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’