Pidorus, a town near mount Athos. Herodotus, bk. 7, ch. 122.
Pidytes, a man killed by Ulysses during the Trojan war.
Piĕlus, a son of Neoptolemus king of Epirus, after his father. Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 11.
Pĭĕra, a fountain of Peloponnesus, between Elis and Olympia. Pausanias, bk. 5, ch. 16.
Piĕria, a small tract of country in Thessaly or Macedonia, from which the epithet of Pierian was applied to the Muses, and to poetical compositions. Martial, bk. 9, ltr. 88, li. 3.—Horace, bk. 4, ode 8, li. 20.——A place between Cilicia and Syria.——One of the wives of Danaus, mother of six daughters, called Actea, Podarce, Dioxippe, Adyte, Ocypete, and Pilarge. Apollodorus, bk. 2.——The wife of Oxylus the son of Hæmon, and mother of Ætolus and Laias. Pausanias, bk. 5, ch. 3.——The daughter of Pythas, a Milesian, &c.
Piĕrĭdes, a name given to the Muses, either because they were born in Pieria, in Thessaly, or because they were supposed by some to be the daughters of Pierus, a king of Macedonia, who settled in Bœotia.——Also the daughters of Pierus, who challenged the Muses to a trial in music, in which they were conquered, and changed into magpies. It may perhaps be supposed that the victorious Muses assumed the name of the conquered daughters of Pierus, and ordered themselves to be called Pierides, in the same manner as Minerva was called Pallas because she had killed the giant Pallas. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 5, li. 300.
Piĕris, a mountain of Macedonia. Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 29.
Piĕrus, a mountain of Thessaly, sacred to the Muses, who were from thence, as some imagine, called Pierides.——A rich man of Thessaly, whose nine daughters, called Pierides, challenged the Muses, and were changed into magpies when conquered. Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 29.——A river of Achaia, in Peloponnesus.——A town of Thessaly. Pausanias, bk. 7, ch. 21.——A mountain with a lake of the same name in Macedonia.
Piĕtas, a virtue which denotes veneration for the deity, and love and tenderness to our friends. It received divine honours among the Romans, and was made one of their gods. Acilius Glabrio first erected a temple to this new divinity, on the spot where a woman had fed with her own milk her aged father, who had been imprisoned by the order of the senate, and deprived of all aliments. Cicero, De Divinatione, bk. 1.—Valerius Maximus, bk. 5, ch. 4.—Pliny, bk. 7, ch. 36.
Pigres and Mattyas, two brothers, &c. Herodotus.——The name of three rivers.