​PATON, SIR JOSEPH NOEL (1821-1901), British painter, was born, on the 13th of December 182 1, in Woolers AUey, Dunfermline, where his father, a fellow of the Scottish Society of Antiquaries, carried on the trade of a damask manufacturer. He showed strong artistic inclinations in early childhood, but had no regular art training, except a brief period of study in the Royal Academy School in 1843. He gained a prize of £200 in the first Westminster Hall competition, in 1845, for his cartoon " The Spirit of ReUgion, " and in the foUowing year he exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy his " Quarrel of Oberon and Titania." A companion fairy picture, " The Reconciliation of Oberon and Titania " went to Westminster Hall in 1847, and for it and his picture of " Christ bearing the Cross " he was awarded a prize of £300 by the Fine Arts Commissioners. The two Oberon pictures are in the National Gallery of Scotland, where they have long been a centre of attraction. His first exhibited picture, " Ruth Gleaning, " appeared at the Royal Scottish Academy in 1844. He began to contribute to the Royal Academy of London in 1856. Throughout his career his preference was for allegorical, fairy and religious subjects. Among his most famous pictures are " The Pursuit of Pleasure " (1855), " Mors Janua Vitae " (1866), " Oskold and the Elle-maids " (1874), and " In Die Malo " (1882). Sir Noel Paton also produced a certain amount of sculpture, more notable for design than for searching execution. He was elected an associate of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1847, and a fuU member in 1850; he was appointed Queen's Limner for Scotland in 1866, and received knighthood in 1867. In 1878 the University of Edinburgh conferred upon him the degree of LL.D. He was a poet of distinct merit, as his Poems by a Painter (1861) and Spindrift (1867) pleasantly exemphfied. He was also well known as an antiquary, his hobby, indeed, being the collection of arms and armour. Sir Noel died in Edinburgh on the 26th of December igoi. His eldest son, Diarmid Noel Paton (b. 1859), became regius professor of physiology in Glasgow in 1906; and another son, Frederick Noel Paton (b. 1861), became in 1905 director of commercial intelligence to the government of India.

PATRAS (Gr. Patrai), the chief fortified seaport town on the west coast of Greece, and chief town of the province of Achaea and Elis, on a gulf of the same name, 70 m. W.N.W. of Corinth. There are two railway stations, one in the north-east on the line to Athens (via Corinth), the other on the line to Pyrgos. Pop. (1889), 33,529; (1907), 37,401. It has been rebuilt since 1821 (the War of Independence), and is the seat of a Greek archbishop and' an appeal court. It is the chief port of Greece, from which the great bulk of its currants are dispatched. The port, formed by a mole and a breakwater, begun in 1880, offers a fair harbour for vessels drawing up to 22 ft. The exports consist of currants, sultanas, valonea, tobacco, olive oil, olives in brine, figs, citrons, wine, brandy, cocoons, and lamb, goat, and kid skins. The imports consist chiefly of colonial produce, manufactured goods and sulphate of copper. The two most interesting buildings are the castle, a medieval structure on the site of the ancient acropoUs, and the cathedral of St Andrew, which is highly popular as the reputed burial-place of the saint.

The foudation of Patras goes back to prehistoric times, the legendary account being that Eumelus, having been taught by Triptolemus how to grow grain in the rich soU of the Glaucus valley, established three townships, Aroe {i.e. plough land), Antheia (the flowery), and Mesatis (the middle settlement), which were united by the common worship of Artemis Triclaria at her shrine on the river Meilichus. The Achaeans having strengthened and enlarged Aroe, called it Patrae, as the exclusive residence of the ruling famUies, and it was recognized as one of the twelve Achaean cities. In 419 B.C. the town was, by the advice of Alcibiades, connected with its harbour by long walls in imitation of those at Athens. The whole armed force was destroyed by MeteUus after the defeat of the Achaeans at Scarpheia, and many of the remaining inhabitants forsook the city; but after the battle of Actium Augustus restored the ancient name Aroe, introduced a military colony of veterans from the 10th and 12th legions (not, as is usually said, the 22nd), and bestowed the rights of coloni on the inhabitants of Rhypae and Dyme, and all the Locri Ozolae except those of Amphissa. Colonia Augusta Aroe Patrensis became one of the most populous of all the towns of Greece; its colonial coinage extends