Pronŭba, a surname of Juno, because she presided over marriages. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 4, li. 166.
Propertius Sextus Aurelius, a Latin poet born at Mevania, in Umbria. His father was a Roman knight, whom Augustus proscribed, because he had followed the interest of Antony. He came to Rome, where his genius and poetical talents soon recommended him to the notice of the great and powerful. Mecænas, Gallus, and Virgil became his friends, and Augustus his patron. Mecænas wished him to attempt an epic poem, of which he proposed the emperor for hero; but Propertius refused, observing that his abilities were unequal to the task. He died about 19 years before Christ, in the 40th year of his age. His works consist of four books of elegies, which are written with so much spirit, vivacity, and energy, that many authors call him the prince of the elegiac poets among the Latins. His poetry, though elegant, is not free from faults, and the many lascivious expressions which he uses deservedly expose him to censure. Cynthia, who is the heroine of all his elegies, was a Roman lady, whose real name was Hostia, or Hostilia, of whom the poet was deeply enamoured. Though Mevania is more generally supposed to be the place of his birth, yet four other cities of Umbria have disputed the honour of it; Hespillus, Ameria, Perusia, and Assisium. The best edition is that of Santenius, 4to, Utrecht, 1780; and when published together with Catullus and Tibullus, those of Grævius, 8vo, Utrecht, 1680, and of Vulpius, 4 vols., Patavii, 1737, 1749, 1755, and the edition of Barbou, 12mo, Paris, 1754. Ovid, Tristia, bk. 2, li. 465; bk. 4, poem 10, li. 55; De Ars Amatoria, bk. 3, li. 333.—Martial, bk. 8, ltr. 73; bk. 14, ltr. 189.—Quintilian, bk. 10, ch. 1.—Pliny, bk. 6, Letters; bk. 9, ltr. 22.
Propœtĭdes, some women of Cyprus, severely punished by Venus, whose divinity they had despised. They sent their daughters to the sea-shore, where they prostituted themselves to strangers. The poets have feigned that they were changed into stones, on account of their insensibility to every virtuous sentiment. Justin, bk. 18, ch. 5.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 10, li. 238.
Propontis, a sea which has a communication with the Euxine, by the Thracian Bosphorus, and with the Ægean by the Hellespont, now called the sea of Marmora. It is about 175 miles long and 62 broad, and it received its name from its vicinity to Pontus. Mela, bk. 1, ch. 19.—Strabo, bk. 2.—Ovid, bk. 1; Tristia, bk. 9, li. 29.—Propertius, bk. 3, poem 22.
Propylea, a surname of Diana. She had a temple at Eleusis in Attica.
Proselystius, a surname of Neptune among the Greeks. Pausanias, bk. 2.
Proserpĭna, a daughter of Ceres by Jupiter, called by the Greeks Persephone. She was so beautiful, that the father of the gods himself became enamoured of her, and deceived her by changing himself into a serpent, and folding her in his wreaths. Proserpine made Sicily the place of her residence, and delighted herself with the beautiful views, the flowery meadows, and limpid streams, which surrounded the plains of Enna. In this solitary retreat, as she amused herself with her female attendants in gathering flowers, Pluto carried her away into the infernal regions, of which she became the queen. See: [Pluto]. Ceres was so disconsolate at the loss of her daughter, that she travelled all over the world, but her inquiries were in vain, and she never could have discovered whither she had been carried, had not she found the girdle of Proserpine on the surface of the waters of the fountain Cyane, near which the ravisher had opened himself a passage to his kingdom by striking the earth with his trident. Ceres soon learned from the nymph Arethusa that her daughter had been carried away by Pluto, and immediately she repaired to Jupiter, and demanded of him to punish the ravisher. Jupiter in vain attempted to persuade the mother that Pluto was not unworthy of her daughter, and when he saw that she was inflexible for the restitution of Proserpine, he said that she might return on earth, if she had not taken any aliments in the infernal regions. Her return, however, was impossible. Proserpine, as she walked in the Elysian fields, had gathered a pomegranate from a tree and eaten it, and Ascalaphus was the only one who saw it, and for his discovery the goddess instantly turned him into an owl. Jupiter, to appease the resentment of Ceres, and soothe her grief, permitted that Proserpine should remain six months with Pluto in the infernal regions, and that she should spend the rest of the year with her mother on earth. As queen of hell, and wife of Pluto, Proserpine presided over the death of mankind, and, according to the opinion of the ancients, no one could die, if the goddess herself, or Atropos her minister, did not cut off one of the hairs from the head. From this superstitious belief, it was usual to cut off some of the hair of the deceased, and to strew it at the door of the house, as an offering for Proserpine. The Sicilians were very particular in their worship to Proserpine, and as they believed that the fountain Cyane had risen from the earth at the very place where Pluto had opened himself a passage, they annually sacrificed there a bull, of which they suffered the blood to run into the water. Proserpine was universally worshipped by the ancients, and she was known by the different names of Core, Theogamia, Libitina, Hecate, Juno inferna, Anthesphoria, Cotyto, Deois, Libera, &c. Plutarch, Lucullus.—Pausanias, bk. 8, ch. 37; bk. 9, ch. 31.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 5, fable 6; Fasti, bk. 4, li. 417.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 4, li. 698; bk. 6, li. 138.—Strabo, bk. 7.—Diodorus, bk. 5.—Cicero, Against Verres, bk. 4.—Hyginus, fable 146.—Hesiod, Theogony.—Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 3.—Orpheus, Hymn 28.—Claudian, de Raptu Proserpinæ.
Prosopītis, an island in one of the mouths of the Nile. Herodotus, bk. 2, ch. 4.
Prosper, one of the fathers who died A.D. 466. His works have been edited by Mangeant, folio, Paris, 1711.
Prosymna, a part of Argolis, where Juno was worshipped. It received its name from a nymph of the same name, daughter of Asterion, who nursed Juno. Pausanias, bk. 2.