Chapter Polydore to Poinposus of P by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Pombodita, hocus-pocus-land. When any one tells an incredible story, we might say to him, “Perhaps you are a native of Pombodita, where elephants are driven through the eyes of needles.”

Cum aliquis incredibilia narrat, respondent, “Forte ex Pombodita tu es, ubi traducunt elephantem per foramen acus.”—Pole: Synopsis Criticorum.

It may be that thou art of Pumbeditha, where they can bring an elephant through the eye of a needle.—Lightfoot (A Jewish Proverb). (See Luke xviii. 18-25; Mark x. 22.)

Pomegranate Seed. When Perseph’onê was in hadês, whith er Pluto had carried her, the god, foreknowing that Jupiter would demand her release, gathered a pomegranate, and said to her, “Love, eat with me this parting day of the pomegranate seed;” and she ate. Demeter, in the mean time, implored Zeus (Jupiter) to demand Persephonês release; and the king of Olympus promised she should be set at liberty, if she had not eaten anything during her detention in hadês. As, however, she had eaten pomegranate seeds, her return was impossible.

Low laughs the dark king on his throne—
“I gave her of pomegranate seeds” …
And chant the maids of Enna still—
“O fateful flower beside the rill.
The daffodil, the daffodil.” (See Daffodil.)
   —Jean Ingelow: Persephone.

Pompeii (The Last Days of), an historical novel by lord Lytton (1834).

Pompey, a clown; servant to Mrs. Overdone (a bawd).—Shakespeare: Measure for Measure (1603).

Pompey the Great was killed by Achillas and Septimius, the moment the Egyptian fishing-boat reached the coast. Plutarch tells us they threw his head into the sea. Others say his head was sent to Cæsar, who turned from it with horror, and shed a flood of tears. Shakespeare makes him killed by “savage islanders” (2 Henry VI. act iv. sc. 1, 1598).

Pompilia, a foundling, the putative daughter of Pietr o . She married count Guido Franceschini, who treated her so brutally that she made her escape under the protection of a young priest named Caponsacchi. Pompilia subsequently gave birth to a son, but was slain by her husband. For Pompilia’s character, see the magnificent speech of the pope. (bk. x. 1000).

… first of the first,
Such I pronounce Pompilia, then as now
Perfect in whiteness.
   —R. Browning: The Ring and the Book, x., “The pope,” 1000.

Poinposus. (See Probus.)