[Pelion], a range, or the highest of a range, of mountains in the E. of Thessaly, upon which, according to Greek fables, the Titans hoisted up Mount Ossa in order to scale heaven and dethrone Zeus, a strenuous enterprise which did not succeed, and the symbol of all such.
[Pelissier], a French marshal, born near Rouen; was made Duc de Malakoff for storming the Malakoff tower, which led to the fall of Sebastopol in 1855; rose from the ranks to be Governor-General of Algeria, the office he held when he died (1794-1864).
[Pella], the capital of Macedonia, and the birthplace of Alexander the Great, stood on a hill amid the marches NW. of Thessalonica.
[Pellegrini, Carlo], a caricaturist, born in Capua; came to London; was distinguished for the inimitable drollery of his cartoons (1838-1889).
[Pellico, Silvio], Italian poet and patriot, born in Piedmont; suffered a fifteen years' imprisonment in the Spielberg at Brünn for his patriotism, from which he was liberated in 1830; he wrote an account of his life in prison, which commanded attention all over Europe, both for the subject-matter of it and the fascination of the style (1789-1854).
[Pellisson, Paul], a man of letters and a wit of the age of Louis XIV.; spent some five years in the Bastille, but after his release was appointed historiographer-royal; in his captivity he made a companion of a spider, who was accustomed to eat out of his hand (1624-1693).
[Pelopidas], a Theban general, and leader of the "sacred band"; the friend of Epaminondas; contributed to the expulsion (379 B.C.) of the Spartans from the citadel of Thebes, of which they had taken possession in 380, after which he was elected to the chief magistracy; gained a victory over Alexander of Pheræ the tyrant of Thessaly, but lost his life in 362 while too eagerly pursuing the foe.
[Peloponnesian War], a war of thirty years' duration (431-404 B.C.) between Athens and Sparta, which ended in the supremacy of the latter, till the latter was overthrown at Leuctra by the Thebans under Epaminondas in 371 B.C. This war is the subject of the history of Thucydides.
[Peloponnesus] (lit. the Isle of Pelops), the ancient name of the Morea of Greece, the chief cities of which were Corinth, Argos, and Sparta; it was connected with the rest of Greece by the Isthmus of Corinth.
[Pelops], in the Greek mythology the grandson of Zeus and son of Tantalus, who was slain by his father and served up by him at a banquet he gave the gods to test their omniscience, but of the shoulder of which only Demeter in a fit of abstraction partook, whereupon the gods ordered the body to be thrown into a boiling caldron, from which Pelops was drawn out alive, with the shoulder replaced by one of ivory.