712 
p l a 
logia, fuppofed to have been written on a ftatue ere&ed 
by the Romans to his memory, and which allude to this 
circumftance, have been thus elegantly tranflated by our 
Dryden: 
Chaeronean Plutarch, to thy deathlefs praife 
Does martial Rome this grateful ftatue raife ; 
Becaufe both Greece and (he thy fame have (har’d, 
Their heroes written, and their lives compar’d. 
But thou thyfelf could’ft never write thy own ; 
Their lives have parallels, but thine has none. 
Of the whole works of Plutarch, fome of the beft edi¬ 
tions are that of Mauflac, 2 vols. fol. Gr. Lat. Frankf. 
1620 ; and of Reifke, 12 vols. 8vo. Lipf. 1774, 1782. Wyt- 
tembach’s, from the Clarendon prefs, is an excellent and 
complete one. The Morals have appeared in 11 vols. 8vo. 
There are numerous editions of the Lives, and other 
detached works. Snider's Hijl. Phil. 
PLUTE'US, f. A defenlive machine, which was ufed 
by the ancient Romans. It was compofed of wicker hur¬ 
dles laid for a roof on the top of polls, which the foldiers, 
who went under it forfhelter, bore up with their hands. 
Kennett, in his Roman Antiquities, obferves, that fome 
will have them, as well as the vineee, to have been con¬ 
trived with a double roof; the firft and lower roof of 
planks, and the upper roof of hurdles, to break the force 
of any blow, without difordering the machine. The 
plutei, however, were of a different figure from the vineae, 
being (haped like an arched fort of waggon ; fome having 
three wheels, fo conveniently placed, that the machine 
would move either way, with equal eafe. They were put 
much to the fame ufe as the mufculi. Father Daniel, the 
jefuit, in his hiftory of the French militia, makes mention 
of this machine. He quotes a paflage out of a poem, in¬ 
tituled the Siege of Paris, by Abbon the Monk; the 
meaning of which is, that the Normans brought up a 
large quantity of machines, that were called plutei by the 
Romans, and that feven or eight foldiers could be put 
under cover beneath them. He further adds, that thefe 
machines w'ere covered with bull-hides. The moderns 
have imitated thefe plutei by adopting mantelets. The 
chevalier Folard mentions having feen one at the fiege of 
Philippeville, of a triangular figure, made of cork, inter¬ 
laced between two boards, and fupported by three wheels 
that turned upon a pivot. James's Mil. Did. 
PLU'TO, in mythology, fon of Saturn and Ops, inhe¬ 
rited his father’s kingdom with his brothers Jupiter and 
Neptune. He received as his lot the kingdom of Hell, and 
whatever lies under the earth, and as fuch he became the 
god of the infernal regions, of death and funerals. From 
his fundlions, and the place he inhabited, he received 
different names. He was called Dis, Hades or Ades, Cli /- 
topolon, Agelajlus, Orcus, See. As the place of his refi- 
dence was obfeureand gloomy, all the goddefles refufed 
to marry him ; but he determined to obtain by force what 
was denied to his folicitations. As he once vifited the 
idand of Sicily, after a violent earthquake, he faw Pro- 
ferpine, the daughter of Ceres, gathering flowers in the 
plains of Enna, with a crowd of female attendants. He 
became enamoured of her, and immediately carried her 
away upon his chariot drawn by four horfes. To make 
his retreat more unknown, he opened hitnfelf a paflage 
through the earth, by (Hiking it with his feeptre near the 
lake of Cyane in Sicily, or, according to others, on the 
borders of the Cephifus in Attica. Proferpine called 
upon her attendants for help, but in vain ; and (he be¬ 
came the wife of her raviftier, and the queen of hell. 
Pluto is reprefented in an ebony chariot, drawn by four 
black horfes; but fometimes feared on a throne, holding 
his feeptre in his hand, which had two points, by way of 
diftinguifhing it from Neptune’s trident, which had three; 
with a veil over his head, which, as well as his complex¬ 
ion, fliould be dark and terrible. He has alfo keys in his 
hand, to intimate that whoever enters his kingdom can 
never return. He is looked upon as a hard-hearted and 
P L U 
inexorable god, with a grim anddifmal countenance, and 
for that reafon no temples were railed to his honour as to 
the reft of the fuperior gods. Black viflims, and parti¬ 
cularly a bull, were the only facrifices which were offered 
to him, and their blood was not fprinkled on the altars, 
or received in veftels, as at other facrifices, but it was 
permitted to run down into the earth, as if it were to pe¬ 
netrate as far as the realms of the god. The Syracufans 
yearly facrificed to him black bulls, near the fountain of 
Cyane, where, according to the received traditions, he 
had difappeared with Proferpine. Among plants, the 
cyprefs, the narciflus, and the maiden-hair, were (acred 
to him, as alfo every thing which was deemed inaufpi- 
cious, particularly the number two. According to fome 
of the ancients, Pluto fat on a throne of fulphur, from 
which iffued the rivers Lethe, Cocytus, Phlegethon, and 
Acheron. The dog Cerberus watched at his feet, the 
harpies hovered around him, Proferpine fat on his left 
hand, and near to the goddefs flood the Eumenides, 
with their heads covered with fnakes. The Parcae occu¬ 
pied the right, and they each held in their hands the fym- 
bols of their office, the diftaff, the fpindle, and the feif- 
fors. Homer fays, that his helmet had the quality of ren¬ 
dering the wearer invifible; and that Minerva borrowed 
it in order to be concealed from Mars when (lie fought 
againft the Trojans. 
PLUTCFNIUM, f. See Barium under the article Mi¬ 
neralogy, vol. xv. p. 510. 
PLU'TUS, the god of riches, was reckoned amongft the 
number of infernal deities, becaufe riches are derived 
from the bowels of the earth ; and has been fometimes 
confounded with Pluto. Hefiod makes him to be a de¬ 
fendant of the Ceres and Jafion in the ifle of Crete, pro¬ 
bably becaufe thefe two perfons applied themfelves to 
agriculture, which is the means of obtaining the mod 
fubftantial riches. Plutus had a ftatue at Athens, placed 
in the temple of Minerva, where the public treafures 
were depofited ; at Thebes, in the temple of Fortune, this 
goddefs holds Plutus in her arms as an infant, nouriflied 
by her; and at Athens, Plutus is in the arms of the ftatue 
of Peace, as the fymbol of riches which peace produces. 
Plutus, having been obferved to difpenfe his favours 
very unequally, was therefore reprefented as blind : and 
Ariftophanes, in his “Plutus,” adds, that he was lame, 
becaufe, whenever he had a mind to enrich the good, he 
came to them very (lowly ; and he was reprefented as 
appearing with wings at his departure, to (how the diffi¬ 
culty of amaffing wealth, and the uncertainty of its en¬ 
joyment. St. Jerome, followed by feveral ecclefiaftical 
writers, alleges that the Syriac or Chaidaic word Mam- 
mona was the fame with the Plutus of the Greeks. 
PLU'VIAL, J\ [pluvial, old Fr.] prieft’s cope. Ainf- 
wortli. 
PLUVI'ERS. See Pithiviers. 
PLUVIG'NER, a town of France, in the department of 
the Morbihan, and chief place of a canton, in the diftri 
of l’Orient: fourteen miles eaft of l’Orient. The place 
contains 4800 inhabitants. 
PLUVIO'SE, [Fr. rainy.] The month, according to 
the French republican calendar, beginning on the 20th 
of January, and ending on the 18th of February, both 
days inclusive; fo called from the rains of the winter 
feafon. This is the fifth month of the year, and the fe- 
cond winter-month, terminating, as the other two, in 
bje. See Calendar, vol. iii. and the article Month. 
PLU'VIOUS, or Pluvial, adj. [from pluvia, Lat.] 
Rainy; relating to rain.—The fungous parcels about the 
wicks of candles only fignifieth a moift and pluvious air 
about them. Brown. 
PLU'VIUS, a furname of Jupiter. He was invoked by 
that name among the Romans whenever the earth was 
parched up by continual heat, and was in want of re- 
frefhing rains. He had an altar in the temple on the ca- 
pitol. Among the baffo relievos of the Antonine column, 
in the place where the miracle of the thundering legion 
is 
