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
PURANAS, Hindu Scriptures
PWYLL, Prince of Dyved
PYGMALION, sculptor in love with a statue he had made, brought to life by Venus, brother of Queen Dido
PYGMIES, nation of dwarfs, at war with the Cranes
PYLADES, son of Straphius, friend of Orestes
PYRAMUS, who loved Thisbe, next door neighbor, and, their parents opposing, they talked through cracks in the house wall, agreeing to meet in the near by woods, where Pyramus, finding a bloody veil and thinking Thisbe slain, killed himself, and she, seeing his body, killed herself (Burlesqued in Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream")
PYRRHA, wife of Deucalion
PYRRHUS (Neoptolemus), son of Achilles
PYTHAGORAS, Greek philosopher (540 BC), who thought numbers to be the essence and principle of all things, and taught transmigration of souls of the dead into new life as human or animal beings
PYTHIA, priestess of Apollo at Delphi