Dædăla, a mountain and city of Lycia, where Dædalus was buried according to Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 27.——A name given to Circe, from her being cunning (δαιδαλος), and like Dædalus, addicted to deceit and artifice. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 7, li. 282.——Two festivals in Bœotia. One of these was observed at Alalcomenos by the Platæans, in a large grove, where they exposed in the open air pieces of boiled flesh, and carefully observed whither the crows that came to prey upon them directed their flight. All the trees upon which any of these birds alighted were immediately cut down, and with them statues were made called Dædala, in honour of Dædalus.——The other festival was of a more solemn kind. It was celebrated every 60 years by all the cities of Bœotia, as a compensation for the intermission of the smaller festivals, for that number of years, during the exile of the Platæans. Fourteen of the statues, called Dædala, were distributed by lot among the Platæans, Lebadæans, Coroneans, Orchomenians, Thespians, Thebans, Tanagræans, and Chæroneans, because they had effected a reconciliation among the Platæans and had caused them to be recalled from exile, about the time that Thebes was restored by Cassander the son of Antipater. During this festival, a woman in the habit of a bride-maid accompanied a statue, which was dressed in female garments, on the banks of the Eurotas. This procession was attended to the top of mount Cithæron, by many of the Bœotians, who had places assigned them by lot. Here an altar of square pieces of wood cemented together like stones, was erected, and upon it were thrown large quantities of combustible materials. Afterwards a bull was sacrificed to Jupiter, and an ox or heifer to Juno, by every one of the cities of Bœotia, and by the most opulent that attended. The poorest citizens offered small cattle; and all these oblations, together with the Dædala, were thrown in the common heap and set on fire, and totally reduced to ashes. They originated in this: When Juno, after a quarrel with Jupiter, had retired to Eubœa, and refused to return to his bed, the god, anxious for her return, went to consult Cithæron king of Platæa, to find some effectual measure to break her obstinacy. Cithæron advised him to dress a statue in woman’s apparel, and carry it in a chariot, and publicly to report that it was Platæa the daughter of Asopus, whom he was going to marry. The advice was followed, and Juno, informed of her husband’s future marriage, repaired in haste to meet the chariot, and was easily united to him, when she discovered the artful measures he made use of to effect a reconciliation. Pausanias & Plutarch.
Dædălion, a son of Lucifer, brother to Ceyx and father of Philonis. He was so afflicted at the death of Philonis, whom Diana had put to death, that he threw himself down from the top of mount Parnassus, and was changed into a falcon by Apollo. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 11, li. 295.
Dædălus, an Athenian, son of Eupalamus, descended from Erechtheus king of Athens. He was the most ingenious artist of his age, and to him we are indebted for the invention of the wedge, the axe, the wimble, the level, and many other mechanical instruments, and the sails of ships. He made statues, which moved of themselves, and seemed to be endowed with life. Talus, his sister’s son, promised to be as great as himself, by the ingenuity of his inventions; and therefore, from envy, he threw him down from a window and killed him. After the murder of this youth, Dædalus, with his son Icarus, fled from Athens to Crete, where Minos king of the country gave him a cordial reception. Dædalus made a famous labyrinth for Minos, and assisted Pasiphae the queen to gratify her unnatural passion for a bull. For this action, Dædalus incurred the displeasure of Minos, who ordered him to be confined in the labyrinth which he had constructed. Here he made himself wings with feathers and wax, and carefully fitted them to his body, and to that of his son, who was the companion of his confinement. They took their flight in the air from Crete; but the heat of the sun melted the wax on the wings of Icarus, whose flight was too high, and he fell into that part of the ocean, which from him has been called the Icarian sea. The father, by a proper management of his wings, alighted at Cumæ, where he built a temple to Apollo, and thence directed his course to Sicily, where he was kindly received by Cocalus, who reigned over part of the country. He left many monuments of his ingenuity in Sicily, which still existed in the age of Diodorus Siculus. He was despatched by Cocalus, who was afraid of the power of Minos, who had declared war against him, because he had given an asylum to Dædalus. The flight of Dædalus from Crete, with wings, is explained, by observing that he was the inventor of sails, which in his age might pass at a distance for wings. Pausanias, bks. 1, 7 & 9.—Diodorus, bk. 4.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 8, fable 3; Heroides, poem 4; De Ars Amatoria, bk. 2; Tristia, bk. 3, poem 4.—Hyginus, fable 40.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 6, li. 14.—Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 1, &c.—Herodotus, bk. 7, ch. 170.——There were two statuaries of the same name, one of Sicyon son of Patroclus, the other a native of Bithynia. Pausanias, bk. 7, ch. 14.—Arrian.
Dæmon, a kind of spirit which, as the ancients supposed, presided over the actions of mankind, gave them their private counsels, and carefully watched over their most secret intentions. Some of the ancient philosophers maintained that every man had two of these Dæmons; the one bad and the other good. These Dæmons had the power of changing themselves into whatever they pleased, and of assuming whatever shapes were most subservient to their intentions. At the moment of death, the Dæmon delivered up to judgment the person with whose care he had been entrusted; and according to the evidence he delivered, sentence was passed over the body. The Dæmon of Socrates is famous in history. That great philosopher asserted that the genius informed him when any of his friends was going to engage in some unfortunate enterprise, and stopped him from the commission of all crimes and impiety. These Genii or Dæmons, though at first reckoned only as the subordinate ministers of the superior deities, received divine honour in length of time, and we find altars and statues erected to a Genio loci, Genio Augusti, Junonibus, &c. Cicero, Tusculanæ Disputationes, bk. 1.—Plutarch, de Genio Socratis.
Dahæ. See: [Daæ].
Dai, a nation of Persia, all shepherds. Herodotus, bk. 1, ch. 125.
Daicles, a victor at Olympia, B.C. 753.
Daĭdis, a solemnity observed by the Greeks. It lasted three days. The first was in commemoration of Latona’s labour; the second in memory of Apollo’s birth; and the third in honour of the marriage of Podalirius, and the mother of Alexander. Torches were always carried at the celebration; whence the name.
Daimăchus, a master of horse at Syracuse, &c. Polyænus, bk. 1.
Daimĕnes, a general of the Achæans. Pausanias, bk. 7, ch. 6.——An officer exposed on a cross, by Dionysius of Syracuse. Diodorus, bk. 14.