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.