Perilla, a daughter of Ovid the poet. She was extremely fond of poetry and literature. Ovid, Fasti, bk. 3, poem 7, li. 1.
Perillus, an ingenious artist at Athens, who made a brazen bull for Phalaris tyrant of Agrigentum. This machine was fabricated to put criminals to death by burning them alive, and it was such that their cries were like the roaring of a bull. When Perillus gave it to Phalaris, the tyrant made the first experiment upon the donor, and cruelly put him to death by lighting a slow fire under the belly of the bull. Pliny, bk. 34, ch. 8.—Ovid, Ars Amatoria, bk. 1, li. 653; Ibis, li. 439.——A lawyer and usurer in the age of Horace. Horace, bk. 2, satire 3, li. 75.
Perimēde, a daughter of Æolus, who married Achelous.——The wife of Licymnius.——A woman skilled in the knowledge of herbs and of enchantments. Theocritus, poem 2.
Perimēla, a daughter of Hippodamus, thrown into the sea for receiving the addresses of the Achelous. She was changed into an island in the Ionian sea, and became one of the Echinades. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 8, li. 690.
Perinthia, a play of Menander’s. Terence, Andria, prologue, li. 9.
Pĕrinthus, a town of Thrace, on the Propontis, anciently surnamed Mygdonica. It was afterwards called Heraclea, in honour of Hercules, and now Erekli. Mela, bk. 2, ch. 2.—Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 29.—Pliny, bk. 4, ch. 11.—Livy, bk. 33, ch. 30.
Peripatetĭci, a sect of philosophers at Athens, disciples to Aristotle. They derived this name from the place where they were taught, called Peripaton, in the Lyceum, or because they received the philosopher’s lectures as they walked (περιπατουντες). The Peripatetics acknowledged the dignity of human nature, and placed their summum bonum, not in the pleasures of passive sensation, but in the due exercise of the moral and intellectual faculties. The habit of this exercise, when guided by reason, constituted the highest excellence of man. The philosopher contended that our own happiness chiefly depends upon ourselves, and though he did not require in his followers that self-command to which others pretended, yet he allowed a moderate degree of perturbation, as becoming human nature, and he considered a certain sensibility of passion totally necessary, as by resentment we are enabled to repel injuries, and the smart which past calamities have inflicted renders us careful to avoid the repetition. Cicero, Academica, bk. 2, &c.
Perĭphas, a man who attempted, with Pyrrhus, Priam’s palace, &c. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 2, li. 476.——A son of Ægyptus, who married Actæa. Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 1.——One of the Lapithæ. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 12, li. 449.——One of the first kings of Attica, before the age of Cecrops, according to some authors.
Periphēmus, an ancient hero of Greece, to whom Solon sacrificed at Salamis, by order of the oracle.
[♦]Periphētes, a robber of Attica, son of Vulcan, destroyed by Theseus. He is also called Corynetes. Hyginus, fable 38.—Diodorus, bk. 5.