Diēnĕces, a Spartan, who, upon hearing, before the battle of Thermopylæ, that the Persians were so numerous that their arrows would darken the light of the sun, observed that it would be a great convenience, for they then should fight in the shade. Herodotus, bk. 7, ch. 226.
Diespĭter, a surname of Jupiter, as being the father of light.
Digentia, a small river which watered Horace’s farm, in the country of the Sabines. Horace, bk. 1, ltr. 18, li. 104.
Digma, a part of the Piræus at Athens.
Dii, the divinities of the ancient inhabitants of the earth, were very numerous. Every object which causes terror, inspires gratitude, or bestows affluence, received the tribute of veneration. Man saw a superior agent in the stars, the elements, or the trees, and supposed that the waters which communicated fertility to his fields and possessions, were under the influence and direction of some invisible power, inclined to favour and to benefit mankind. Thus arose a train of divinities, which imagination arrayed in different forms, and armed with different powers. They were endowed with understanding, and were actuated by the same passions which daily afflict the human race; and those children of superstition were appeased or provoked as the imperfect being which gave them birth. Their wrath was mitigated by sacrifice and incense, and sometimes human victims bled to expiate a crime which superstition alone supposed to exist. The sun, from its powerful influence and animating nature, first attracted the notice, and claimed the adoration, of the uncivilized inhabitants of the earth. The moon also was honoured with sacrifices, and addressed in prayers; and after immortality had been liberally bestowed on all the heavenly bodies, mankind classed among their deities the brute creation, and the cat and the sow shared equally with Jupiter himself, the father of gods and men, the devout veneration of their votaries. This immense number of deities have been divided into classes, according to the will and pleasure of the mythologists. The Romans, generally speaking, reckoned two classes of the gods, the dii majorum gentium, or dii consulentes, and the dii minorum gentium. The former were 12 in number, six males and six females. See: [Consentes]. In the class of the latter, were ranked all the gods who were worshipped in different parts of the earth. Besides these, there were some called dii selecti, sometimes classed with the 12 greater gods; these were Janus, Saturn, the Genius, the Moon, Pluto, and Bacchus. There were also some called demi-gods, that is, who deserved immortality by the greatness of their exploits, and for their uncommon services to mankind. Among these were Priapus, Vertumnus, Hercules, and those whose parents were some of the immortal gods. Besides these, there were some called topici, whose worship was established at particular places, such as Isis in Egypt, Astarte in Syria, Uranus at Carthage, &c. In process of time also, all the passions and the moral virtues were reckoned as powerful deities, and temples were raised to a goddess of concord, peace, &c. According to the authority of Hesiod, there were no less than 30,000 gods that inhabited the earth, and were guardians of men, all subservient to the power of Jupiter. To these succeeding ages have added an almost equal number; and indeed they were so numerous, and their functions so various, that we find temples erected, and sacrifices offered, to unknown gods. It is observable, that all the gods of the ancients have lived upon earth as mere mortals; and even Jupiter, who was the ruler of heaven, is represented by the mythologists as a helpless child; and we are acquainted with all the particulars that attended the birth and education of Juno. In process of time, not only good and virtuous men who had been the patrons of learning and the supporters of liberty, but also thieves and pirates, were admitted among the gods; and the Roman senate courteously granted immortality to the most cruel and abandoned of their emperors.
Dii, a people of Thrace, on mount Rhodope.
Dimassus, an island near Rhodes. Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 31.
Dinarchus, a Greek orator, son of Sostratus, and disciple to Theophrastus at Athens. He acquired much money by his compositions, and suffered himself to be bribed by the enemies of the Athenians, 307 B.C. Of 64 of his orations, only three remain. Cicero, On Oratory, bk. 2, ch. 53.——A Corinthian ambassador, put to death by Polyperchon. Plutarch, Phocion.——A native of Delos, who collected some fables in Crete, &c. Dionysius of Halicarnassus.
Dindy̆mus (or a, orum), a mountain of Phrygia, near a town of the same name in the neighbourhood of Cyzicus. It was from this place that Cybele was called Dindymene, as her worship was established there by Jason. Strabo, bk. 12.—Statius, bk. 1, Sylvæ, poem 1, li. 9.—Horace, bk. 1, ode 16, li. 5.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 9, li. 617.
Dinia, a town of Phrygia. Livy, bk. 38, ch. 5.——A town of Gaul, now Digne in Provence.