Pillars of Hercules, two mountains—­Calpe, now the Rock of Gibraltar, southwest corner of Spain in Europe, and Abyla, facing it in Africa across the strait

Pindar, famous Greek poet

Pindus, Grecian mountain

PIRENE, celebrated fountain at Corinth

Pirithous, king of the Lapithae in Thessaly, and friend of
Theseus, husband of Hippodamia

Pleasure, daughter of Cupid and Psyche

Pleiades, seven of Diana’s nymphs, changed into stars, one being lost

Plenty, the Horn of

PLEXIPPUS, brother of Althea

Pliny, Roman naturalist

Pluto, the same as Hades, Dis, etc. god of the Infernal Regions

Plutus, god of wealth

Po, Italian river

POLE STAR

POLITES, youngest son of Priam of Troy

Pollux, Castor and (Dioscuri, the Twins) (See Castor)

POLYDECTES, king of Seriphus

POLYDORE, slain kinsman of Aeneas, whose blood nourished a bush that bled when broken

Polyhymnia, Muse of oratory and sacred song

POLYIDUS, soothsayer

Polynices, King of Thebes

Polyphemus, giant son of Neptune

Polyxena, daughter of King Priam of Troy

Pomona, goddess of fruit trees (See Vertumnus)

Porrex and FER’REX, sons of Leir, King of Britain

PORTUNUS, Roman name for Palaemon

Poseidon (Neptune), ruler of the ocean

Precipice, threshold of Helas hall

Prester John, a rumored priest or presbyter, a Christian pontiff in Upper Asia, believed in but never found

Priam, king of Troy

Priwen, Arthur’s shield

Procris, beloved but jealous wife of Cephalus

Procrustes, who seized travellers and bound them on his iron bed, stretching the short ones and cutting short the tall, thus also himself served by Theseus

Proetus, jealous of Bellerophon

Prometheus, creator of man, who stole fire from heaven for man’s use

Proserpine, the same as Persephone, goddess of all growing things, daughter of Ceres, carried off by Pluto

Protesilaus, slain by Hector the Trojan, allowed by the gods to return for three hours’ talk with his widow Laodomia

Proteus, the old man of the sea

Prudence (Metis), spouse of Jupiter

Pryderi, son of Pwyll

Psyche, a beautiful maiden, personification of the human soul, sought by Cupid (Love), to whom she responded, lost him by curiosity to see him (as he came to her only by night), but finally through his prayers was made immortal and restored to him, a symbol of immortality