis’
Parthamisiris, a king of Armenia, in the reign of Trajan.
Parthāon, a son of Agenor and Epicaste, who married Euryte daughter of Hippodamus, by whom he had many children, among whom were Œneus and Sterope. Parthaon was brother to Demonice, the mother of Evenus by Mars, and also to Molus, Pylus, and Thestius. He is called Portheus by Homer, Iliad, bk. 14.—Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 7.—Hyginus, fables 129 & 239.——A son of Peripetus and father of Aristas. Pausanias, bk. 8.
Parthĕniæ and Parthĕnii, a certain number of desperate citizens of Sparta. During the Messenian war, the Spartans were absent from their city for the space of 10 years, and it was unlawful for them to return, as they had bound themselves by a solemn oath not to revisit Sparta before they had totally subdued Messenia. This long absence alarmed the Lacedæmonian women, as well as the magistrates. The Spartans were reminded by their wives, that if they continued in their resolution, the state must at last decay for want of citizens, and when they had duly considered this embassy, they empowered all the young men in the army, who had come to the war while yet under age, and who therefore were not bound by the oath, to return to Sparta, and, by a familiar and promiscuous intercourse with all the unmarried women of the state, to raise a future generation. It was carried into execution, and the children that sprang from this union were called Partheniæ, or sons of virgins (παρθενος). The war with Messenia was some time after ended, and the Spartans returned victorious; but the cold indifference with which they looked upon the Partheniæ was attended with serious consequences. The Partheniæ knew they had no legitimate fathers, and no inheritance, and that therefore their life depended upon their own exertions. This drove them almost to despair. They joined with the Helots, whose maintenance was as precarious as their own, and it was mutually agreed to murder all the citizens of Sparta, and to seize their possessions. This massacre was to be done at a general assembly, and the signal was the throwing of a cap in the air. The whole, however, was discovered through the diffidence and apprehensions of the Helots; and when the people had assembled, the Partheniæ discovered that all was known, by the voice of a crier, who proclaimed that no man should throw up his cap. The Partheniæ, though apprehensive of punishment, were not visibly treated with greater severity; their calamitous condition was attentively examined, and the Spartans, afraid of another conspiracy, and awed by their numbers, permitted them to sail for Italy, with Phalantus their ringleader at their head. They settled in Magna Græcia, and built Tarentum, about 707 years before Christ. Justin, bk. 3, ch. 5.—Strabo, bk. 6.—Pausanias, on Laconia, &c.—Plutarch, Apophthegmata Laconica.
Parthĕnias, a river of Peloponnesus, flowing by Elis. Pausanias, bk. 6, ch. 21.——The ancient name of Samos. Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 31.
Parthĕnion, a mountain of Peloponnesus at the north of Tegea. Pausanias.