_destroyer of towns_. At the age of 22, he was sent by his father
against Ptolemy, who had invaded Syria. He was defeated near Gaza,
but he soon repaired his loss by a victory over one of the generals
of the enemy. He afterwards sailed with a fleet of 250 ships to
Athens, and restored the Athenians to liberty, by freeing them from
the power of Cassander and Ptolemy, and expelling the garrison,
which was stationed there under Demetrius Phalereus. After this
successful expedition, he besieged and took Munychia, and defeated
Cassander at Thermopylæ. His reception at Athens, after these
victories, was attended with the greatest servility; and the
Athenians were not ashamed to raise altars to him as to a god, and
to consult his oracles. This uncommon success raised the jealousy of
the successors of Alexander; and Seleucus, Cassander, and Lysimachus
united to destroy Antigonus and his son. Their hostile armies met at
Ipsus, B.C. 301. Antigonus was killed in the battle; and Demetrius,
after a severe loss, retired to Ephesus. His ill success raised
him many enemies; and the Athenians, who lately adored him as a
god, refused to admit him into their city. He soon after ravaged
the territories of Lysimachus, and reconciled himself to Seleucus,
to whom he gave his daughter Stratonice in marriage. Athens now
laboured under tyranny; and Demetrius relieved it, and pardoned the
inhabitants. The loss of his possessions in Asia recalled him from
Greece, and he established himself on the throne of Macedonia, by
the murder of Alexander the son of Cassander. Here he was continually
at war with the neighbouring states; and the superior power of his
adversaries obliged him to leave Macedonia, after he had sat on the
throne for seven years. He passed into Asia, and attacked some of
the provinces of Lysimachus with various success; but famine and
pestilence destroyed the greatest part of his army, and he retired
to the court of Seleucus for support and assistance. He met with
a kind reception, but hostilities were soon begun; and after he
had gained some advantages over his son-in-law, Demetrius was
totally forsaken by his troops in the field of battle, and became
an easy prey to the enemy. Though he was kept in confinement by his
son-in-law, yet he maintained himself like a prince, and passed his
time in hunting and in every laborious exercise. His son Antigonus
offered Seleucus all his possessions and even his person, to procure
his father’s liberty; but all proved unavailing, and Demetrius died
in the 54th year of his age, after a confinement of three years,
286 B. C. His remains were given to Antigonus, and honoured with a
♦splendid funeral pomp at Corinth, and thence conveyed to Demetrias.
His posterity remained in possession of the Macedonian throne till
the age of Perseus, who was conquered by the Romans. Demetrius has
rendered himself famous for his fondness of dissipation when among
the dissolute, and his love of virtue and military glory in the
field of battle. He has been commended as a great warrior, and his
ingenious inventions, his warlike engines, and stupendous machines
in his war with the Rhodians, justify his claims to that perfect
character. He has been blamed for his voluptuous indulgencies; and
his biographer observes, that no Grecian prince had more wives and
concubines than Poliorcetes. His obedience and reverence to his
father have been justly admired; and it has been observed, that
Antigonus ordered the ambassadors of a foreign prince particularly
to remark the cordiality and friendship which subsisted between
him and his son. _Plutarch_, _Parallel Lives_.――_Diodorus_, bk. 17.
――_Justin_, bk. 1, ch. 17, &c.――――A prince who succeeded his father
Antigonus on the throne of Macedonia. He reigned 11 years, and was
succeeded by Antigonus Doson. _Justin_, bk. 26, ch. 2.――_Polybius_,
bk. 2.――――A son of Philip king of Macedonia, given up as a hostage
to the Romans. His modesty delivered his father from a heavy
accusation laid before the Roman senate. When he returned to
Macedonia, he was falsely accused by his brother Perseus, who was
jealous of his popularity, and his father too credulously consented
to his death, B.C. 180. _Livy_, bk. 40, ch. 20.――_Justin_, bk. 32,
ch. 2.――――A Magnesian.――――A servant of Cassius.――――A son of Demetrius
of Cyrene.――――A freedman of Pompey.――――A son of Demetrius, surnamed
Slender.――――A prince surnamed _Soter_, was son of Seleucus Philopater,
the son of Antiochus the Great king of Syria. His father gave him
as a hostage to the Romans. After the death of Seleucus, Antiochus
Epiphanes, the deceased monarch’s brother, usurped the kingdom
of Syria, and was succeeded by his son Antiochus Eupator. This
usurpation displeased Demetrius, who was detained at Rome; he
procured his liberty on pretence of going to hunt, and fled to Syria,
where the troops received him as their lawful sovereign, B.C. 162.
He put to death Eupator and Lysias, and established himself on his
throne by cruelty and oppression. Alexander Bala the son of Antiochus
Epiphanes laid claim to the crown of Syria, and defeated Demetrius
in a battle, in the 12th year of his reign. _Strabo_, bk. 16.
――_Appian._――_Justin_, bk. 34, ch. 3.――――The Second, surnamed
_Nicanor_, or _Conqueror_, was son of Soter, to whom he succeeded by
the assistance of Ptolemy Philometer, after he had driven out the
usurper Alexander Bala, B.C. 146. He married Cleopatra daughter of
Ptolemy; who was, before, the wife of the expelled monarch. Demetrius
gave himself up to luxury and voluptuousness, and suffered his
kingdom to be governed by his favourites. At that time a pretended
son of Bala, called Diodorus Tryphon, seized a part of Syria; and
Demetrius, to oppose his antagonist, made an alliance with the Jews,
and marched into the east, where he was taken by the Parthians.
Phraates king of Parthia gave him his daughter Rhodogyne in marriage;
and Cleopatra was so incensed at this new connection, that she gave
herself up to Antiochus Sidetes her brother-in-law, and married him.
Sidetes was killed in a battle against the Parthians, and Demetrius
regained the possession of his kingdom. His pride and oppression
rendered him odious, and his subjects asked a king of the house of
Seleucus, from Ptolemy Physcon king of Egypt; and Demetrius, unable
to resist the power of his enemies, fled to Ptolemais, which was
then in the hands of his wife Cleopatra. The gates were shut up
against his approach by Cleopatra; and he was killed by order of
the governor of Tyre, whither he had fled for protection. He was
succeeded by Alexander Zebina, whom Ptolemy had raised to the throne,
B.C. 127. _Justin_, bk. 36, &c.――_Appian_, _Syrian Wars_.――_Josephus._
――――The Third, surnamed _Eucerus_, was son of Antiochus Gryphus.
After the example of his brother Philip, who had seized Syria, he
made himself master of Damascus, B.C. 93, and soon after obtained
a victory over his brother. He was taken in a battle against the
Parthians, and died in captivity. _Josephus_, bk. 1.――――Phalereus,
a disciple of Theophrastus, who gained such an influence over the
Athenians, by his eloquence, and the purity of his manners, that
he was elected decennial archon, B.C. 317. He so embellished the
city, and rendered himself so popular by his munificence, that the
Athenians raised 360 brazen statues to his honour. Yet in the midst
of all this popularity, his enemies raised a sedition against him,
and he was condemned to death, and all his statues thrown down,
after obtaining the sovereign power for 10 years. He fled without
concern or mortification to the court of Ptolemy Lagus, where he
met with kindness and cordiality. The Egyptian monarch consulted
him concerning the succession of his children; and Demetrius advised
him to raise to the throne the children of Eurydice, in preference
to the offspring of Berenice. This counsel so irritated Philadelphus
the son of Berenice, that after his father’s death he sent the
philosopher into Upper Egypt, and there detained him in strict
confinement. Demetrius, tired with his situation, put an end to his
life by the bite of an asp, 284 B.C. According to some, Demetrius
enjoyed the confidence of Philadelphus, and enriched his library
at Alexandria with 200,000 volumes. All the works of Demetrius,
on rhetoric, history, and eloquence are lost; and the treatise on
rhetoric, falsely attributed to him, is by some supposed to be the
composition of Halicarnassus. The last edition of this treatise is
that of Glasgow, 8vo, 1743. _Diogenes Laërtius_, _Lives and Opinions
of Eminent Philosophers_.――_Cicero_, _Brutus_ & _de Officiis_,
bk. 1.――_Plutarch_, _De Exilio_.――――A Cynic philosopher, disciple
of Apollonius Thyaneus, in the age of Caligula. The emperor wished
to gain the philosopher to his interest by a large present; but
Demetrius refused it with indignation, and said, “If Caligula wishes
to bribe me, let him send me his crown.” Vespasian was displeased
with his insolence, and banished him to an island. The Cynic derided
the punishment, and bitterly inveighed against the emperor. He died
in a great old age; and Seneca observes, that _nature had brought
him forth, to show mankind that an exalted genius can live securely
without being corrupted by the vices of the surrounding world_.
_Seneca._――_Philostratus_, _Apollonius_.――――One of Alexander’s
flatterers.――――A native of Byzantium, who wrote on the Greek poets.
――――An Athenian killed at Mantinea, when fighting against the
Thebans. _Polyænus._――――A writer who published a history of the
irruptions of the Gauls into Asia.――――A philological writer in the
age of Cicero. _Cicero_, _Letters to Atticus_, bk. 8, ltr. 11.――――A
stage player. _Juvenal_, satire 3, li. 99.――――Syrus, a rhetorician
at Athens. _Cicero_, _Brutus_, ch. 174.――――A geographer surnamed the
Calatian. _Strabo_, bk. 1.
♦ ‘splended’ replaced with ‘splendid’
=Demo=, a sibyl of Cumæ.
=Demoanassa=, the mother of Ægialeus.
=Democēdes=, a celebrated physician of Crotona, son of Calliphon, and
intimate with Polycrates. He was carried as a prisoner from Samos
to Darius king of Persia, where he acquired great riches and much
reputation by curing the king’s foot, and the breast of Atossa. He
was sent to Greece as a spy by the king, and fled away to Crotona,
where he married the daughter of the wrestler Milo. _Ælian_, _Varia
Historia_, bk. 8, ch. 18.――_Herodotus_, bk. 3, ch. 124, &c.
=Dēmŏchăres=, an Athenian sent with some of his countrymen with an
embassy to Philip king of Macedonia. The monarch gave them audience,
and when he asked them what he could do to please the people of
Athens, Demochares replied, “Hang yourself.” This imprudence raised
the indignation of all the hearers; but Philip mildly dismissed
them, and bade them ask their countrymen, which deserved most the
appellation of wise and moderate, either they who gave such ill
language, or he who received it without any signs of resentment?
_Seneca_, _de Irâ_, bk. 3.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bks. 3, 7, 8,
12.――_Cicero_, _Brutus_, ch. 3; _On Oratory_, bk. 2.――――A poet of
Soli, who composed a comedy on Demetrius Poliorcetes. _Plutarch_,
_Demetrius_.――――A statuary, who wished to make a statue to mount
Athos. _Vitruvius._――――A general of Pompey the younger, who died
B.C. 36.
=Dēmŏcles=, a man accused of disaffection towards Dionysius, &c.
_Polyænus_, bk. 5.――――A beautiful youth, passionately loved by
Demetrius Poliorcetes. He threw himself into a cauldron of boiling
water, rather than submit to the unnatural lusts of the tyrant.
_Plutarch_, _Demetrius_.
=Demŏcoon=, a natural son of Priam, who came from his residence at
Abydos to protect his country against the Greeks. He was, after a
glorious defence, killed by Ulysses. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 4.
=Dēmŏcrătes=, an architect of Alexandria.――――A wrestler. _Ælian_,
_Varia Historia_, bk. 4, ch. 15.――――An Athenian, who fought on the
side of Darius against the Macedonians. _Curtius_, bk. 6, ch. 5.
=Dēmŏcrĭtus=, a celebrated philosopher of Abdera, disciple to
Leucippus. He travelled over the greatest part of Europe, Asia, and
Africa, in quest of knowledge, and returned home in the greatest
poverty. There was a law at Abdera, which deprived of the honour
of a funeral the man who had reduced himself to indigence; and
Democritus, to avoid ignominy, repeated before his countrymen one
of his compositions called _Diacosmus_. It was received with such
uncommon applause that he was presented with 500 talents; statues
were erected in his honour; and a decree passed that the expenses
of his funeral should be paid from the public treasury. He retired
to a garden near the city, where he dedicated his time to study
and solitude; and according to some authors he put out his eyes,
to apply himself more closely to philosophical inquiries. He was
accused of insanity, and Hippocrates was ordered to inquire into
the nature of his disorder. The physician had a conference with the
philosopher, and declared that not Democritus, but his enemies, were
insane. He continually laughed at the follies and vanity of mankind,
who distract themselves with care, and are at once a prey to hope
and anxiety. He told Darius, who was inconsolable for the loss of
his wife, that he would raise her from the dead, if he could find
three persons who had gone through life without adversity, whose
names he might engrave on the queen’s monument. The king’s inquiries
to find such persons proved unavailing, and the philosopher in some
manner soothed the sorrow of his sovereign. He taught his disciples
that the soul died with the body; and therefore, as he gave no
credit to the existence of ghosts, some youths, to try his fortitude,
dressed themselves in a hideous and deformed habit, and approached
his cave in the dead of night, with whatever could create terror
and astonishment. The philosopher received them unmoved; and without
even looking at them, he desired them to cease making themselves
such objects of ridicule and folly. He died in the 109th year of his
age, B.C. 361. His father was so rich, that he entertained Xerxes,
with all his army, as he was marching against Greece. All the works
of Democritus are lost. He was the author of the doctrine of atoms,
and first taught that the milky way was occasioned by a confused
light from a multitude of stars. He may be considered as the parent
of experimental philosophy, in the prosecution of which he showed
himself so ardent, that he declared he would prefer the discovery
of one of the causes of the works of nature to the diadem of Persia.
He made artificial emeralds, and tinged them with various colours;
he likewise dissolved stones, and softened ivory. _Eusebius_,
bk. 14, ch. 27.――_Diogenes Laërtius_, _Lives and Opinions of Eminent
Philosophers_.――_Ælian_, _Varia Historia_, bk. 4, ch. 20.――_Cicero_,
_de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum_.――_Valerius Maximus_, bk. 8,
ch. 7.――_Strabo_, bks. 1 & 15.――――An Ephesian, who wrote a book on
Diana’s temple, &c. _Diogenes Laërtius._――――A powerful man of Naxos.
_Herodotus_, bk. 7, ch. 46.
=Dēmŏdĭce=, the wife of Cretheus king of Iolchos. Some call her
Biadice, or Tyro. _Hyginus_, _Poeticon Astronomicon_, bk. 2, ch. 20.
=Dēmŏdŏchus=, a musician at the court of Alcinous, who sang, in
the presence of Ulysses, the secret amours of Mars and Venus, &c.
_Homer_, _Odyssey_, bk. 8, li. 44.――_Plutarch_, _de Musica_.――――A
Trojan chief, who came with Æneas into Italy, where he was killed.
_Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 10, li. 413.――――An historian. _Plutarch_,
_de Fluviis_.
_Dēmŏleon_, a centaur, killed by Theseus at the ♦nuptials of
Pirithous. _Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_, bk. 12, li. 356.――――A son of
Antenor, killed by Achilles. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 20, li. 395.
♦ ‘nupitals’ replaced with ‘nuptials’
=Dēmŏleus=, a Greek, killed by Æneas in the Trojan war. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 5, li. 260.
=Dēmon=, an Athenian, nephew to Demosthenes. He was at the head of the
government during the absence of his uncle, and obtained a decree
that Demosthenes should be recalled, and that a ship should be sent
to bring him back.
=Dēmonassa=, a daughter of Amphiaraus, who married Thersander.
_Pausanias_, bk. 9, ch. 5.
=Dēmōnax=, a celebrated philosopher of Crete, in the reign of Adrian.
He showed no concern about the necessaries of life; but when hungry,
he entered the first house he met, and there satisfied his appetite.
He died in his 100th year.――――A man of Mantinea, sent to settle the
government of Cyrene. _Herodotus_, bk. 4, ch. 161.
=Dēmŏnīca=, a woman who betrayed Ephesus to Brennus. _Plutarch_,
_Parallela minora_.
=Dēmŏphantus=, a general killed by Antigonus, &c. _Pausanias_, bk. 8,
ch. 49.
=Demophĭle=, a name given to the sibyl of Cumæ, who, as it is supposed
by some, sold the sibylline books to Tarquin. _Varro_, cited by
_Lactantius_, _[Divine Institutes]_, bk. 1, ch. 6.
=Dēmŏphĭlus=, an Athenian archon.――――An officer of Agathocles.
_Diodorus_, bk. 19.
=Dēmŏphon=, an Athenian, who assisted the Thebans in recovering Cadmea,
&c. _Diodorus_, bk. 15.
=Dēmŏphoon=, son of Theseus and Phædra, was king of Athens, B.C. 1182
and reigned 33 years. At his return from the Trojan war, he visited
Thrace, where he was tenderly received and treated by Phyllis. He
retired to Athens, and forgot the kindness and love of Phyllis, who
hanged herself in despair. _Ovid_, _Heroides_, poem 2.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 10, ch. 55.――――A friend of Æneas, killed by Camilla. _Virgil_,
_Æneid_, bk. 11, li. 675.
=Dēmŏpŏlis=, a son of Themistocles. _Plutarch_, _Themistocles_.
=Dēmos=, a place of Ithaca.
=Dēmosthĕnes=, a celebrated Athenian, son of a rich blacksmith, called
Demosthenes, and of Cleobule. He was but seven years of age when
his father died. His guardians negligently managed his affairs, and
embezzled the greatest part of his possessions. His education was
totally neglected; and for whatever advances he made in learning,
he was indebted to his own industry and application. He became the
pupil of Isæus and Plato, and applied himself to study the orations
of Isocrates. At the age of 17 he gave an early proof of his
eloquence and abilities against his guardians, from whom he obtained
the retribution of the greatest part of his estate. His rising
talents were, however, impeded by weak lungs, and a difficulty of
pronunciation, especially of the letter ρ, but these obstacles were
soon conquered by unwearied application. To correct the stammering
of his voice, he spoke with pebbles in his mouth; and removed the
distortion of his features, which accompanied his utterance, by
watching the motions of his countenance in a looking-glass. That
his pronunciation might be loud and full of emphasis, he frequently
ran up the steepest and most uneven walks, where his voice acquired
force and energy; and on the sea-shore, when the waves were violently
agitated, he declaimed aloud, to accustom himself to the noise
and tumults of a public assembly. He also confined himself in a
subterraneous cave, to devote himself more closely to studious
pursuits; and to eradicate all curiosity of appearance in public,
he shaved one half of his head. In this solitary retirement, by
the help of a glimmering lamp, he composed the greatest part of his
orations, which have ever been the admiration of every age, though
his contemporaries and rivals severely inveighed against them, and
observed that they smelt of oil. His abilities as an orator raised
him to consequence at Athens, and he was soon placed at the head
of the government. In this public capacity he roused his countrymen
from their indolence, and animated them against the encroachments of
Philip of Macedonia. In the battle of Cheronæa, however, Demosthenes
betrayed his pusillanimity, and saved his life by flight. After
the death of Philip, he declared himself warmly against his son and
successor Alexander, whom he branded with the appellation of boy;
and when the Macedonians demanded of the Athenians their orators,
Demosthenes reminded his countrymen of the fable of the sheep which
delivered their dogs to the wolves. Though he had boasted that all
the gold of Macedonia could not tempt him, yet he suffered himself
to be bribed by a small golden cup from Harpalus. The tumults
which this occasioned forced him to retire from Athens; and in his
banishment, which he passed at Trœzene and Ægina, he lived with more
effeminacy than true heroism. When Antipater made war against Greece,
after the death of Alexander, Demosthenes was publicly recalled from
his exile, and a galley was sent to fetch him from Ægina. His return
was attended with much splendour, and all the citizens crowded at
the Piræus to see him land. His triumph and popularity, however,
were short. Antipater and Craterus were near Athens, and demanded
all the orators to be delivered up into their hands. Demosthenes,
with all his adherents, fled to the temple of Neptune in Calauria,
and when he saw that all hopes of safety were banished, he took
a dose of poison, which he always carried in a quill, and expired
on the day that the Thesmophoria were celebrated, in the 60th year
of his age, B.C. 322. The Athenians raised a brazen statue to his
honour, with an inscription translated into this distich:
_Si tibi par menti robur, Vir magne, fuisset,
Græcia non Macedæ succubuisset hero._
Demosthenes has been deservedly called the prince of orators; and
Cicero, his successful rival among the Romans, calls him a perfect
model, and such as he wished to be. These two great princes of
eloquence have often been compared together; but the judgment
hesitates to which to give the preference. They both arrived
at perfection, but the measures by which they obtained it were
diametrically opposite. Demosthenes has been compared, and with
propriety, by his rival Æschines, to a Siren, from the melody of
his expressions. No orator can be said to have expressed the various
passions of hatred, resentment, or indignation, with more energy
than he; and as a proof of his uncommon application, it need only be
mentioned, that he transcribed eight or even ten times the history
of Thucydides, that he might not only imitate, but possess the force
and energy of the great historian. The best editions of his works
are that of Wolfius, folio, Frankof. 1604; that left unfinished by
Taylor, Cambridge, 4to, and that published in 12 vols., 8vo, 1720,
&c., Lipscomb, by Reiske and his widow. Many of the orations of
Demosthenes have been published separately. _Plutarch_, _Parallel
Lives_.――_Diodorus_, bk. 16.――_Cicero_, _Orator_, &c.――_Pausanias_,
bk. 1, ch. 8; bk. 2, ch. 33.――――An Athenian general, sent to succeed
Alcibiades in Sicily. He attacked Syracuse with Nicias, but his
efforts were ineffectual. After many calamities he fell into the
enemy’s hands, and his army was confined to hard labour. The accounts
about the death of Demosthenes are various; some believe that he
stabbed himself, while others suppose that he was put to death by
the Syracusans, B.C. 413. _Plutarch_, _Nicias_.――_Thucydides_, bk. 4,
&c.――_Diodorus_, bk. 12.――――The father of the orator Demosthenes.
He was very rich, and employed an immense number of slaves in the
business of a sword-cutler. _Plutarch_, _Demosthenes_.――――A governor
of Cæsarea, under the Roman emperors.
=Dēmostrătus=, an Athenian orator.
=Demūchus=, a Trojan, son of Philetor, killed by Achilles. _Homer_,
_Iliad_, bk. 20, li. 457.
=Dēmy̆lus=, a tyrant who tortured the philosopher Zeno. _Plutarch_,
_de Stoicorum Repugnantiis_.
=Denseletæ=, a people of Thrace. _Cicero_, _Against Piso_, ch. 34.
=Deobriga=, a town on the Iberus in Spain, now _Miranda de Ebro_.
=Deodătus=, an Athenian who opposed the cruel resolutions of Cleon
against the captive prisoners of Mitylene.
=Dēōis=, a name given to Proserpine from her mother Ceres, who was
called _Deo_. This name Ceres received, because when she sought her
daughter all over the world, all wished her success in her pursuits,
with the word δηεις, _invenies_; a δηω, _invenio_. _Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 6, li. 114.
=Deræ=, a place of Messenia.
=Derbe=, a town of Lycaonia, at the north of mount Taurus in Asia
Minor, now _Alah-Dag_.――_Cicero_, _Letters to his Friends_, bk. 13,
ltr. 73.
=Derbĭces=, a people near Caucasus, who killed all those that had
reached their 70th year. They buried such as died a natural death.
_Strabo._
=Derce=, a fountain in Spain, whose waters were said to be uncommonly
cold.
=Dercennus=, an ancient king in Latium. _Virgil_, _Æneid_, bk. 11,
li. 850.
=Dercĕto= and =Dercĕtis=, a goddess of Syria, called also _Atergatis_,
whom some supposed to be the same as Astarte. She was represented as
a beautiful woman above the waist, and the lower part terminated in
a fish’s tail. According to Diodorus, Venus, whom she had offended,
made her passionately fond of a young priest, remarkable for the
beauty of his features. She had a daughter by him, and became so
ashamed of her incontinence, that she removed her lover, exposed
the fruit of her amour, and threw herself into a lake. Her body was
transformed into a fish, and her child was preserved, and called
Semiramis. As she was chiefly worshipped in Syria, and represented
like a fish, the Syrians anciently abstained from fishes. _Lucian_,
_de Deâ Syria_.――_Pliny_, bk. 5, ch. 13.――_Ovid_, _Metamorphoses_,
bk. 4, li. 44.――_Diodorus_, bk. 2.
=Dercyllĭdas=, a general of Sparta, celebrated for his military
exploits. He took nine different cities in eight days, and freed
Chersonesus from the inroads of the Thracians by building a
wall across the country. He lived B.C. 399. _Diodorus_, bk. 14.
――_Xenophon_, _Hellenica_, bk. 1, &c.
=Dercyllus=, a man appointed over Attica by Antipater. _Cornelius
Nepos_, _Phocion_, ch. 2.
=Dercy̆nus=, a son of Neptune, killed by Hercules. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2,
ch. 5.
=Dersæi=, a people of Thrace.
=Derthona=, now _Tortona_, a town of Liguria, between Genoa and
Placentia, where a Roman colony was settled. _Cicero_, _De
Divinatione_, bk. 2.
=Dertose=, now _Tortosa_, a town of Spain near the Iberus.
=Derusiæi=, a people of Persia.
=Dēsudăba=, a town of Media. _Livy_, bk. 44, ch. 26.
=Deva=, a town of Britain, now _Chester_ on the Dee.
=Deucălion=, a son of Prometheus, who married Pyrrha the daughter of
Epimetheus. He reigned over part of Thessaly, and in his age the
whole earth was overwhelmed with a deluge. The impiety of mankind
had irritated Jupiter, who resolved to destroy the world, and
immediately the earth exhibited a boundless scene of waters. The
highest mountains were climbed up by the frightened inhabitants of
the country; but this seeming place of security was soon overtopped
by the rising waters, and no hope was left of escaping the universal
calamity. Prometheus advised his son to make himself a ship, and
by this means he saved himself and his wife Pyrrha. The vessel was
tossed about during nine successive days, and at last stopped on
the top of mount Parnassus, where Deucalion remained till the waters
had subsided. Pindar and Ovid make no mention of a vessel built
by the advice of Prometheus; but, according to their relation,
Deucalion saved his life by taking refuge on the top of Parnassus,
or, according to Hyginus, of Ætna in Sicily. As soon as the waters
had retired from the surface of the earth, Deucalion and his wife
went to consult the oracle of Themis, and were directed to repair
the loss of mankind, by throwing behind them the bones of their
grandmother. This was nothing but the stones of the earth; and after
some hesitation about the meaning of the oracle, they obeyed. The
stones thrown by Deucalion became men, and those of Pyrrha women.
According to Justin, Deucalion was not the only one who escaped
from the universal calamity. Many saved their lives by ascending the
highest mountains, or trusting themselves in small vessels to the
mercy of the waters. This deluge, which chiefly happened in Thessaly,
according to the relation of some writers, was produced by the
inundation of the waters of the river Peneus, whose regular course
was stopped by an earthquake near mount Ossa and Olympus. According
to Xenophon, there were no less than five deluges. The first
happened under Ogyges, and lasted three months. The second, which
was in the age of Hercules and Prometheus, continued but one month.
During the third, which happened in the reign of another Ogyges, all
Attica was laid waste by the waters. Thessaly was totally covered by
the waters during the fourth, which happened in the age of Deucalion.
The last was before the Trojan war, and its effects were severely
felt by the inhabitants of Egypt. There prevailed a report in Attica,
that the waters of Deucalion’s deluge had disappeared through a
small aperture about a cubit wide, near Jupiter Olympius’s temple;
and Pausanias, who saw it, further adds, that a yearly offering
of flour and honey was thrown into it with religious ceremony.
The deluge of Deucalion, so much celebrated in ancient history, is
supposed to have happened 1503 years B.C. Deucalion had two sons
by Pyrrha, Hellen, called by some son of Jupiter, and Amphictyon
king of Attica, and also a daughter, Protogenia, who became mother
of Æthlius by Jupiter. _Pindar_, poem 9, _Olympian_.――_Ovid_,
_Metamorphoses_, bk. 1, fable 8; _Heroides_, ♦poem 15, li. 167.
――_Apollodorus_, bk. 1, ch. 7.――_Pausanias_, bk. 1, ch. 10;
bk. 5, ch. 8.――_Juvenal_, satire 1, li. 81.――_Hyginus_, fable 153.
――_Justin_, bk. 2, ch. 6.――_Diodorus_, bk. 5.――_Lucian_, _de
Deâ Syriâ_.――_Virgil_, _Georgics_, bk. 1, li. 62.――――One of the
Argonauts.――――A son of Minos. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 1.――――A son
of Abas.
♦ ‘45’ replaced with ‘15’
=Deucetius=, a Sicilian general. _Diodorus_, bk. 11.
=Deudorix=, one of the Cherusci, led in triumph by Germanicus.
=Dexamĕne=, one of the Nereides. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 18.
=Dexamĕnus=, a man delivered by Hercules from the hands of his
daughter’s suitors. _Apollodorus_, bk. 2, ch. 5.――――A king of Olenus
in Achaia, whose two daughters married the sons of Actor. _Pausanias_,
bk. 5, ch. 3.
=Dexippus=, a Spartan who assisted the people of Agrigentum, &c.
_Diodorus_, bk. 13.
=Dexithea=, the wife of Minos. _Apollodorus_, bk. 3, ch. 1.
=Dexius=, a Greek, father of Iphinous, killed by Glaucus in the Trojan
war, &c. _Homer_, _Iliad_, bk. 7.