Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/135

PARIS. (H. iu. 16, &c.) ; but when Menelaus advanced against him, he took to flight. As Hector up- braided him for his cowardice, he offered to fight in single combat with Menelaus for the possession of Helen (iii. 70). Menelaus accepted the chal- lenge, and Paris though conquered was removed from the field of battle by Aphrodite (iii. 380). The goddess then brought Helen back to him, and as she as well as Hector stirred him up, he after- wards returned to battle, and slew Menesthius (vi. 503, vii. 2, &c.). He steadily refused to give up Helen to the Greeks, though he was willing to restore the treasures he had stolen at Sparta (vii. 347, &c.). Homer describes Paris as a handsome man, as fond of the female sex and of music, and as not ignorant of war, but as dilatory and cow- ardly, and detested by his own friends for having brought upon them the fatal war with the Greeks. He killed Achilles by a stratagem in the sanctuary of the Thymbraean Apollo (Hom. //. xxii. 359 ; Diet. Cret. iv. 11 ; Serv. ad Aen. iii. 85, 322, vi. 57) ; and when Troy was taken, he himself was wounded by Philoctetes with an arrow of Heracles (Soph. Philoct 1426), and then returned to his long abandoned first wife Oenone. But she, re- membering the wrong she had suffered, or according to others being prevented by her father, refused to heal the wound, or could not heal it as it had been inflicted by a poisoned arrow. He then returned to Troy and died. Oenone soon after changed her mind, and hastened after him with remedies, but came too late, and in her grief hung herself. (ApoUod. iii. 12. § 6 ; Diet. Cret. iv. 19.) Accord- ing to others she threw herself from a tower, or rushed into the flames of the funeral pile on which the body of Paris was burning. (Lycoph. Q5 ; Tzetz- ad Lye. 61 ; Q. Smyrn. x. 467.) By Helena, Paris is said to have been the father of Bunicus (Bunomus or Bunochus), Cory thus, Aga- nus, Ii'aeus, and of a daughter Helena. (Diet. Cret. v. 5 ; Tzetz. ad Lye. 851 ; Parthen. Erot. 34 ; Ptolem. Hephaest. 4.) Paris was represented in works of art as a youthful man, without a beard and almost feminine beauty, with the Phrygian cap, and sometimes with an apple in his hand, which he presented to Aphrodite. (Comp. Mas. Pio-Clement. ii. 37.) [L. S.] PARIS, the name of two celebrated pantomimes in the time of the early Roman emperors. 1. The elder Paris lived in the reign of the emperor Nero, with whom he was a great favourite. He was originally a slave of Domitia, the aunt of the emperor, and he purchased his freedom by pay- ing her a large sum of money. Domitia availed her- self of his influence with Nero to attempt the ruin of Agrippina, whom she hated. The plot, how- ever, failed, and Agrippina demanded the punish- ment of her accusers ; but Paris stood too high in the monarch's favour to experience the punishment which was inflicted on his accomplices. Shortly after this Paris was declared, by order of the em- peror, to have been free-born {ingenuus), and Do- mitia was compelled to restore to him the large sum which she had received for his freedom (Tac. A72n. xiii. 19—22, 27 ; Dig, 12. tit. 4. s. 3. § 5). Paris, however, was not fortunate enough to retain the favour of the emperor. The silly man wished to become a pantomime himself ; and as he was unable to profit by the lessons in dancing which Paris gave him, and looked upon the latter as a dangerous rival, he had him put to death towards the end PARMENIDES. 123 of his reign. (Dion Cass. Ixiii. 18 ; Suet. Ner. 54.) 2. The younger Paris, and the more celebrated of the two, lived in the reign of Domitian. He was originally a native of Egypt (hence called sales A^27i by Martial, xi, 13), and repaired to Rome, where his wonderful skill in pantomimic dances gained him the favour of the public, the love of the profligate Roman matrons, and such influence at the imperial court that he was allowed to promote his creatures to places of high oftice and trust. It is stated by the Pseudo-Suetonius, in his life of Juvenal, and by the ancient commentators, that this poet was banished to Egypt on account of his attack upon Paris (vii. 86 — 91), but there seems good reason for rejecting this story, as we have shown in the life of Juvenal [Juvenalis]. The popularity of Paris was at length his ruin. Do- mitia, the wife of the emperor, fell desperately in love with him ; but when Domitian became ac- quainted with the intrigue, he divorced his wife, and had Paris murdered in the public street. So infuriated was he against the actor, that he even put to death a youth who was a pupil of Paris, merely because he bore a resemblance to his master in form and in skill. The people deeply deplored the death of their fiivourite ; some strewed the spot where he fell with flowers and perfumes, for which act they were killed by the tyrant ; and Martial only expressed the general feeling of the city, when he called him in the epithet (xi. 13) which he com- posed in his honour, " Romani decus et dolor theatri." (Dion Cass. Ixvii, 3 ; Suet. Dojn. 3, 10 ; Juv. vi. 82—87, and Schol.) PARIS, JU'LIUS, the abbreviator of Valerius Maximus, is spoken of in the life of the latter. [Vol, II. p. 1002.] PARISADES [Paerisades.] PARME'NIDES (nap/iej/i57}s), a distinguished Greek philosopher, the son of P3Trhes. He was born in the Greek colony of Elea in Italy, which had probably been founded not long before (01. 61 ), and was descended from a wealthy and illustrious family (Diog, Laert. ix. 21 — 25, with Sim, Kars- ten's emendation in Parmenidis Eleatae carminis Reliquiae, Amstelodami, 1 835, p, 3, note). Accord- ing to the statement of Plato, Parmenides, at the age of <o5., came to Athens to the Panathenaea, ac- companied by Zeno, then 40 years old, and became acquainted with Socrates, who at that time was quite young. This statement, which is designedly repeated by Plato {Plat. Parm. p. 127, h.,Soph. p, 217, c. Theaetet. p. 183, e), may very well be reconciled with the apparently discrepant chrono- logy in Diogenes Laertius (ix. 23), and has with- out reason been assailed by Athenaeus (xi. 15, p. 505, f,, comp. Macrobius, Saturn, i. I). Accord- ing to the chronology of Plato the journey of Par- menides would fall in the 80th or 81st Olympiad (Socrates was born in the 4th year of the 77th Olymp.), his birth in the 65th Olympiad, and the period when he flourished would only be set down by Diogenes Laertius a few Olympiads too soon (01. Qd), Eusebius gives the fourth year of the 80th Olympiad as the period when he flourished, connecting him very accurately with Empedocles, Zeno, and Heracleitus; whereas Theophrastus is stated to have set him down as a hearer of Anaxi- mander (Diog. Laert. ix. 21). The former state- ments, considering the indenniteness of the expres-