1. fire-bearing , (Aeschulus Tragicus); of lightning, (Pindar):—; πυρφόροι ὀϊστοί arrows with combustibles tied to them , (Thucydides) 2. in special senses, 3. epithet of Zeus in reference to his lightnings, (Sophocles Tragicus); of Demeter, in reference to the torches used by her worshippers, (Euripides); of Artemis, (Sophocles Tragicus); but θεὸς πυρφόρος the fire-bearing god, the god who produces plague or fever , (Sophocles Tragicus) 4. ὁ πυρφόρος, in the Lacedaemonian army, was the priest who kept the sacrificial fire , which was never allowed to go out, (Xenophon Historicus); hence proverbial of a total defeat, ἔδεε δὲ μηδὲ πυρφόρον περιγενέσθαι (Herdotus Historicus) (ML)