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PLANCINA

only conditions of peace. Philotis advised the | if they permitted such a woman to immortalize senators to send the female slaves, disguised in her name. matrons' clothes; she offered to march herself at their head. The advice was followed, and when the Fidenates, having feasted late, had fallen asleep intoxicated, Philotis lighted a torch, as a signal for her countrymen to attack the enemy. The Fidenates were conquered; and the senate, to reward the fidelity of the slaves, allowed them to appear in the dress of the Roman matrons.

PHILLA

WAS daughter of Antipater, governor of Macedon, during the absence of Alexander, B. C. 334. She was a woman of remarkable powers of mind, being consulted when quite young, by her father, one of the wisest politicians of the time, on affairs of the greatest moment. By skilful management she prevented an army, full of factions and turbulent spirits, from making an insurrection; she married poor maidens at her own expense, and opposed the oppressors of innocency with so much vigour, that she preserved the lives of many guiltless persons. Philla first married Craterus, one of Alexander's captains, and the favourite of the Macedonians; and after his death Demetrius I., son of Antigonus, king of Asia. He was a voluptuous man, and though she was the chief of his wives, she had little share in his affections. Philla poisoned herself on hearing that Demetrius had lost his possessions in Asia, in a battle at Ipsus, B. C. 301, with three of Alexander's former generals. She had by Demetrius a son and a daughter, the famous Stratonice, who was the wife of Seleucus, and yielded to him by his son Antiochus. Diodorus Siculus gave a history of this excellent princess, but unfortunate woman, in which he extolled her character and talents.

PHRYNE,

A GRECIAN Courtezan, flourished at Athens, about B. C. 328. Society alone can discover the charms of the understanding, and the virtuous women of ancient Greece were excluded from society. The houses of the courtezans, on the contrary, were frequented by the poets, statesmen, philosophers, and artists of Athens, and became schools of eloquence. Phryne was one of the most distinguished of that class of women. She served as a model for Praxiteles, and a subject for Apelles, and was represented by both as Venus. Her statue in gold was placed between those of two kings at Delphi. She offered to rebuild at her own expense the walls of Thebes, if she might be allowed to inscribe on them, "Alexander destroyed Thebes, Phryne rebuilt it." She was born in Thespiæ in Boeotia. She was accused of disbelief in the gods, but Hyperides obtained her acquittal by exposing her charms to the venerable judges of the Helica.

But though all these honours and favours were bestowed on Phryne, she was not allowed to rebuild the walls of Thebes; and this shows there still remained in the hearts of those old Greeks, corrupted as they were, the sentiment of respect for female virtue; and also a fear of degradation

WAS the wife of Piso, consul in the reign of Augustus, and accused with him of having murdered Germanicus in the reign of Tiberius. She was acquitted, either through the partiality of the empress Livia, or of Tiberius. Though devoted to her husband during their confinement, she was no sooner set free than she left him to his fate. At the instigation of Livia, she committed the greatest crimes to injure Agrippina. Being accused of them, and knowing she could not elude justice, she committed suicide, A. D. 33.

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from his wife, who did not venture to urge him to let her share in the secret, till she had given decisive proof of her strength of mind. She accordingly gave herself a deep wound in the thigh, and then, when pain and loss of blood had confined her to her bed, she represented to Brutus, that the daughter of Cato, and his wife, might hope to be considered as something more than a mere female companion. She then showed him her wound, and Brutus, after imploring the gods that he might live to prove himself worthy a wife like Portia, informed her of the conspiracy.

When the important day arrived, March 15, B. C. 44, she sent messenger after messenger to bring her word what Brutus was doing, and at length fainted away, so that a report reached her husband that she was dead.

Brutus perceiving that he had not accomplished his object by the assassination of Cæsar, left Rome for Athens. Portia accompanied him to the shore and then left him, as he thought it necessary that she should return to Rome. On parting with him she melted into tears, and some one present repeated from Homer the address of Andromache to her husband

"Be careful, Hector, for with thee my all, My father, mother, brother, husband, fall." Brutus replied, smiling, “I must not answer Portia in the words of Hector,

Mind you your wheel, and to your maids give law;' for, if the weakness of her frame seconds not her mind, in courage, in activity, in concern for the cause of freedom, and for the welfare of her country, she is not inferior to any of us."

After the death of Brutus, Portia resolved not to survive him, and being closely watched by her friends, snatched burning coals from the fire, and thrusting them in her mouth, held them there till she was suffocated, B. C. 42.

The character of Portia appears to have been much nearer the common standard of high-bred women, than that of the accomplished and commanding Cornelia, whose grandeur and supremacy of spirit seems to have swayed both the minds and hearts of all around her. Portia, on the other hand, was more strictly feminine. She gushed out with warm affection to her husband. She felt the dignity of her Patrician descent from the family of Cato. She was full of anxiety for her own friends, and she entered into the spirit and enterprises of the times. If the anecdote about the painting and quotations of Brutus be true, and we have no reason to doubt them, it gives us some insight into the spirit of Roman education. Both Brutus and Portia must have been familiar with Homer. This shows how much the Roman literature and education were founded upon that of the Greeks. Many distinguished men, and probably Brutus himself, visited Athens to finish their education. Brutus was familiar with the Greek philosophy, and as Portia was his cousin and the daughter of Cato, she must have had a highly finished education. It is more than probable that the Roman women of the higher ranks had a better education in proportion to the men, than

the women of our own era. They were educated more in the solid, than in the merely ornamental knowledge of life. They were not estranged altogether from the politics and the higher philosophy of their country. They read, in common with fathers and husbands, the stern and yet brilliant literature of the ancient Greeks. Barbarous and heathen as it was, it had the advantage of being exempted from the effeminacy and corrupting influences of oriental manners.

PYRRHA,

THE daughter of Epimethus and Pandora, was wife of Deucalion, king of Thessaly, in whose reign a flood happened. She was the mother of Amphictyon, Helen, and Protogenia.

The flood that occurred in the time of Deucalion, about B. C. 1500, is supposed to have been only an inundation of that country, occasioned by heavy rains, and an earthquake, that stopped the course of the river Penus, where it usually discharged itself into the sea. Deucalion governed

his people with equity; but the rest of mankind being very wicked, were destroyed by a flood, while Deucalion and Pyrrha saved themselves by ascending Mount Parnassus. When the waters had subsided, they consulted the oracle of Themis on the means by which the earth was to be repeopled; when they were ordered to veil their faces, unloose their girdles, and throw behind them the bones of their great mother. At this advice, Pyrrha was seized with horror; but Deucalion explained the mystery, by observing, that their great mother meant the earth, and her bones the stones; when, following the directions of the oracle, those thrown by Deucalion became men, and those by Pyrrha, women.

Some have supposed that Deucalion was the same with the patriarch Noah; and that his flood in Thessaly, was the same as that recorded in the | Scriptures; tradition thus corroborating the authority of the Bible.

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R. RACHEL,

THE youngest daughter of Laban, the Syrian, the beloved wife of Jacob, the patriarch, mother of Joseph and Benjamin;-how many beautiful traits of character, how many touching incidents of her husband's life, are connected with her name! Rachel was the true wife of Jacob, the wife of his choice, his first and only love. For her, he served Laban seven years, and they seemed to him but a few days, for the love he bore her." At the close of this term, the crafty father, who wished to retain Jacob in his service, practised the gross deception of giving Leah instead of Rachel, and then permitting Jacob to have the beloved one as another wife, provided he would serve another seven years! Thus Rachel really cost her husband fourteen years' servitude.

She was "beautiful and well-favoured," Moses tells us; yet surely it was not her personal charms which gained such entire ascendency over the wise

son of Isaac.

Jacob must have been nearly sixty years old at the time of his marriage; and if Rachel had been deficient in those noble qualities of mind and soul, which could understand and harmonize with his lofty aspirations to fulfil the great duties God had imposed on him, as the chosen Founder of the house of Israel, she never would have been his confidant, counsellor, friend, as well as his lovely, and loving wife. That she was this all in all to her husband, seems certain by the grief, the utter desolation of spirit, which overwhelmed him for her loss. He cherished her memory in his heart, loved her in the passionate love he lavished on her children till his dying day. Her two sons were, in moral character, far superior to the other sons of Jacob; and this is true testimony of her great and good qualities. She died in giving birth to Benjamin, while Jacob, with all his family, was on his way from Syria to his own land. She was buried near Bethlehem, in Judea, and Jacob erected a monument over her grave. Her precious dust was thus left, as though to keep possession of the land sure, to hers and her husband's posterity, during the long centuries of absence and bondage. And, as if to mark that this ground was hallowed, the Messiah was born near the place of Rachel's grave. She died B. C. 1732.

RAHAB,

A WOMAN of Jericho. When Joshua, the leader of the Israelitish host, sent out two spies, saying, "Go view the land, even Jericho," it is recorded "that they went, and came into an harlot's house, named Rahab, and lodged there." The king of Jericho hearing of their visit, sent to Rahab, requiring her to bring the men forth; but instead of complying, she deceived the king, by telling him that they went out of the city about the time of the shutting of the gate, and whither they went, she knew not, but doubtless if the king pursued after them they would be overtaken. In the mean time, while the messengers thus put upon the false track pursued after them to the fords of Jordan, Rahab took the two men up to the roof of the house, which, after the custom of eastern cities, was flat, and hid them under the stalks of flax which she had spread out there to dry.

This strange conduct, in defence of two strangers, she explained to the spies, by telling them, after they reached the roof, that "she knew that the Lord had given the children of Israel the land, for they had heard of their doings from the time that they came out of Egypt, so that all the inkabitants of the land faint because of you."

In return for her care, she made them swear unto her that they would save alive herself and all her family,-father, mother, brothers, sisters, and all that they had. Having thus secured herself from threatened destruction, she let them down by a cord through a window, for her house was upon the town wall, and they escaped to the mountains, whence, after three days, they returned to the camp of Joshua.

For the important service rendered to these spies, herself and kindred were saved from the

| general massacre which followed the capture of Jericho, her house being designated by a scarlet cord let down from the window out of which the spies escaped.

Several commentators, anxious to relieve the character of a woman so renowned from the imputation cast upon her by the opprobrious epithet usually affixed to her name, would translate the Hebrew word Zonah, which our version renders harlot, by the term hostess or innkeeper. But the same Hebrew word in every other place means what the old English version says, and we see no reason to make its use here an exception; besides, there were no inns in those days and countries; and when, subsequently, something answerable to our ideas of them were introduced, in the shape of caravanseri, they were never kept by women.

It is a remarkable feature of the Bible, that it glosses over no characters, but freely mentions failings and defects, as well as goodness and virtue; and hence, when errors of life are spoken of as connected with any individual, it is not incumbent on us to defend all the life of that individual, if the character is good from the time that it professes to be good; the evil living which went before, may freely be named without compromising or reflecting upon subsequent goodness.

Her remarks to the spies evince her belief in the God of the Hebrews, and her marriage, at a later period, with Salmon, one of the princes of Israel, proves her conversion to Judaism.

The Jewish writers abound in praises of Rahab; and even those who do not deny that she was a harlot, admit that she eventually became the wife of a prince of Israel, and that many great persons of their nation sprang from this union.

According to the Bible, Rahab was a woman of fidelity, discretion, and a believer in the God of Israel; and the only individual, among all the nations which Joshua was commissioned to destroy, who aided the Israelites, and who was received and dwelt among the people of God as one with them. St. Paul quotes her as one of his examples of eminent faith. These events occurred B. C. 1451.

REBEKAH,

DAUGHTER of Bethuel, and wife of Isaac the patriarch, is one of the most interesting female characters the Bible exhibits for the example and instruction of her sex. Her betrothal and marriage are graphie pictures of the simple customs of her maiden life, and her own heart-devotion to the will of God. No wonder her beauty, modesty and piety, won the love and confidence of Isaac at once. She was his only wife, and thus highly favoured above those who were obliged to share the heart of a husband with hand-maidens and concubines. The plague-spot of polygamy which has polluted even the homes of the chosen of God did not fasten its curse on her bridal tent. So distinguished was this example, that ever since, the young married pair have been admonished to be, as "Isaac and Rebecca, faithful."

The first portion of her history, contained in Genesis, chap. xxiv. (any synopsis would mar its

beauty) has won for her unqualified approbation; while commentators and divines are almost as unanimous in censuring her later conduct. But is this censure deserved? Let us examine carefully before we venture to condemn what the Bible does not.

This pious couple, who inherited the promises of God, and in whom centred the hopes of the world, were childless for twenty years; when Rebekah's twin sons were born. Before their birth, it had, in some mysterious manner, been revealed to the mother that these sons would be the progenitors of two nations, different from each other, and that the elder should serve the younger. From their birth the boys were as unlike as though they were of different races. Esau is represented as red, rough, reckless, rebellious; Jacob was fair, gentle, home-loving and obedient; such a son as must have gladdened his mother's heart. But there was a higher and holier motive for her devoted love to this, her youngest son,—she knew he was the chosen of God.

"Isaac loved Esau, because he did eat of his venison; but Rebekah loved Jacob;" - that is, she loved him with the holy, disinterested affection which her faith that he was born for a high destiny would inspire. She kept him with her and instructed him in this faith, making him thus aware of the value of the birthright; while Esau, like a young heathen, was passing his life in the hunting-field, caring nothing for the promises made to Abraham; probably scoffing at the mention of such superstitions, he "despised his birthright," and sold it for a mess of pottage.

Next occurs a scene reflecting great honour on the character of Rebekah, as it shows she had the heart-purity which is ever under the holy guardianship of heaven;-we allude to what passed at Gerar. Isaac was there guilty of a cowardly falsehood, and seems to have been forgiven, and great privileges allowed him solely on account of the reverence and admiration felt for his wife. Thus the patriarch prospered exceedingly in consequence of Rebekah's beauty, virtue, and piety; while Esau's perverse disposition manifested itself more and more. And yet, though he grieved the hearts of his parents by uniting himself with idolaters, (marrying two Hittite wives,) still the father's heart clung to this unworthy son-because he furnished him savoury food!

Isaac had grown older in constitution than in years; "his eyes were dim so that he could not see;" fearing he might die suddenly, he called Esau, and said to him- "Take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me venison; and make me savoury food, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat; that my soul may bless thee before I die." It is worthy of note that Isaac did not allude to any blessing the Lord had promised to his eldest son, nor to any motive, save indulging his own appetite. If Isaac knew that Jacob the younger son had been by God preferred before the elder, did he not purpose committing a great sin, in thus attempting to give the blessing to Esau? And if Isaac did not know the promise

made to Rebekah concerning the destiny of her sons, then we must allow the spiritual insight conferred on her devolved also the duty of preventing, if possible, the sin her husband would bring on his own soul by attempting to bless him whom the Lord had not blessed. It is manifest that Rebekah felt the time had come for her to act. If she had entreated her husband to bless the youngest born, he had not listened to her counsel, as Abraham was directed to do when Sarah advised him. We may say Rebekah should have had faith that God would bring to pass what he had ordained; but we cannot know her convictions of the duty devolving on herself. She certainly did not wait the event; but overhearing the directions of Isaac, she immediately took such measures as deceived him, and obtained his blessing for Jacob.

Rebekah must have been either perfectly assured she was working under the righteous inspiration of God, or she was willing to bear the punishment of deceiving her husband rather than allow him to sin by attempting to give the blessing where God had withheld it. That the result was right is certain, because Isaac acknowledged it when, after the deception was made manifest, he said of Jacob-" Yea, and he shall be blessed."

When, to avoid the murderous hatred of Esau, Jacob fled from his home, the Lord met him in a wondrous vision, where the promise made to Abraham and to Isaac was expressly confirmed to this cherished son of Rebekah; thus sealing the truth of her belief and the importance of her perseverance; and not a word of reproof appears on the holy page which records her history. She did not live to see her son's triumphant return, nor is the date of her decease given; but she was buried in the family sepulchre at Macpelah; and as Isaac had no second wife, she was doubtless mourned. It has been urged that because her death was not recorded, therefore she had sinned in regard to her son. No mention is made of the death of Deborah, or Ruth, or Esther, — had they sinned?

There are no perfect examples among mankind; but in the comparison of Isaac and Rebekah, the wife is, morally, superior to her husband; and appears to have been specially entrusted by God with the agency of changing the succession of her sons, and thus building up the house of Israel. See Genesis, chapters xxvi. xxvii. xxviii.

RHODOPE,

A CELEBRATED Grecian courtezan, who was fellow-servant with Æsop at the court of the king of Samos. She was carried to Egypt by Xanthus, and purchased by Charaxes of Mytelene, the brother of Sappho, who married her. She gained so much money by her charms that she built one of the pyramids. Elian says that one day, as she was bathing, an eagle carried away one of her sandals, and dropt it near king Psammetichus, at Memphis, who sought out the owner and married She lived about B. C. 610.

her.

RIZPAH

WAS daughter of Aiah, concubine to king Saul. Saul having put to death many of the Gibeonites,

God, to punish this massacre, sent a famine which lasted three years. To expiate this, David, who was then king, gave to the Gibeonites two sons of Saul by Rizpah, and five sons of Michal, the daughter of Saul, whom the Gibeonites hanged on the mountain near Gibeah. Rizpah spread a sackcloth on the rock, and watched night and day to prevent ravenous beasts and birds from devouring the dead bodies; till David, pitying her, had their bones brought and interred in the tomb of Kish. Abner, Saul's general, married Rizpah after Saul's death, which was so much resented by Ishbosheth, son of Saul, that Abner vowed and procured his ruin.

Her sad story has been the theme of poets; and the picture of the childless mother, watching beside the bleaching bones of her murdered sons, is an illustration of the truth and tenderness of woman's love, which every human heart must feel. This tragedy occurred B. C. about 1021.

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ROXANA,

A PERSIAN princess of great beauty, daughter of Darius, king of Persia, whom Alexander the Great took for his wife. Their son Alexander, born after his father's death, was murdered by Cassander, one of Alexander's generals, 323 B. C., and she shared his fate. She had cruelly put to death, after Alexander's decease, her sister Statira, whom the conqueror had also married.

RUTH,

A MOABITESS, widow of Mahlon, an Israelite, and one of the ancestors of our Saviour, lived, probably, in the days of Gideon. Being left a widow, she accompanied her mother-in-law, Naomi, to Judea, where she married Boaz, a wealthy Hebrew and a near relative of her late husbandand became the ancestress of David and of our Saviour. Her name signifies "full, or satisfied."

Her story, told at length in the eighth book of the Old Testament, is one of the most interesting in the Bible. Poetry and painting have exhausted their arts to illustrate her beautiful character; yet to the truthful simplicity of the inspired historian, the name of Ruth still owes its sweetest associations. Her example shows what woman can do, if she is true to the best impulses of her nature, and faithfully works in her mission, and waits the appointed time.

RUTILIA,

A ROMAN lady, sister of that Pub. Rutilius who suffered his unjust banishment with so much fortitude, was the wife of Marcus Aurelius Cotta; and had a son, who was a man of great merit, whom she tenderly loved, but whose death she bore with resignation.

Seneca, during his exile, wrote to his mother and exhorted her to imitate Rutilia, who, he says, followed her son Cotta into banishment; nor did she return to her country till her son came with her. Yet she bore his death, after his return, with equal courage, for she followed him to his burial without shedding a tear. She lived about B. C. 120.

S. SAPPHO,

A CELEBRATED Greek poetess, was a native of Mitylene, in the isle of Lesbos, and flourished about B. C. 610. She married Cercala, a rich inhabitant of Andros, by whom she had a daughter, named Cleis; and it was not, probably, till after she became a widow that she rendered herself distinguished by her poetry. Her verses were chiefly of the lyric kind, and love was the general subject, which she treated with so much warmth, and with such beauty of poetical expression, as to have acquired the title of the "Tenth Muse." Her compositions were held in the highest esteem by her contemporaries, Roman as well as Greek, and no female name has risen higher in the catalogue of poets. Her morals have been as much depreciated, as her genius has been extolled. She is represented by Ovid as far from handsome; and as she was probably no longer young when she fell in love with the beautiful Phaon, his neglect is not surprising. Unable to bear her disappointpointment, she went to the famous precipice of Leucate, since popularly called the Lover's Leap, and throwing herself into the sea, terminated at once her life and her love. To this catastrophe Ausonius alludes:

"And the masculine Sappho about to perish with her Lesbian arrows,

Threatens a leap from the snow-crowned Leucade."

Longinus quotes this celebrated ode written by Sappho, of which we give the translation, as an example of sublimity :

"Blest as th' immortal gods is he,
The youth who fondly sits by thee,
And hears and sees thee all the while,
Softly speak and sweetly smile.

"Twas this deprived my soul of rest,
And raised such tumults in my breast
For, while I gazed in transport tost,
My breath was gone, my voice was lost;

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