Potiph'erah (Heb. Poli-phera, 5^2 "•a'lB), the priest of On, or Heliopolis, whose daughter Asenath be- came the wife of Joseph (Gen. xli, 45, 50; xlvi, 20). B.C. cir. 1880. The name is Egyptian, and is in the Sept. accommodated to the analogy of the Egyptian language, being in the Cod. Vatican. JltTtcppii ; Alex.
POTITII
450
POTT
Herrtfpr), v. r. JltvrtQpi), Utrruppi ; which corresponds to the Coptic Pete-phrah, belonging to th< Sun. which is written in hieroglyphics thus:
Name of Pot-pherab, Pet-phre, or Pet-re.
(Champollion, Precis, Tabl. General, p.23). Fortbe va- rious forms, sec Gesenius, Thesaur. p. 1094, from Rosel- lini, Monum. Storici, i. 117. The name is the full form of that borne by Potiphar, Joseph's former master. See
Asj n \ ni; On.
Potitii, :i distinguished family among the ancient Romans, who are said to have received Hercules when he wcni into Italy, and treated him hospitably on the very spot when- Rome was afterwards built. The Po- titii were in return invested with the honor (if being in all future time the hereditary priests of the god. They continued accordingly to enjoy this privilege until B.C. 312, when they sold their knowledge of the sacred rites for 50,000 pounds of copper. For this remuneration they instructed public slaves in the worship of Hercu- les; whereupon the deity was so enraged thai the whole family of the Potitii perished within thirty days. See Smith, Diet, of Gr. and Bom. Biog. s. v. Potitia Gens.
Potken, .Tohann. a German Roman Catholic eccle- siastic who flourished in the 16th century, is noted in the literary world as the editor of the first printed edi- tion of the Psalms in the Ethiopic language. In L511, while at Rome, he betook himself to the study of the Ethiopic language, and two j ears later, in 1513, he pub- lished the Psalms in quarto. The book has no title, but on the first page a likeness of David with the harp is given. On the second page of the hook commences the preface in Gothic letters, in which he states the reason lor the edition of the Psalter in Ethiopic, or, as he calls it, in the Chaldee language: "Qua? res mihi biennio v ix elapso Romse accidit. Nam cum nonnullos habitu el colore /Ethiopes, qui se Indus appellabant, psallentes, ac Dei genetricem et sanctos quam plures, pnesertim Apostolos, per cos inter psallendum nominari advertissem, non sine difficultate ab Lis didici, ipsos in eorum sacris Chaldaeis Uteris uti quaerens itaque inter- pretem, per quern cumeis loqui plenius possem, nee il- ium in urbe gentium olim domina, etiam neque inter Hebraeos quidem reperiens idoneum, demum ab ipsis erudiri. quoquo modo lieri posset, statui. Nee me mea fefellil spes. Tantum namque me ab eis didicisse mihi persuaded, ut deo duce Psalterium David in ipsa vera lingua ( lialikea imprimi curare, in eorum qui peregrinas linguas nosse cupiunt, oblectationem valeam." As to the edition itself, the text is printed on a very line pa- per, which is very surprising for those times, lie su- pi rscripl ions over each psalm are printed with red color. Al the end of the Psalter is printed," Fmpressum esl opusculum hoc Lngenio el impensis Joannis Potken pro- positi ecclesisesancti GeorgiH 'oloniensis ; Romseper Mar- ceUum Silber, alias Franck, el Gnitum die ultima Junii, anno salutis MDXIII." Then follows the Songs on eight pages, and on four pages the alphabet
of the language, together with a short grai ar, is
given. This edition is now very rare. In 1518 Potken, after having returned from Rome, published a new edi- tion "i the Psalter, with the Hebrew text and Greek and Latin translations, under the title Psalterium in quatuor Unguis, Uebrcea, Graca, Chaldaica, Latina. These two edit i the basis of the Ethiopic ver- sion of Walton's Polyglot, published in 1657. See Jo- cher, Gelehrten-Lexikon, s. v.; Alter, Bibliographische Niirln hliii a, p. T'.i; Le Long-Mash, Bibliotheca Sacra, ii. 146; Rosenmuller, Handbuch, iii. 66 Bq.; Winer, Handbuch der theolog. Literatur, p. 714; Fllrst, Bibl. Judaica, iii. 118; Steinschneider, Bibliogr. Handbuch, p. 112; id. Catalogiu Librorum Uebr, in Bibl. Bodleiana, p. 8, n.32 a. (B. P.)
Potrimpos is the name of an important deity of the Lithuanians and ancient Prussians previous to the conquest of their country by the Teutonic Order; the second p rson in the Northern triad Perkunos, Potrim- pos, and Pikollos. ll was he who -ranted victory in war and fertility in time of peace; he also dispensed the bliss of domestic happiness. His image stood in a
cavity of the holy oak at R< we; it looked smilingly
at Perkunos, and represented, as far as the rough art of those times would allow, the features ot a cheerful youth. If Perkunos was the god of the warming and de- stroying tire. Potrimpos was the god of the fecundating and devastating water. Com and incense wire the of- ferings he pr< ferred; a wreath of oar- adorned his head. But he was not always content with these unbloody sacrifices: sometimes children had to be immi his honor, and reduced to ashes in burning wax. A snake was kept in his honor in an urn of clay, fed with milk, and always covered with ears of corn, for this reason the snake was a holy animal among the ancient Prussians. Warriors, marching to the bloody encounter, if they chanced to meet a si rpent, fancying thej b< held in it Potrimpos himself, were hopeful of his assistance, and thought themselves invincible. When a solemn sacri- fice was to he offered to him. the priests remained three days stretched on the ground, fasting, and at intervals throwing wax and incense into the flames. It does not appear that particular places, lakes and woods, were consecrated to bim, nor can any trace of the expansion of his worship into other countries he ascertained, un- less we admit with Mone that he is one p. r>eu with the priapic field-god Friygo worshipped at Upsala; hut this is very doubtful. Some modern historians assert that it was a female deity, the w ife ol the thunder-god : they assimilate him with the mother of the gods mi ntioned by Tacitus as solemnly worshipped by the iEsthians. See Anderson. Northern Mythology, >.\.