Pălămēdes

, a Grecian chief, son of Nauplius king of Eubœa by Clymene. He was sent by the Greek princes, who were going to the Trojan war, to bring Uly es to the camp, who, to withdraw himself from the expedition, pretended insanity, and, the better to impose upon his friends, used to harne different animals to a plough, and to sow salt instead of barley into the furrows. The deceit was soon perceived by Palamedes; he knew that the regret to part from his wife Penelope, whom he had lately married, was the only reason of the pretended insanity of Uly es; and to demonstrate this, Palamedes took Tele mach us, whom Penelope had lately brought into the world, and put him before the plough of his father. Uly es showed that he was not insane, by turning the plough a different way not to hurt his child. This having been discovered, Uly es was obliged to attend the Greek princes to the war, but an immortal enmity arose between Uly es and Palamedes. The king of Ithaca resolved to take every opportunity to distre him: and when all his expectations were frustrated, he had the meanne to bribe one of his servants, and to make him dig a hole in his master’s tent, and there conceal a large sum of money. After this Uly es forged a letter in Phrygian characters, which king Priam was supposed to have sent to Palamedes. In the letter the Trojan king seemed to entreat Palamedes to deliver into his hands the Grecian army, according to the conditions which had been previously agreed upon, when he received the money. This forged letter was carried, by means of Uly es, before the princes of the Grecian army. Palamedes was summoned, and he made the most solemn protestations of innocence. But all was in vain; the money that was discovered in his tent served only to corroborate the accusation, and he was found guilty by all the army, and stoned to death. Homer is silent about the miserable fate of Palamedes, and Pausanias mentions that it had been reported by some, that Uly es and Diomedes had drowned him in the sea as he was fishing on the coast. Phi lost ratus, who mentions the tragical story above related, adds that Achilles and Ajax buried his body with great pomp on the sea-shore, and that they raised upon it a small chapel, where sacrifices were regularly offered by the inhabitants of Troas. Palamedes was a learned man as well as a soldier, and, according to some, he completed the alphabet of Cadmus by the addition of the four letters θ, ξ, χ, φ , during the Trojan war. To him, also, is attributed the invention of dice and backgammon; and it is said he was the first who regularly ranged an army in a line of battle, and who placed sentinels round a camp, and excited their vigilance and attention by giving them a watchword. Hyginus , fables 95, 105, . — Apollo dor us , bk. 2 , . — Dictys Cretensis , bk. 2 , ch. 15 .— Ovid , Metamorphoses , bk. 13 , lis. 56 & 308.— Pausanias , bk. 1 , ch. 31 .— Marcus Manilius , bk. 4 , li. 205 .— Phi lost ratus , bk. 10 , ch. 6 .— Euripi des , Phœnician Women .— Martial , bk. 13 , ltr. 75 .— Pliny , bk. 7 , ch. 56 .