POLYGLOT POLYGNOTUS. 



617 



tised polygamy, though it was not forbidden among 

 them ; and Mark Antony is mentioned as the first 

 who took the liberty of having two wives. From 

 that time it became frequent in the Roman empire, 

 till the reigns of Theodosius, Honorius and Arca- 

 dius, who prohibited it A. D. 393. After this, 

 Valentiuian permitted all his subjects to marry 

 several wives, if they pleased ; nor does it appear, 

 from the ecclesiastical history of the times, that the 

 bishops made any opposition to the introduction of 

 polygamy. It did not, however, continue long. 



Polygamy prevailed among the Jewish patriarchs, 

 both before and under the Mosaic law, though it 

 lias been doubted whether that law permitted simul- j 

 taneous plurality of wives (Dent. xxi. 15). But the 

 state of manners had probably become reformed in 

 this respect before the time of Christ ; for, in the 

 New Testament, we meet no trace of its practice. ! 

 In the Christian code, there is no express law upon 

 the subject. The words of Christ, however, in Mat. 

 xix. 9, may be construed, by an easy implication, to 

 prohibit polygamy ; for if" Whoever putteth away 

 his wife, and marrieth another, committeth adultery," i 

 he who marrieth another, without putting away the [ 

 first, is no less guilty of adultery ; because the adul- 

 tery does not consist in the repudiation of the first 

 wife, but in entering into a second marriage during j 

 the legal existence of the first. The passages in St \ 

 Paul's writings which speak of marriage always 

 suppose it to signify the union of one man with 

 one woman. But, however this may be, polygamy 

 has been as entirely disused, and universally prohi- 

 bited in all Christian countries, as if Christianity 

 had expressly forbidden it. Polygamy has been 

 allowed under all the religions which have prevail- 

 ed in Asia. By the laws of Mohammed, every 

 Mussulman is permitted to have a plurality of wives. 

 The Arabs, however, seldom avail themselves of 

 this privilege. 



In England, originally, the offence of polygamy 

 was considered as of ecclesiastical cognizance only ; 

 and, although a statute of Edward I. treated it as 

 a capital crime, it appears still to have been of j 

 doubtful temporal cognizance until the statute of 

 James I., c. 11, enacted that persons guilty of poly- 

 gamy should suffer death, as in cases of felony ; 

 but the benefit of clergy was not thereby taken 

 away. By the statute 33 George III., c. 67, poly- 

 gamy is punishable with transportation for seven 

 years, or imprisonment. In the United States of 

 America, the punishment is generally imprisonment 

 for a longer or shorter period, fine, &c. By a con- 

 stitution of Charles V. it was a capital crime, and, 

 by the laws of ancient and modern Sweden, it is 

 punished with death. By the Prussian code of 1794, 

 polygamy is punishable by confinement in a house 

 of correction or fort, for at least one and not more 

 than two years. 



The practice of polygamy has been defended by 

 several authors in modern times. Montesquieu 

 affirms that it is physically conformable to the 

 climate of Asia. He has also suggested that the 

 irregularity in the comparative number of each sex 

 born in Asia, which is represented to be greatly 

 superior on the part of the female side, is also an 

 argument in favour of this practice ; but there is 

 good reason for denying the reality of this supposed 

 inequality. In the year 1780, the reverend Mr 

 Madan published his Thelypthora, in which he 

 attempted to vindicate polygamy, and proposed the 

 introduction of licensed polygamy, in case of female 

 seduction, as a remedy for prostitution. He was 

 ably answered by a writer in the Monthly Review, 

 vol.63, p. 328. 



POLYGLOT (from a-oXt/f, many, and y^urr*, 



language) ; a work which contains the same matter 

 in several languages. It is more particularly used 

 to denote a copy of the Holy Scriptures, in which 

 two, three, or more translations are given, with or 

 without the original. Polyglots are of great service 

 for the understanding the Scriptures, and were 

 early undertaken by theologians. The first great 

 work of the sort is the Complutensian polyglot, pre- 

 pared by several learned men, under the patronage 

 of cardinal Ximenes. Great care and pains were 

 taken in procuring early manuscripts of the text 

 and of the translations. It was splendidly printed 

 1514 17), in six folio volumes, at Alcala de Hena- 

 res (q. v.), in Latin, Complutum, whence its name. 

 It contains the Hebrew text of the Old Testament, 

 with the Vulgate, the Septuagint, a literal Latin 

 translation, a Chaldee paraphrase (which is also 

 accompanied by a Latin translation). Another 

 celebrated polyglot is that of Antwerp, called the 

 Royal Bible, because Philip II. of Spain bore part 

 of the cost of publication. It was conducted by 

 the learned Spanish theologian, Benedict Arias 

 Montanus, who was assisted by other scholars. 

 It appeared at Antwerp, in eight folio volumes 

 (1569 72). and, besides the Hebrew text, contains 

 the Latin Vulgate, the Septuagint (with a literal 

 Latin translation), several Chaldaic paraphrases 

 (Targums), also accompanied by a Latin translation, 

 and the New Testament in the original Greek, with 

 the Latin Vulgate, and a Syriac translation in He- 

 brew and Syriac letters (also with a Latin transla- 

 tion). Still more celebrated is the Paris polyglot, 

 executed principally under the direction of Gui 

 Michael le Jay (an advocate to the parliament, 

 who expended his whole fortune on the object), by 

 several distinguished Orientalists and critics. It 

 appeared in 1645, in ten folio volumes, and contains, 

 in addition to the contents of the Antwerp polyglot, 

 a Syriac and an Arabic translation (with Latin), and 

 also the Samaritan pentateuch (a Samaritan text, 

 with a translation), and likewise an Arabic transla- 

 tion of the New Testament, with a Latin translation 

 of the same. Finally, the London or Walton's poly- 

 glot, in ten languages, appeared in six volumes 

 folio, with two supplementary volumes (London, 

 1654 57). It was conducted under the care of 

 Bryan Walton (q. v.), afterwards bishop of Chester, 

 and contains all that is in the Paris polyglot, but 

 with many additions and improvements. It con- 

 tains the original text according to several copies, 

 with an Ethiopic and a Persian translation, and the 

 Latin versions of each. Cromwell patronised the 

 undertaking. Besides these four great polyglots, 

 there are several of parts of the Bible, particularly 

 of the Psalms. 



POLYGNOTUS OF THASUS, one of the most 

 distinguished Greek painters, flourished from 450 to 

 410 B. C., embellished Athens with his pencil, and 

 was rewarded with the citizenship. Cimon, the 

 demagogue, and rival of Pericles, employed him to 

 decorate the Poecile. He was also the favoured 

 lover of the beautiful Elpinice, sister of Cimon. 

 Micon and Pansenus assisted him in painting the 

 Poecile. His twoprincipal pictures there represented 

 the Greeks before Troy; the subject of one of them 

 was the assembly of the chiefs after the rape of 

 Cassandra; of the other, the captive Trojan females, 

 in the midst of whom was Cassandra. In the Lesche 

 (hall), at Delphi, he painted the Conquest of Troy, 

 and the Regions of the Dead, which are described 

 by Pausanias. In a portico of the Parthenon there 

 were also several easel-pieces, relating to the Trojan 

 war. In the temple of Castor and Pollux was a 

 painting representing the abduction and marriage 

 of the daughters of Leucippus, and in the propyla^a 



