DACTYL (from Gr. δάκτυλος, a finger), in prosody, a long syllable followed by two short (see [Verse]).
DAEDALUS, a mythical Greek architect and sculptor, who figures largely in the early legends of Crete and of Athens. He was said to have built the labyrinth for Minos, to have made a wooden cow for Pasiphaë and to have fashioned a bronze man who repelled the Argonauts. Falling under the displeasure of Minos, he fashioned wings for himself and his son Icarus, and escaped to Sicily. These legends seem primarily to belong to Crete; and the Athenian element in them which connected Daedalus with the royal house of Erechtheus is a later fabrication. To Daedalus the Greeks of the historic age were in the habit of attributing buildings, and statues the origin of which was lost in the past, and which had no inscription belonging to them. In a later verse in the Iliad (date, 7th or 6th century), Daedalus is mentioned as the maker of a dancing-place for Ariadne in Crete; and such a dancing-place has been discovered by A. J. Evans, in the Minoan palace of Cnossus. Diodorus Siculus says that he executed various works in Sicily for King Cocalus. In many cities of Greece there were rude wooden statues, said to be by him. Later critics, judging from their own notions of the natural course of development in art, ascribed to Daedalus such improvements as separating the legs of statues and opening their eyes. In fact the name Daedalus is a mere symbol, standing for a particular phase of early Greek art, when wood was the chief material, and other substances were let into it for variety.
This Daedalus must not be confused with Daedalus of Sicyon, a great sculptor of the early part of the 4th century B.C., none of whose works is extant.
(P. G.)
DAFFODIL, the common name of a group of plants of the genus Narcissus, and natural order Amaryllidaceae. (See generally under [Narcissus].) The common daffodil, N. Pseudo-narcissus, is common in woods and thickets in most parts of the N. of Europe, but is rare in Scotland. Its leaves are five or six in number, are about a foot in length and an inch in breadth, and have a blunt keel and flat edges. The stem is about 18 in. long, and the spathe single-flowered. The flowers are large, yellow, scented and a little drooping, with a corolla deeply cleft into six lobes, and a central bell-shaped nectary, which is crisped at the margin. They appear early in the year, or, as Shakespeare says, “come before the swallow dares, and take the winds of March with beauty.” The stamens are shorter than the cup, the anthers oblong and converging; the ovary is globose, and has three furrows; the seeds are roundish and black. Many new varieties of the flower have recently been cultivated in gardens. The bulbs are large and orbicular, and have a blackish coat; they, as well as the flowers, are reputed to be emetic in properties. The Peruvian daffodil and the sea daffodil are species of the genus Ismene. (For derivation see [Asphodel].)
DAFYDD AB GWILYM (c. 1340-c. 1400), son of Gwilym Gam and Ardudful Fychan, greatest of the medieval Welsh poets, was born at Bro Gynin, Cardiganshire, about the year 1340. Educated by a scholarly uncle, Llewelyn ab Gwilym Fychan of Emlyn, he became steward to his kinsman, Ivor Hael of Maesaleg, Monmouthshire, who also appointed him instructor to his daughter. The latter arrangement leading to an attachment between tutor and pupil, the girl was banished to a convent in Anglesey, whither the poet followed her, taking service in an adjacent monastery, but on returning to Maesaleg he was permitted to retain his stewardship. He was elected chief bard of Glamorgan and became household bard to Ivor Hael. At Rhosyr in North Wales he met Morfudd Lawgam, to whom he addressed 147 amatory odes. In consequence of attempting to elope with this lady, Dafydd ab Gwilym, being unable to pay the fine demanded by her husband, was imprisoned. Liberated by the goodwill of his friends, he went back to Maesaleg, and after the death of his patron, retired to his birthplace, Bro Gynin. Tradition states that he was a man of noble appearance, and his poems bear evidence of high mental culture. He was acquainted with the works of Homer, Virgil, Ovid and Horace, and was also a student of Italian literature. Especially remarkable as a poet of nature in an age when more warlike themes were chosen by his contemporaries, his poems entitled “The Lark,” “The Wind” and “The Mist” are amongst his finest efforts. He has been called the Petrarch, the Ovid, and (by George Borrow) the Horace of Wales. His poems were almost all written in the cywydd form: a short ode not divided into stanzas, each line having the same number of syllables. The poet died about the year 1400, and according to tradition was buried in the graveyard of the monastery of Strata Florida, in Cardiganshire.