A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

PARIS. PARMENIDES. 123
(n. iii. 16, &c.); but when Menelaus advanced of his reign. (Dion Cass. lxiii. 18; Suet. NAer.
against him. he took to flight. As Hector up- 54.)
braided him for his cowardice, he offered to fight 2. The younger Paris, and the more celebrated
in single combat with Menelaus for the possession of the two, lived in the reign of Domitian. He
of Helen (iii. 70). Menelaus accepted the chal- was originally a native of Egypt (hence called sales
lenge,. and Paris though conquered was removed Nili by Martial, xi. 13), and repaired to Rome,
from the field of battle by Aphrodite (iii. 380). where his wonderful skill in pantomimic dances
The goddess then brought Helen back to him, and gained him the favour of the public, the love of the
as she as well as Hector stirred him up, he after- profligate Roman matrons, and such influence at
wards returned to battle, and slew Menesthius the imperial court that he was allowed to promote
(vi. 503, vii. 2, &c.). He steadily refused to give his creatures to places of high office and trust. It
up Helen to the Greeks, though he was willing to is stated by the Pseudo-Suetonius, in his life of
restore the treasures he had stolen at Sparta (vii. Juvenal, and by the ancient commentators, that
347, &c.). Homer describes Paris as a handsome this poet was banished to Egypt on account of his
man, as fond of the female sex and of music, and attack upon Paris (vii. 86-91), but there seems
as not ignorant of war, but as dilatory and cov- good reason for rejecting this story, as we have
ardly, and detested by his own friends for having shown in the life of Juvenal [JUVENALIS]. T.:e
brought upon them the fatal war with the Greeks. popularity of Paris was at length his ruin. DoI-He killed Achilles by a stratagem in the sanctuary mitia, the wife of the emperor, fell desperately in
of the Thymbraean Apollo (Hom. II. xxii. 359; love with him; but when Domitian became acDict. Cret. iv. 11; Serv. ad Aen. iii. 85, 322, vi. quainted with the intrigue, he divorced his wife,
57); and when Troy was taken, he himself was and had Paris murdered in the public street. So
wounded by Philoctetes with an arrow of Heracles infuriated was he against the actor, that he even
(Soph. P/siloct. 1426), and then returned to his put to death a youth who was a pupil of Paris,
long abandoned first wife Oenone. But she, re- merely because he bore a resemblance to his master
membering the wrong she had suffered, or according in form and in skill. The people deeply deplored
to others being prevented by her father, refused to the death of their falvourite; some strewed the spot
heal the wound, or could not heal it as it had been where he fell with flowers and perfumes, for which
inflicted by a poisoned arrow. I-Ie then returned act they were killed by the tyrant; and Martial
to Troy and died. Oenone soon after changed her only expressed the general feeling of the city, when
mind, and hastened after him with remedies, but he called him in the epithet (xi. 13) which he comncame too late, and in her grief hung herself. posed in his honour,
(Apollod. iii. 12. ~ 6; Dict. Cret. iv. 19.) Accord- " Romani decus et dolor theatri."
ing to others she threw herself from a tower, or (Dion Cass. lxvii. 3; Suet. Dom,. 3, 10; Juv. vi.
rushed into the flames of the funeral pile on which 82-87, and Schol.)
the body of Paris was burning. (Lycoph. 65; PARIS, JU'LIUS, the abbreviator of Valerills
Tzetz. ad Lye. 61; Q. Smyrn. x. 467.) By Maximus, is spoken of in the life of the latter.
Helena, Paris is said to have been the father of [Vol. II. p. 1002.]
Bunicus (Bunomus or Bunochus), Corythus, Aga- PARISADES [PAERISADES.]
nus, Idaeus, and of a daughter Helena. (Dict. PARME'NIDES (rlapY/ev'8ls), a distinguished
Cret. v. 5; Tzetz. ad Lyc. 851; Parthen. Erot. Greek philosopher, the son of Pyrrhes. He was
34; Ptolem. Hephaest. 4.) Paris was represented born in the Greek colony of Elea in Italy, which
in works of art as a youthful man, without a beard had probably been founded not long before (01. 61),
and almost feminine beauty, with the Phrygian and was descended from a wealthy and illustrious
cap, and sometimes with an apple in his hand, family (Diog. Laert. ix. 21-25, with Sim. Karswhich he presented to Aphrodite. (Comp. Mlts. ten's emendation in Parcnezidis Eleatae creminais
Pio-Cleiment. ii. 37.) [L. S.] Reliquiae, Amstelodalmi, 1835, p. 3, note). AccordPARIS, the name of two celebrated pantomimes ing to the statement of Plato, Parm-enides, at the
in the time of the early Roman emperors. age of 65, came to Athens to the Panathenaea, ac1. The elder Paris lived in the reign of the companied by Zeno, then 40 years old, and became
emperor Nero, with whom he was a great favourite. acquainted with Socrates, who at that time was
He was originally a slave of Domitia, the aunt of quite young. This statement, which is designedly
the emperor, and he purchased his freedom by pay- repeated by Plato (Plat. Parem. p. 127, b., SoPh.
ing her a large sum of money. Dolnitia availed her- p. 217, c. T'zeaetet. p. 183, e), may very well be
self of his influence with Nero to attempt the ruin reconciled with the apparently discrepant chronoof Agrippina, whom she hated. The plot, how- logy in Diogenes Lal;rtius (ix. 23), and has withever, failed, and Agrippina demanded the punish- out reason been assailed by Atheinaeus (xi. 15,
ment of her accusers; but Paris stood too high in p. 505, f., comp. Macrobins, Saturrzn. i. 1). Accordthe monarch's favour to experience the punishment ing to the chronology of Plato the journey of Parwhich was inflicted on his accomplices. Shortly menides would fall in the 80th or 81st Olympisadl
after this Paris was declared, by order of the em- (Socrates was born in the 4th year of the 771th
peror, to have been free-born (issgenzlus), and Do- Olymp.), his birth in the 65th Olympiad, and tile
mitia was compelled to restore to him the large sum period when he flourished would only be set downl
which she had received for his freedom (Tac. Ann. by Diogenes Labrtius a few Olympiads too soon
xiii. 19-22, 27; Dig. 12. tit. 4. s. 3. ~ 5). Paris, (01. 69). Eusebius gives the fourth year of the
however, was not fortusnate enough to retain the 80th Olympiad as the period when he flourished,
favour of the emperor. The silly man wished to connecting hlim very accurately with Empedocles,
become a pantomime himself; and as he was unable Zeno, and Heracleitus; whereas Theophrastus is
to profit by the lessons in dancing which Paris gave stated to have set him down as a hearer of Anaxihin, and looked upon the latter as a dangerous mander (Diog. Lairt. ix. 21). The former staterival, he had him puet to death towards the end ments, considerisng the inldefiniteiess of' the expecs