P — Palmer to Panel (Part 2 of 3)

because of the asperity of the earth; the upper part was that of a man, because ether is the “hegemonic of the world;” the lustful nature of the god symbolised the spermatic principle of the world; the libbard's skin was to indicate the immense variety of created things; and the character of “blameless Pan” symbolised that wisdom which governs the world. (Greek, pan, everything.) (Phornutus: De Natura Deorum, xxvii. 203.)

“Universal Pan,
Knit with the Graces and the Hours in dance,
Led on the eternal spring.”
Milton: Paradise Lost, iv. 265.

    In the National Museum of Naples is the celebrated marble of “Pan teaching Apollo to play on the panpipe.”
   The Great Pan. Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire, also called the Dictator of Letters. (1694-1778.)

Panace'a A universal cure. Panacea was the daughter of Esculapios (god of medicine). The name is evidently composed of two Greek words panakeomai (all I cure). Of course the medicine that cures is the daughter or child of the healing art.
   Panace'a. An Orkney proverb says the well of Kildinguie and the dulse (sea-weed) of Guiodin will cure every malady save Black Death. (Sir Walter Scott: The Pirate, chap. xxix.) (See Azoth.)
   Other famous panaceas.
   Prince Ahmed's apple, or apple of Samarcand, cured all disorders. (See under Apple.)
   The balsam of Fierabras (q.v.).
   The Promethean unguent rendered the body invulnerable.
   Aladdin's ring (q.v.) was a preservative against all the ills which flesh is heir to.
   Sir Gilbert's sword. Sir T. Malory, in his History of Prince Arthur (i. 116), says:-

“Sir Launcelot touched the wounds of Sir Meliot with Sir Gilbert's sword, and wiped them with the cerecloth, and anon a wholler man was he never in all his life.”

   (See also Achilles' Spear, Medea's Kettle, Reynard's Ring [see Ring], Panthera, etc.)

Panama A word which, in 1892, became synonymous with government corruptions. M. de Lesseps undertook to cut a sea passage through the Isthmus of Panama, and in order to raise money from the general public, bribed French senators, deputies, and editors of journals to an enormous extent. An investigation was made into the matter in 1892, and the results were most damaging. In the beginning of 1893 Germany was charged with a similar misappropriation of money connected with the Guelph Fund, in which Prince Ludwig of Bavaria was involved.

“On the other side of the Vosges people will exult that Germany has also her Panama.”- Reuter's Telegram, Berlin, January 2nd, 1893.

Pancake (2 syl.) is a pudding or “cake” made in a frying-pan. It was originally to be eaten after dinner, to stay the stomachs of those who went to be shriven. The Shrove-bell was called the Pancake Bell, and the day of shriving “Pancake Tuesday.”

Pancaste (3 syl.). An Athenian hetaera, and her companion in sin, Phryne, were the models of Venus Rising from the Sea, by Apelles. (See Phryne. )

Pancras (St.). Patron saint of children. He was a noble Roman youth, martyred by Diocletian at the age of fourteen (A.D. 304). (See Nicholas. )
   St. Pancras, in Christian art, is represented as treading on a Saracen and bearing either a stone and sword, or a book and palm-branch. The allusions are to his hatred of infidelity, and the implements of his martyrdom.

Pandarus Leader of the Lycians in the Trojan war, but represented as a pimp in mediaeval romances. (See Pander. )

Pandects of Justinian (The), found at Amalfi (1137), gave a spur to the study of civil law which changed the whole literary and legal aspect of Europe. The word means much the same as “cyclopaedia.” (Greek, pan, everything; dech'-omai, I receive.)