Brewer's: Panthe'a

wife of Abradatus, King of Susa. Abradatus joined the Assyrians against Cyrus, and his wife was taken captive. Cyrus refused to visit her, that he might not be tempted by her beauty to outstep the bounds of modesty. Abradatus was so charmed by this continence that he joined the party of Cyrus, and, being slain in battle, his wife put an end to her life, and fell on the body of her husband.

“Here stands Lady Rachel Russell- there the arch-virago old Bess of Hardwicke. The one is our English version of Panthea of Arria; the other of Xantippe in a coif and peaked stomacher.” —Mrs. Lynn Linton: Nineteenth Century, Oct., 1891, p. 606.

Panthe'a (Greek). Statues carrying symbols of several deities, as in the medal of Antoninus Pius, where Serapis is represented by a modius, Apollo by rays, Jupiter Ammon by ram's horns, Pluto by a large beard, and AEsculapius by a wand, around which a serpent is twined.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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