Diadumeniānus, a son of Macrinus, who enjoyed the title of Cæsar during his father’s lifetime, &c.
Diăgon and Diăgum, a river of Peloponnesus, flowing into the Alpheus, and separating Pisa from Arcadia. Pausanias, bk. 6, ch. 21.
Diagondas, a Theban who abolished all nocturnal sacrifices. Cicero, de Legibus, bk. 2, ch. 15.
Diăgŏras, an Athenian philosopher. His father’s name was Teleclytus. From the greatest superstition, he became a most unconquerable atheist, because he saw a man who laid a false claim to one of his poems, and who perjured himself, go unpunished. His great impiety and blasphemies provoked his countrymen, and the Areopagites promised one talent to him who brought his head before their tribunal, and two if he were produced alive. He lived about 416 years before Christ. Cicero, de Natura Deorum, bk. 1, ch. 23; bk. 3, ch. 37, &c.—Valerius Maximus, bk. 1, ch. 1.——An athlete of Rhodes, 460 years before the christian era. Pindar celebrated his merit in a beautiful ode still extant, which was written in golden letters in a temple of Minerva. He saw his three sons crowned the same day at Olympia, and died through excess of joy. Cicero, Tusculanæ Disputationes, bk. 5.—Plutarch, Pelopidas.—Pausanias, bk. 6, ch. 7.
Diālis, a priest of Jupiter at Rome, first instituted by Numa. He was never permitted to swear, even upon public trials. Varro, de Lingua Latina, bk. 4, ch. 15.—Dionysius of Halicarnassus, bk. 2.—Livy, bk. 1, ch. 20.
Diallus, an Athenian who wrote a history of all the memorable occurrences of his age.
Diamastigōsis, a festival of Sparta in honour of Diana Orthia, which received that name, ἀπο του μαστιγουν, from whipping, because boys were whipped before the altar of the goddess. These boys, called Bomonicæ, were originally free-born Spartans; but, in the more delicate ages, they were of mean birth, and generally of a slavish origin. This operation was performed by an officer in a severe and unfeeling manner; and that no compassion should be raised, the priest stood near the altar with a small light statue of the goddess, which suddenly became heavy and insupportable if the lash of the whip was more lenient or less rigorous. The parents of the children attended the solemnity, and exhorted them not to commit anything, either by fear or groans, that might be unworthy of Laconian education. These flagellations were so severe, that the blood gushed in profuse torrents, and many expired under the lash of the whip without uttering a groan, or betraying any marks of fear. Such a death was reckoned very honourable, and the corpse was buried with much solemnity, with a garland of flowers on its head. The origin of this festival is unknown. Some suppose that Lycurgus first instituted it to inure the youths of Lacedæmon to bear labour and fatigue, and render them insensible to pain and wounds. Others maintain that it was a mitigation of an oracle, which ordered that human blood should be shed on Diana’s altar; and according to their opinion, Orestes first introduced that barbarous custom, after he had brought the statue of Diana Taurica into Greece. There is another tradition, which mentions that Pausanias, as he was offering prayers and sacrifices to the gods, before he engaged with Mardonius, was suddenly attacked by a number of Lydians who disturbed the sacrifice, and were at last repelled with staves and stones, the only weapons with which the Lacedæmonians were provided at that moment. In commemoration of this, therefore, the whipping of boys was instituted at Sparta, and after that the Lydian procession.
Diāna, was the goddess of hunting. According to Cicero, there were three of this name; a daughter of Jupiter and Proserpine, who became mother of Cupid; a daughter of Jupiter and Latona; and a daughter of Upis and Glauce. The second is the most celebrated, and to her all the ancients allude. She was born at the same birth as Apollo; and the pains which she saw her mother suffer during her labour, gave her such an aversion to marriage, that she obtained from her father the permission to live in perpetual celibacy, and to preside over the travails of women. To shun the society of men, she devoted herself to hunting, and obtained the permission of Jupiter to have for her attendants 60 of the Oceanides, and 20 other nymphs, all of whom, like herself, abjured the use of marriage. She is represented with a bent bow and quiver, and attended with dogs, and sometimes drawn in a chariot by two white stags. Sometimes she appears with wings, holding a lion in one hand and a panther in the other, with a chariot drawn by two heifers, or two horses of different colours. She is represented taller by the head than her attendant nymphs, her face has something manly, her legs are bare, well-shaped, and strong, and her feet are covered with a buskin, worn by huntresses among the ancients. Diana received many surnames, particularly from the places where her worship was established, and from the functions over which she presided. She was called Lucina, Ilythia, or Juno Pronuba, when invoked by women in child-bed, and Trivia when worshipped in the cross-ways, where her statues were generally erected. She was supposed to be the same as the moon, and Proserpine or Hecate, and from that circumstance she was called Triformis; and some of her statues represented her with three heads, that of a horse, a dog, and a boar. Her power and functions under these three characters have been beautifully expressed in these two verses:
Terret, lustrat, agit, Proserpina, Luna, Diana,
Ima, suprema, feras, sceptro, fulgore, sagittâ.