Diognetus, a philosopher who instructed Marcus Aurelius in philosophy, and in writing dialogues.
Diŏmēda, a daughter of Phorbas, whom Achilles brought from Lemnos, to be his mistress after the loss of Briseis. Homer, Iliad, bk. 9, li. 661.——The wife of Deion of Amyclæ.
Diŏmēdes, son of Tydeus and Deiphyle, was king of Ætolia, and one of the bravest of the Grecian chiefs in the Trojan war. He engaged Hector and Æneas, and by repeated acts of valour obtained much military glory. He went with Ulysses to steal the Palladium from the temple of Minerva at Troy; and assisted in murdering Rhesus king of Thrace, and carrying away his horses. At his return from the siege of Troy, he lost his way in the darkness of the night, and landed in Attica, where his companions plundered the country, and lost the Trojan Palladium. During his long absence, his wife Ægiale forgot her marriage vows, and prostituted herself to Cometes, one of her servants. This lasciviousness of the queen was attributed by some to the resentment of Venus, whom Diomedes had severely wounded in the arm in a battle before Troy. The infidelity of Ægiale was highly displeasing to Diomedes. He resolved to abandon his native country, which was the seat of his disgrace, and the attempts of his wife to take away his life, according to some accounts, did not a little contribute to hasten his departure. He came to that part of Italy which has been called Magna Græcia, where he built a city called Argyripa, and married the daughter of Daunus the king of the country. He died there in extreme old age, or, according to a certain tradition, he perished by the hand of his father-in-law. His death was greatly lamented by his companions, who in the excess of their grief were changed into birds resembling swans. These birds took flight into a neighbouring island in the Adriatic, and became remarkable for the tameness with which they approached the Greeks, and for the horror with which they shunned all other nations. They are called the birds of Diomedes. Altars were raised to Diomedes, as to a god, one of which Strabo mentions at Timavus. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 1, li. 756; bk. 11, li. 243, &c.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 14, fable 10.—Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 8; bk. 3, ch. 7.—Hyginus, fables 97, 112, & 113.—Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 30.——A king of Thrace, son of Mars and Cyrene, who fed his horses with human flesh. It was one of the labours of Hercules to destroy him; and accordingly the hero, attended with some of his friends, attacked the inhuman tyrant, and gave him to be devoured by his own horses, which he had fed so barbarously. Diodorus, bk. 4.—Pausanias, bk. 3, ch. 18.—Apollodorus, bk. 2, ch. 5.——A friend of Alcibiades. Plutarch, Alcibiades.——A grammarian.
Diŏmēdon, an Athenian general, put to death for his negligence at Arginusæ. Thucydides, bk. 8, ch. 19.——A man of Cyzicus, in the interest of Artaxerxes. Cornelius Nepos, Epaminondas.
Dion, a Syracusan, son of Hipparinus, famous for his power and abilities. He was related to Dionysius, and often advised him, together with the philosopher Plato, who at his request had come to reside at the tyrant’s court, to lay aside the supreme power. His great popularity rendered him odious in the eyes of the tyrant, who banished him to Greece. There he collected a numerous force, and encouraged by the influence of his name, and the hatred of his enemy, he resolved to free his country from tyranny. He entered the port of Syracuse only with two ships, and in three days reduced under his power an empire which had already subsisted for 50 years, and which was guarded by 500 ships of war, and 100,000 foot and 10,000 horse. The tyrant fled to Corinth, and Dion kept the power in his own hands, fearful of the aspiring ambition of some of the friends of Dionysius. He was, however, shamefully betrayed and murdered by one of his familiar friends, called Callicrates, or Callipus, 354 years before the christian era, in the 55th year of his age, and four years after his return from Peloponnesus. His death was universally lamented by the Syracusans, and a monument was raised to his memory. Diodorus, bk. 16.—Cornelius Nepos, Life of Dion.——A town of Macedonia. Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 36.——Cassius, a native of Nicæa in Bithynia. His father’s name was Apronianus. He was raised to the greatest offices of state in the Roman empire by Pertinax and his three successors. Naturally fond of study, he improved himself by unwearied application, and was 10 years collecting materials for a history of Rome, which he made public in 80 books, after a laborious employment of 12 years in composing it. This valuable history began with the arrival of Æneas in Italy, and was continued down to the reign of the emperor Alexander Severus. The 34 first books are totally lost, the 20 following are mutilated, and fragments are all that we possess of the last 20. In the compilation of his extensive history, Dion proposed to himself Thucydides for a model; but he is not perfectly happy in his imitation. His style is pure and elegant, and his narrations are judiciously managed, and his reflections learned; but upon the whole he is credulous, and the bigoted slave of partiality, satire, and flattery. He inveighs against the republican principles of Brutus and Cicero, and extols the cause of Cæsar. Seneca also is the object of his satire, and he represents him as debauched and licentious in his morals. Dion flourished about the 230th year of the christian era. The best edition of his works is that of Reimarus, 2 vols., folio, Hamburg, 1750.——A famous christian writer, surnamed Chrysostom, &c.
Diōnæa, a surname of Venus, supposed to be the daughter of Jupiter and Done.
Diōne, a nymph, daughter of Nereus and Doris. She was mother of Venus by Jupiter, according to Homer and others. Hesiod, however, gives Venus a different origin. See: [Venus]. Venus is herself sometimes called Dione. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 3, li. 19.—Homer, Iliad, bk. 5, li. 381.—Statius, bk. 1, Sylvæ, poem 1, li. 86.
Dionȳsia, festivals in honour of Bacchus among the Greeks. Their form and solemnity were first introduced into Greece from Egypt by a certain Melampus, and if we admit that Bacchus is the same as Isis, the Dionysia of the Greeks are the same as the festivals celebrated by the Egyptians in honour of Isis. They were observed at Athens with more splendour and ceremonious superstition than in any other part of Greece. The years were numbered by their celebration, the Archon assisted at the solemnity, and the priests that officiated were honoured with the most dignified seats at the public games. At first they were celebrated with great simplicity, and the time was consecrated to mirth. It was then usual to bring a vessel of wine adorned with a vine branch, after which followed a goat, a basket of figs, and the φαλλοι. The worshippers imitated in their dress and actions the poetical fictions concerning Bacchus. They clothed themselves in fawns’ skins, fine linen, and mitres; they carried thyrsi, drums, pipes, and flutes, and crowned themselves with garlands of ivy, vine, fir, &c. Some imitated Silenus, Pan, and the Satyrs by the uncouth manner of their dress, and their fantastical motions. Some rode upon asses, and others drove the goats to slaughter for the sacrifice. In this manner both sexes joined in the solemnity, and ran about the hills and country, nodding their heads, dancing in ridiculous postures, and filling the air with hideous shrieks and shouts, and crying aloud, “Evoe Bacche! Io! Io! Evoe! Iacche! Io Bacche! Evohe!” With such solemnities were the festivals of Bacchus celebrated by the Greeks, particularly the Athenians. In one of these there followed a number of persons carrying sacred vessels, one of which contained water. After these came a select number of noble virgins, carrying little baskets of gold filled with all sorts of fruits. This was the most mysterious part of the solemnity. Serpents were sometimes put in the baskets, and by their wreathing and crawling out they amused and astonished the beholders. After the virgins followed a company of men carrying poles, at the end of which were fastened φαλλοι. The heads of these men, who were called φαλλοφοροι, were crowned with ivy and violets, and their faces covered with other herbs. They marched singing songs upon the occasion of the festivals, called φαλλικα ᾁσματα. Next to the φαλλοφοροι followed the ἰθυφαλλοι in women’s apparel, with white striped garments reaching to the ground; their heads were decked with garlands, and on their hands they wore gloves composed of flowers. Their gestures and actions were like those of a drunken man. Besides these, there were a number of persons called λικνοφοροι, who carried the λικνον or musical van of Bacchus; without their attendance none of the festivals of Bacchus were celebrated with due solemnity, and on that account the god is often called λικνιτης. The festivals of Bacchus were almost innumerable. The name of the most celebrated were the Dionysia [♦]ἀρχαιότερα, at Limnæ in Attica. The chief persons that officiated were 14 women called γεραιραι, venerable. They were appointed by one of the archons, and before their appointment they solemnly took an oath before the archon or his wife, that their body was free from all pollution.——The greater Dionysia, sometimes called ἀστικα or τα κατ’ ἀστυ, as being celebrated within the city, were the most famous. They were supposed to be the same as the preceding.——The less Dionysia, sometimes called τα κατ’ ἀργους, because celebrated in the country, or ληναια, from ληνος, a wine-press, were, to all appearance, a preparation for the greater festivals. They were celebrated in autumn.——The Dionysia βραυρωνια, observed at Brauron in Attica, were a scene of lewdness, extravagance, and debauchery.——The Dionysia νυκτηλια were observed by the Athenians in honour of Bacchus Nyctelius. It was unlawful to reveal whatever was seen or done during the celebration.——The Dionysia called ὠμοφαγια, because human victims were offered to the god, or because the priests imitated the eating of raw flesh, were celebrated with much solemnity. The priests put serpents in their hair, and by the wildness of their looks, and the oddity of their actions, they feigned insanity.——The Dionysia ἀρκαδικα were yearly observed in Arcadia, and the children who had been instructed in the music of Philoxenus and Timotheus, were introduced in a theatre, where they celebrated the festivals of Bacchus by entertaining the spectators with songs, dances, and different exhibitions. There were, besides these, others of inferior note. There was also one observed every three years called Dionysia τριετηρικα, and it is said that Bacchus instituted it himself in commemoration of his Indian expedition, in which he spent three years. There is also another, celebrated every fifth year, as mentioned by the scholiast of Aristophanes.——All these festivals, in honour of the god of wine, were celebrated by the Greeks with great licentiousness, and they contributed much to the corruption of morals among all ranks of people. They were also introduced into Tuscany, and from thence to Rome. Among the Romans, both sexes promiscuously joined in the celebration during the darkness of night. The drunkenness, the debauchery, and impure actions and indulgencies which soon prevailed at the solemnity, called aloud for the interference of the senate, and the consuls Spurius Posthumius Albinus and Quintus Martius Philippus made a strict examination concerning the propriety and superstitious forms of the Bacchanalia. The disorder and pollution which was practised with impunity by no less than 7000 votaries of either sex, were beheld with horror and astonishment by the consuls, and the Bacchanalia were for ever banished from Rome by a decree of the senate. They were again reinstituted there in length of time, but not with such licentiousness as before. Euripides, Bacchæ.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 11, li. 737.—Diodorus, bk. 4.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 3, li. 533; bk. 4, li. 391; bk. 6, li. 587.
[♦] ‘ἀλχαιωτερα’ replaced with ‘ἀρχαιότερα’
Diŏnȳsiădes, two small islands near Crete.——Festivals in honour of Bacchus. Pausanias, bk. 3, ch. 13.