DEUCHA′LION, one of the demigods, son of Prometheus and Pyrra. He and
his wife, by making a ship, survived the deluge which Jupiter sent on
the earth, circa 1503 B.C.
DEVIL, see Dahak, Daityas, and Obambou.
DI′ANA, goddess of hunting and of chastity. She was the sister of
Apollo, and daughter of Jupiter and Latona. She was known amongst the
Greeks as Diana or Phœbe, and was honoured as a triform goddess. As
a celestial divinity she was called Luna; as a terrestrial Diana or
Dictynna; and in the infernal regions Hecate.
DICTYN′NA, a Greek name of Diana as a terrestrial goddess.
DI′DO. A daughter of Belus, King of Tyre. It was this princess who
bought a piece of land in Africa as large as could be encompassed by a
bullock’s hide, and when the purchase was completed, cut the hide into
strips, and so secured a large tract of land. Here she built Carthage;
and Virgil tells that when Æneas was shipwrecked on the neighbouring
coast, she received him with every kindness, and at last fell in love
with him. But Æneas did not reciprocate her affections, and this so
grieved her that she stabbed herself. A tale is told in _Facetiæ
Cantabrigienses_ of Professor Porson, who being one of a set party, the
conversation turned on the subject of punning, when Porson observing
that he could pun on any subject, a person present defied him to do so
on the Latin gerunds, _di_, _do_, _dum_, which, however, he immediately
did in the following admirable couplet:--
“When Dido found Æneas would not come,
She mourned in silence, and was _Dido dumb_.”
DI′ES PA′TER, or Father of the Day, a name of Jupiter.
DII SELEC′TI composed the second class of gods. They were Cœlus,
Saturn, Genius, Oreus, Sol, Bacchus, Terra, and Luna.
DIN′DYME′NE. A name of Cybele, from a mountain where she was worshipped.
“Nor Dindymene, nor her priest possest,
Can with their sounding cymbals shake the breast
Like furious anger.”