Prœrosia, a surname of Ceres. Her festivals, celebrated at Athens and Eleusis before the sowing of corn, bore the same name. Meursius, Eleusinia.
Prœtĭdes, the daughters of Prœtus king of Argolis, were three in number, Lysippe, Iphinoe, and Iphianassa. They became insane for neglecting the worship of Bacchus, or, according to others, for preferring themselves to Juno, and they ran about the fields, believing themselves to be cows, and flying away not to be harnessed to the plough or to the chariot. Prœtus applied to Melampus to cure his daughters of their insanity, but he refused to employ him when he demanded the third part of his kingdom as a reward. This neglect of Prœtus was punished, the insanity became contagious, and the monarch at last promised Melampus two parts of his kingdom and one of his daughters, if he would restore them and the Argian women to their senses. Melampus consented, and after he had wrought the cure, he married the most beautiful of the Prœtides. Some have called them Lysippe, Ipponoe, and Cyrianassa. Apollodorus, bk. 2, ch. 2.—Virgil, Eclogues, poem 6, li. 48.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 15.—Lactantius [Placidus] on Statius, Thebaid, bks. 1 & 3.
Prœtus, a king of Argos, son of Abas and Ocalea. He was twin brother to Acrisius, with whom he quarrelled even before their birth. This dissension between the two brothers increased with their years. After their father’s death, they both tried to obtain the kingdom of Argos; but the claims of Acrisius prevailed, and Prœtus left Peloponnesus and retired to the court of Jobates king of Lycia, where he married Stenobœa, called by some Antea or Antiope. He afterwards returned to Argolis, and by means of his father-in-law he made himself master of Tirynthus. Stenobœa had accompanied her husband to Greece, and she became by him mother of the Prœtides, and of a son called Megapenthes, who after his father’s death succeeded on the throne of Tirynthus. See: [Stenobœa]. Homer, Iliad, bk. 6, li. 160.—Apollodorus, bk. 2, ch. 2.
Progne, a daughter of Pandion king of Athens by Zeuxippe. She married Tereus king of Thrace, by whom she had a son called Itylus or Itys. See: [Philomela].
Prolăus, a native of Elis, father to Philanthus and Lampus by Lysippe. Pausanias, bk. 5, ch. 2.
Promăchus, one of the Epigoni, son of Parthenopæus. Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 20.——A son of Psophis daughter of Eryx king of Sicily. Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 34.——An athlete of Pallene.——A son of Æson, killed by Pelias. Apollodorus.
Promathĭdas, an historian of Heraclea.
Promathion, a man who wrote a history of Italy. Plutarch, Romulus.
Promĕdon, a native of the island of Naxos, &c.
Promenæa, one of the priestesses of the temple of Dodona. It was from her that Herodotus received the tradition that two doves had flown from Thebes in Egypt, one to Dodona, and the other to the temple of Jupiter Ammon, where they gave oracles.—Herodotus, bk. 2, ch. 55.