Puticŭlæ, a place near the Esquiline gate, where the meanest of the Roman populace were buried. Part of it was converted into a garden by Mecænas, who received it as a present from Augustus. Horace, bk. 1, satire 8, li. 8.—Varro, de Lingua Latina, bk. 4, ch. 5.
Pyanepsia, an Athenian festival celebrated in honour of Theseus and his companions; who, after their return from Crete, were entertained with all manner of fruits, and particularly pulse. From this circumstance, the Pyanepsia was ever after commemorated by the boiling of pulse, ἀπο του ἑψειν πυανα. Some, however, suppose that it was observed in commemoration of the Heraclidæ, who were entertained with pulse by the Athenians.
Pydna, a town of Macedonia, originally called Citron, situate between the mouth of the rivers Aliacmon and Lydius. It was in this city that Cassander massacred Olympias the mother of Alexander the Great, his wife Roxane, and his son Alexander. Pydna is famous for a battle which was fought there, on the 22nd of June, B.C. 168, between the Romans under Paulus, and king Perseus, in which the latter was conquered, and Macedonia soon after reduced to the form of a Roman province. Justin, bk. 14, ch. 6.—Florus.—Plutarch, Æmilius Paulus.—Livy, bk. 44, ch. 10.
Pygela, a seaport town of Ionia. Livy, bk. 37, ch. 11.
Pygmæi, a nation of dwarfs, in the extremest parts of India, or, according to others, in Æthiopia. Some authors affirm that they were no more than one foot high, and that they built their houses with egg-shells. Aristotle says that they lived in holes under the earth, and that they came out in the harvest time with hatchets to cut down the corn as if to fell a forest. They went on goats and lambs of proportionable stature to themselves, to make war against certain birds, whom some call cranes, which came there yearly from Scythia to plunder them. They were originally governed by Gerana, a princess who was changed into a crane, for boasting herself fairer than Juno. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 6, li. 90.—Homer, Iliad, bk. 3.—Strabo, bk. 7.—Aristotle, History of Animals, bk. 8, ch. 12.—Juvenal, satire 13, li. 186.—Pliny, bk. 4, &c.—Mela, bk. 3, ch. 8.—Suetonius, Augustus, ch. 83.—Philostratus, Imagines, bk. 2, ch. 22, mentions that Hercules once fell asleep in the deserts of Africa, after he had conquered Antæus, and that he was suddenly awakened by an attack which had been made upon his body by an army of these Liliputians, who discharged their arrows with great fury upon his arms and legs. The hero, pleased with their courage, wrapped the greatest number of them in the skin of the Nemæan lion, and carried them to Eurystheus.
Pygmæon, a surname of Adonis in Cyprus. Hesychius.
Pygmălion, a king of Tyre, son of Belus, and brother to the celebrated Dido, who founded Carthage. At the death of his father, he ascended the vacant throne, and soon became odious by his cruelty and avarice. He sacrificed everything to the gratification of his predominant passions, and he did not even spare the life of Sichæus, Dido’s husband, because he was the most powerful and opulent of all the Phœnicians. This murder he committed in a temple, of which Sichæus was the priest; but instead of obtaining the riches which he desired, Pygmalion was shunned by his subjects, and Dido, to avoid further acts of cruelty, fled away with her husband’s treasures, and a large colony, to the coast of Africa, where she founded a city. Pygmalion died in the 56th year of his age, and in the 47th of his reign. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 1, li. 347, &c.—Justin, bk. 18, ch. 5.—Apollodorus, bk. 3.—Silius Italicus, bk. 1.——A celebrated statuary of the island of Cyprus. The debauchery of the females of Amathus, to which he was a witness, created in him such an aversion for the fair sex, that he resolved never to marry. The affection which he had denied to the other sex, he liberally bestowed upon the works of his own hands. He became enamoured of a beautiful statue of marble which he had made, and at his earnest request and prayers, according to the mythologists, the goddess of beauty changed the favourite statue into a woman, whom the artist married, and by whom he had a son called Paphus, who founded the city of that name in Cyprus. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 10, fable 9.
Pylădes, a son of Strophius king of Phocis, by one of the sisters of Agamemnon. He was educated, together with his cousin Orestes, with whom he formed the most inviolable friendship, and whom he assisted to revenge the murder of Agamemnon, by assassinating Clytemnestra and Ægysthus. He also accompanied him to Taurica Chersonesus, and for his services Orestes rewarded him by giving him his sister Electra in marriage. Pylades had by her two sons, Medon and Strophius. The friendship of Orestes and Pylades became proverbial. See: [Orestes]. Euripides, Iphigeneia.—Æschylus, Agamemnon, &c.—Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 28.——A celebrated Greek musician, in the age of Philopœmen. Plutarch, Philopœmen.——A mimic in the reign of Augustus, banished, and afterwards recalled.
Pylæ, a town of Asia, between Cappadocia and Cilicia. Cicero, bk. 5, Letters to Atticus. The word Pylæ, which signifies gates, was often applied by the Greeks to any straits or passages which opened a communication between one country and another, such as the straits of Thermopylæ, of Persia, Hyrcania, &c.
Pylæmĕnes, a Paphlagonian, son of Melius, who came to the Trojan war, and was killed by Menelaus. His son, called Harpalion, was killed by Meriones. Dictys Cretensis, bk. 2, ch. 34.—Homer, Iliad, bk. 2, li. 358.——A king of Mæonia, who sent his sons, Mestes and Antiphus, to the Trojan war.——Another, son of Nicomedes, banished from Paphlagonia by Mithridates, and restored by Pompey. Eutropius, bks. 5 & 6.