2 Macc. iv. 12. ὑπὸ πέτασον ἦγεν.PETASUS. This was a Cap usually worn by Travellers. ‘Tis observed commonly upon the Head of antient Figures of Mercury. It had Brims, but not so broad as those of our Hats. It was peculiar to Travellers. Mercury wore it in the Quality of the God of Travellers and Merchants.
In the Greek of the Second Book of the Maccabees, Chap. iv. it is said that Jason, High-priest of the Jews, obliged the robust young Men, and such as approved themselves best in Horsemanship, to pass under the Petasus. Hesychius and Pollux say, that the Petasus was given to the Ephebi, to young Men that were just become Striplings; and to Mercury, to whom it is supposed that the Theatre of Jerusalem was dedicated: St. Jerom, and many other Interpreters, have understood this Passage of the Second Book of Maccabees, of Places of Prostitution, wherein these young People were obliged to enter themselves. He translates it, Optimos quosque epheborum in lupanaribus ponere.
Junius thinks that Petasus, in the Passage that we are now inquiring into, has the same Signification as Petaurus; and, indeed, both Hesychius and Phavorinus intimate, that these two Words were sometimes confounded. But Petaurus signifies a Wheel, across which the Petaurists us’d to pass with surprizing Agility. The Author of the Maccabees would therefore affirm, that Jason caus’d such Youth as succeeded best in the first Exercises of the Gymnasium, to perform those other dangerous Exercises.