Idessa, a town of Iberia on the confines of Colchis. Strabo, bk. 11.
Idex, a small river of Italy, now Idice, near Bononia.
Idistavisus, a plain, now Hastenbach, where Germanicus defeated Arminius, near Oldendorp, on the Weser, in Westphalia. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 2, ch. 16.
Idmon, son of Apollo and Asteria, or, as some say, of Cyrene, was the prophet of the Argonauts. He was killed in hunting a wild boar in Bithynia, where his body received a magnificent funeral. He had predicted the time and manner of his own death. Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 2.—Orpheus.——A dyer of Colophon, father to Arachne. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 6, li. 8.——A man of Cyzicus, killed by Hercules, &c. Flaccus, bk. 3.——A son of Ægyptus, killed by his wife. See: [Danaides].
Idŏmĕne, a daughter of Pheres, who married Amythaon.
Idŏmĕneus, succeeded his father Deucalion on the throne of Crete, and accompanied the Greeks to the Trojan war, with a fleet of 90 ships. During this celebrated war he rendered himself famous by his valour, and slaughtered many of the enemy. At his return he made a vow to Neptune in a dangerous tempest, that if he escaped from the fury of the seas and storms, he would offer to the god whatever living creature first presented itself to his eye on the Cretan shore. This was no other than his own son, who came to congratulate his father upon his safe return. Idomeneus performed his promise to the god, and the inhumanity and rashness of his sacrifice rendered him so odious in the eyes of his subjects, that he left Crete, and migrated in quest of a settlement. He came to Italy, and founded a city on the coast of Calabria, which he called Salentum. He died in an extreme old age, after he had had the satisfaction of seeing his new kingdom flourish, and his subjects happy. According to the Greek scholiast of Lycophron, li. 1217, Idomeneus, during his absence in the Trojan war, entrusted the management of his kingdom to Leucos, to whom he promised his daughter Clisithere in marriage at his return. Leucos at first governed with moderation; but he was persuaded by Nauplius king of Eubœa to put to death Meda the wife of his master, with her daughter Clisithere, and to seize the kingdom. After these violent measures, he strengthened himself on the throne of Crete; and Idomeneus, at his return, found it impossible to expel the usurper. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 13, li. 358.—Hyginus, fable 92.—Homer, Iliad, bk. 11, &c.; Odyssey, bk. 19.—Pausanias, bk. 5, ch. 25.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 3, li. 122.——A son of Priam.——A Greek historian of Lampsacus, in the age of Epicurus. He wrote a history of Samothrace, the life of Socrates, &c.
Idŏthea, a daughter of Prœtus king of Argos. She was restored to her senses with her sisters, by Melampus. See: [Prœtides]. Homer, Odyssey, bk. 11.——A daughter of Proteus, the god who told Menelaus how he could return to his country in safety. Homer, Odyssey, bk. 4, li. 363.——One of the nymphs who educated Jupiter.
Idrieus, the son of Euromus of Caria, brother to Artimisia, who succeeded to Mausolus, and invaded Cyprus. Diodorus, bk. 16.—Polyænus, bk. 7.
Idubeda, a river and mountain of Spain. Strabo, bk. 3.
Idūme and Idūmēa, a country of Syria, famous for palm trees. Gaza is its capital, where Cambyses deposited his riches, as he was going to Egypt. Lucan, bk. 3, li. 216.—Silius Italicus, bk. 5, li. 600.—Virgil, Georgics, bk. 3, li. 12.