Palamedes a hero of post-Homeric stories of the Trojan War.
pancratiast a participant in the pancratium, an ancient Greek athletic contest combining boxing and wrestling.
Pandarus a character in Homer's Iliad: a leader of the Lycians in the Trojan War.
Pandarus a leader of the Lycians in the Trojan War; a Trojan hero in the Iliad.
panegyrists plural of panegyrist, an orator who presented eulogies (praiseful speeches); here, Socrates means writers and speakers who praise, or have praised, justice.
Patroclus son of Menoetius and the dear friend of Achilles, he is a Greek hero in the Iliad.
Peleus a king of the Myrmidons, father of Achilles.
Persephone the daughter of Zeus and Demeter, abducted by Hades (Pluto) to be his wife in the Underworld; she spends half of each year in Hades, half above ground; out of respect for Tiresias' wisdom, she granted that he should retain his mind after death, while the rest of the souls in Hades are merely "flitting shades."
Phoebus originally a sun-god, Phoebus became another name (as here) for Apollo.
Phoenicians people from Phoenicia, an ancient region of city-states at the eastern end of the Mediterranean, in the region of present-day Syria and Lebanon.
Pindar (522?–438? b.c.) Greek lyric poet.
plectrum a thin piece of metal, bone, plastic, etc., used for plucking the strings of a lyre; a pick.
plough or mattock the plough (or, usually in American English, plow) and mattock are basic farm implements for tilling and digging in soil.
Pluto god of the Underworld, king of Hades.
Polydamus the name of a contemporary athlete, a pancratiast (see next entry).
Priam the last king of Troy, who reigned during the Trojan War; he was the father of Paris, Hector, Troilus, and Cassandra, among the rest of his hundred children by several wives — according to Greek myth.
Prodicus another Sophist.
Protagoras (481?–411? b.c.) a Greek philosopher of the fifth century B.C., the best known of the Sophists.
Proteus a minor sea-god in Greek mythology: he can change his form or appearance at will. In the Odyssey, he appears as a seer who changes shape to avoid answering questions.
Pythagoreans followers of Pythagoras, a philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician of the sixth century B.C.
rack [the strings] on the pegs of the instrument . . . . Socrates is referring to music theorists who, in trying to determine precise intervals of pitch, tighten and loosen the strings of a lyre to change the pitch ever so slightly; figuratively, he says they are torturing the strings the way a prisoner might be tortured on a rack, stretching them little by little to make them give up information.
rhapsodist in ancient Greece, a person who recited rhapsodies, esp. one who recited epic poems as a profession.
rhetoric the art of using words effectively in speaking or writing; the "professors of rhetoric" to whom Socrates refers here are Sophists, noted for their adroit, subtle, and often specious reasoning.
