Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/565

PROTESILAUS. 645, &c.), and the tenses and moods of verbs {Diog. Laert. ix 52, 53; Quintil. iii. 4. § 10 ; Frei, I.e. p. 133, &c.). Although Protagoras left it to his pupils to fix the amount of his fees in proportion to the profit they considered themselves to have derived from his lessons (Plat. Prot. p. 328, b. ; Arist. Elh. Nic. ix. 1), he— the first who demanded pa3'ment for instruction and lectures — nevertheless obtained an amount of wealth which became proverbial. (Plat. Hipp. Maj. p. 282, c, Mem., p. 91, d., Theaet. p. 161, a., 179, a.; Quintil. iii. 1. § 10 ; Diog. Laert. ix. 52, 50, &c.) [Ch.A.B.] PROTAGO'RIDES(npwTa7opiSr?s),ofCyzicus, a writer only known to us from Athenaeus, who refers to three of his works : — 1. Tlepl Aa(puiKcou dywuccv^ on the games celebrated at Daphne, a village in the neighbourhood of Antioch (iv, pp. 150, c, 176, a., 183, f.). 2. Ka-ftt/cal 'laropiai, a history of Comedy (iii. p. 124, e.). 3. ^AKpodaeis fpariKal, love tales (iv. p. 162, c). PROTARCHUS {UpwTupxos), an engraver of precious stones, whose name occurs on a very beautiful gem in the Florentine Museum, which represents Eros charming a Hon with the harp. Formerly the artist's nanie was misread IlXcorapxos. {Gal. di Firenz. Gemm. ii. 1 ; Miiller, Archaol. d. , ^M«s<, § 391,n. 4.) [P.S.] PRO'TEAS {Upwrias). 1. An Athenian ge- neral in the time of the Peloponnesian war, the son of Epicles. He was one of the three com- manders of the squadron sent out to assist the Corcyraeans in tlieir contest with the Corinthians. Again, in the first year of the Peloponnesian war (B.C. 431), Proteas was one of the three com- manders of the fleet of 1 00 ships, sent round Pelo- ponnesus (Thuc. i. 45, ii. 23). 2. A Macedonian officer, the son of Andronicua. He was employed by Antipater in collecting a squadron with which to defend the islands and coasts of Greece against the Phoenicians and others in the service of Persia, and succeeded in capturing, at Siphnus, 8 out of a squadron of 10 ships, with which Datames was there stationed, f Arrian, Anab. ii. 2. §7—11.) 3. Son of Lanice, the nurse of Alexander the Great. [Lanice.] 4. Grandson of the former, and, like him, noto- rious for his propensitv to drinking. (Athen. iv. p. 129. a.; Photius, Corf. 190. p. 148. a., ed. Bekker.) [C. P. M.] PROTESIL A'US {Tlpa>re(TlKaos a son of Iphi- clus and Astyoche, and accordingly a brother of Podarces, belonged to Phylace in Thessaly, whence he is called '^vKo.kios (Lucian, Dial. Mort. 23. 1 ; Horn. IL ii. 705 ; Eustath. ad Horn. p. 323), though this name may also be traced to his being a grandson of the Aeolid Phylacus. He led the warriors of several Thessalian places against Troy, and was the first of all the Greeks that was killed by the Trojans, for he was the first who leaped from the ships upon the Trojan coast (Hom. 11. ii. 695, &c. xiii. 681, xv. 705 ; Philostr. //er. ii. 15). According to the common tradition Protesilaus was slain by Hector (Lucian,/. c; Tzetz. ad Lye. 245, 528, 530 ; Hygin. Fab. 103 ; Ov. Met. xii. 67), but, according to others, he fell by the hands of Achates (Eustath. ad Hom. p. 326), of Aeneas (Diet. Cret. ii. 11), or of Euphorbos (Eustath. I. c. p. 325). Protesilaus is most celebrated in ancient story for the strong aiFection and fidelity existing PROTEUS. S5S between him and his wife Laodameia, the daughter of Acastus. When she heard of the death of her husband, she prayed to the infernal gods to be allowed to converse with him only for the space of three hours. The prayer being granted, Hermes conducted Protesilaus for a few hours to the upper world, and when Protesilaus died a second time, Laodameia expired with him (Hygin. Fab. 108 ; Eustath. p. 325). This story, from which the account of Lucian differs only slightly, has been variously modified by the poets, for, according to some, Laodameia, after the second death of her husband, made an image of him, which she wor- shipped, and when her father Acastus ordered her to burn it, she threw herself with the image into the flames ( Hygin. Fab. 1 04). According to others, Protesilaus, on returning from the lower world, found his wife embracing his image, and when he died the second time, he begged of her not to follow too late, whereupon she killed herself with a sword. Others again relate that Laodameia, being com- pelled by her father to marry another man, spent her nights with the image of Protesilaus (Eustath. /. c.) ; but Conon (Narrai. 13), lastly, has quite a different tradition, for according to him, Protesilaus, after the Trojan war, took with him Aethylla, a sister of Priam, who was his prisoner. When, on his homeward voyage, he landed on the Macedonian peninsula of Pallene, between Mende and Scione, and had gone some distance from the coast, to fetch water, Aethylla prevailed upon the otlier women to set fire to the ships. Protesilaus, accordingly, was obliged to remain there, and built the town of Scione. His tomb was shown near Eleus, in the Thracian Chersonesus (Strab. xiii. p. 595; Pans. i. 34. § 2 ; Tzetz. ad Lye. 532). There was a belief that nymphs had planted elm-trees around his grave, and that those of their branches which greAV on the Trojan side were sooner green than the others, but that at the same time the foliage faded and died earlier (Philostr. Her. ii. 1 ) ; or it was said that the trees, when they had grown so high as to see Troy, died away, and that fresh shoots then sprang from their roots (Plin./Z.A^.xvi. 99 ; Anthol. Palat. vii. 141, 385). A magnificent temple was erected to Protesilaus at Eleus, and a sanctuary, at which funeral games were celebrated, existed in Phylace (Herod, vii. 33, 116, 120 ; Pans. iii. 4. § 5 ;'Pind. Isthm. i. 83, with the Schol.). Protesi- laus himself was represented in the Lesche at Delphi. (Paus. x. 30. § 1.) [L. S.] PROTEUS (Jlpwrcvs), the prophetic old man of the sea {aXios y4pwi^), occurs in the earliest legends as a subject of Poseidon, and is described as seeing through the whole depth of the sea, and tending the flocks (the seals) of Poseidon (Hom. Od. iv. 365, 385, 400 ; Virg. Georg. iv. 392 ; Theocr. ii. 58 ; Herat. Carm. i. 2. 7 ; Philostr. Teon. ii. 17). He resided in the island of Pharos, at the distance of one day's journey from the river Aegyptus (Nile), whence he is also called the Egyjptian (Hom. Od. iv. 355, 385). Virgil, how- ever, instead of Pharos, mentions the island of Carpathos, between Crete and Rhodes {Geoi-g. iv. 387 ; couip. Hom. Jl. ii. 676), whereas, according to the same poet, Proteus was bom in Thessaly {Georg. iv. 390, comp. Aen. xi. 262). His life is described as follows. At midday he rises from the flood, and sleeps in the shadow of the rocks of the coaet, and around him lie the monsters of the deep (Hom. Od.