Chapter Perillos and the Brazen Bull to Peter of P by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Perillos and the Brazen Bull to Peter

Perillos and the Brazen Bull Perillos of Athens made a brazen bull for Phalaris, Tyrant of Agrigentum, intended for the execution of criminals. They were shut up in the bull, and, fires being lighted below the belly, the metal was made “red hot.” The cries of the victims, reverberating, sounded like the lowing of the bull. Phalaris admired the invention, but tested it on Perillos himself. (See Inventors .)

Perilous Castle The castle of Lord Douglas was so called in the reign of Edward I., because good Lord Douglas destroyed several English garrisons stationed there, and vowed to be revenged on anyone who should dare to take possession of it. Sir Walter Scott calls it “Castle Dangerous.” (See Introduction of Castle Dangerous.)

Perion A fabulous king of Gaul, father of “Amadis of Gaul.” His encounter with the lion is one of his best exploits. It is said that he was hunting. when his horse reared and snorted at seeing a lion in the path. Perion leaped to the ground and attacked the lion, but the lion overthrew him; whereupon the king drove his sword into the belly of the beast and killed him. (Amadis de Gaul, chap. i.)

Peripatetics Founder of the Peripatetics - Aristotle, who used to teach his disciples in the covered walk of the Lyceum. This colonnade was called the peripatos, because it was a place for walking about (peri pateo).

Peris (See Peri .)

Perissa (excess or prodigality; Greek, Perissos). Step-sister of Elissa and Medina. These ladies could never agree on any subject. (Spenser: Faërie Queene, bk. ii.)

Periwig (See Peruke .)

Periwinkle The bind-around plant. (Anglo-Saxon, pinewincle; French, pervenche; Latin, pervincio, to bind thoroughly.) In Italy it used to be wreathed round dead infants, and hence its Italian name, fior di morto.

Perk To perk oneself. To plume oneself on anything. (Welsh, percu, to smarten or plume feathers, perc, neat.)
   You begin to perk up a bit - i.e. to get a little fatter and more plump after an illness. (See above.)

Perkunos God of the elements. The Sclavonic Trinity was Perkunos, Rikollos, and Potrinpos. (Grimm: Deutsche Mythologie.)

Permian Strata So called from Perm, in Russia, where they are most distinctly developed.

Pernelle (Madame). A scolding old woman in Molière's Tartuffe.

Perpendiculars Parties called crushes, in which persons have to stand almost stationary from the time of entering the suite of rooms to the time of leaving them.

“The night before I duly attended my mother to three fashionable crowds, `perpendiculars' is the best name for them, for there is seldom more than standing room.”- Edna Lyall: Done van, chap. ix.

Perpetual Motion Restlessness; fidgety or nervous disquiet; also a chimerical scheme wholly impracticable. Many have tried to invent a machine that shall move of itself, and never stop; but, as all materials must suffer from wear and tear, it is evident that such an invention is impossible.

“It were better to be eaten to death with rust than to be scoured to nothing with perpetual motion.”- Shakespeare: 2 Henry IV., i. 2.

Pers Persia; called Fars. (French, Perse.)