Danaus
The eponym of the Danaoi, at least according to later tradition; son of Belus, king of Libya and later Argos, and brother of Aegyptus, the eponym of Egypt. His family also included his nephew, Phoenix, eponym of the Phoenicians, and displays a mythological treatment of early Mediterranean ethnography and history.
Danaus fathered 50 daughters, the Danaides, by ten wives; his brother, Aegyptus, wanted to wed them to his 50 sons. Danaus fled with his daughters to Argos, where he was elected king in place of Gelanor. However, the 50 sons of Aegyptus followed and demanded the hands of his daughters in marriage. Danaus reluctantly agreed, but he armed each of his daughters and instructed them to kill their new husbands on their wedding night. All but Hypermnestra complied. Danaus then organized a footrace, offering his forty-nine "obedient" daughters as prizes. Finally Lynceus, Hypermnestra’s husband— and the only of Aegyptus’s sons not to have been killed by the Danaides—killed Danaus and became king of Argos.
Daphne
A nymph, the daughter of the river god Peneus in Thessaly or Arcadia. She had two lovers. The first, Leucippus, son of King Oenomaus of Elis, dressed as a girl so that he could go hunting with Daphne and other nymphs. On one such day, however, the nymphs decided to strip to have a swim. Discovering Leucippus’s secret, they killed him.
Her other, more famous lover was Apollo, who chased after the girl. Unable to escape, Daphne prayed to the gods to rescue her. Ge responded by turning her into a laurel bush. Thereafter, Apollo wore a laurel branch on his head as a symbol of his love and grief, and the bush became sacred to him. A suburb of Antioch is called Daphne, where this event is alleged to have happened; it is the former location of a famous temple to Apollo.
A variant on this story says that the chase took place in the Vale of Tempe, a myth that probably refers to the capture of Tempe by the Hellenes where the goddess Daphoene was worshipped by votaries, often incorrectly referred to as Maenads, chewed laurel leaves, and thus became intoxicated. After the Hellenes arrived, only the Pythoness of Apollo was permitted to chew laurel.
Daphnis
A Sicilian demigod, the son of Hermes and an unnamed nymph. Exposed at birth, he was raised by Sicilian shepherds and became a great exponent of the syrinx, which Pan taught him to play. With such great skill he became a minstrel to Apollo. He was also regarded as the inventor of bucolic poetry.
Daphnis pledged his love to a jealous nymph, either Nomeia or Echenais, but he was seduced either by a Sicilian princess or by the nymph Chimaera (not the fire-breathing monster). His lover blinded him for his unfaithfulness, and Daphnis took his own life. To commemorate his son, Hermes caused a fountain, known as Daphnis, to rise at Syracuse.
Dardanelles
Strait of water that separates, along with the Sea of Marmara and the Bosphorus, Asiatic Turkey from the remainder of the country. Its ancient name was the Hellespont, named in honor of Helle, who fell from the back of the winged ram Aries that was carrying her and her brother, Phrixus, away from their cruel stepmother to Colchis.
Dardania
Town that once stood in the vicinity of Troy, supposedly founded by Dardanos. By the time of Homer, when the sixth city of Troy would have been standing, it was absorbed into the city along with Tros and Ilium. Legend says that the town was built by Dardanos on a piece of land given to him by Teucer.
Dardan~os, ~us Greco-Roman Son of Zeus and Electra (a daughter of Atlas and thus one of the Pleiades) and brother to Iasion. Regarded as the primal ancestor of Troy, he founded and gave his name to Dardania, a town built on land given to him by Teucer, son of the River Scamander, when he arrived in the region from Samothrace. Along with Tros and Ilium, this town was later absorbed into the city that became known as Troy. He built a citadel that later became the citadel of Troy, introduced the cults of the Samothracian gods and of Cybele, and brought the Palladium, the statue of Athene, from Arcadia.
Daul~ia, ~is
An ancient town in Phocis that was the home of Tereus and the setting for the story of Philomela and Procne, who are hence called Daulias.
Daulias
Name applied to Philomela and Procne, which is derived from Daulia, the town in Phocis where their story is set.
Daunia
Region in Italy to which Diomedes traveled after the Trojan War, there marrying Euippe, the daughter of Daunus, the king and eponym of the region.
Daun~os, ~us
King and eponym of Daunia, Italy, whose daughter, Euippe, married Diomedes after he left Argos, he having returned from the Trojan War to discover his wife’s infidelity.
Deian~eira, ~ara
Daughter of Oeneus, king of Calydon and Pleuron. She married Heracles after he defeated her other suitor, the mighty river god Achelous, son of Oceanos and Tethys. Their son was named Hyllus. In a famous incident, Deianeira was being carried across the fast-flowing River Evenus by the centaur Nessus when the centaur made off with her, fully meaning to violate her. Heracles shot Nessus through the breast with one of his poisoned arrows and, as the centaur lay dying, gave Deianeira some of his blood to be used as a charm to reclaim a faithless husband, though some accounts say she was given Nessus’s blood-stained tunic.
Later, when Deianeira suspected Heracles was about to abandon her for Iole, the daughter of Eurytus who had been sent to her by Heracles, she sent to him a shirt dipped in Nessus’s blood, or the blood-stained tunic, not knowing that the blood had been poisoned by Heracles’ arrow, which had caused the death of Nessus. When Heracles put the shirt or tunic on, it burned into his flesh. In excruciating agony Heracles tried to tear the garment from his back, but it simply tore great chunks of his flesh away.
Commanding his son, Hyllus, to build a funeral pyre for him on Mount Oeta, Heracles immolated himself. Deianeira, grief-stricken by what she had unintentionally done, hanged herself. This tragic climax to the career of Heracles was dramatized by Sophocles in Women of Trachis or Trachiniae. In this work the ill-fated attempt by Deianeira to keep her husband’s fidelity is touchingly represented.
Deidameia
Daughter of Lycomedes (king of Scyros) and mother of Neoptolemus, sometimes called Pyrrhos, by Achilles when the latter was hiding disguised as a girl at the court of her father, a ruse devised by Thetis meant to prevent Achilles from going to Troy.
Deimos Greco-Roman One of the two horsemen (with companion Phobos) of Ares (Roman Mars); his name means "panic" or "terror."
Astronomical: The outer satellite of the planet Mars that was discovered in 1877, along with Phobos, by Asaph Hall. Irregular in shape, Deimos has a maximum dimension of approximately 13 kilometers (8 miles) and orbits at an average distance of 23,500 kilometers (14,690 miles) from the planet.
Deiphobus
One of the 50 sons of Priam and one of the 19 born to him by Hecuba, his second wife. Brother to Hector, Paris, Polites, Cassandra, and Helenus, Deiphobus quarreled with the latter for the possession of Helen, who was at this late stage of the Trojan War homesick for Sparta. Deiphobus forcibly married her, and Helenus fled to Mount Ida, where he either freely joined the Greek forces or was captured by Odysseus. Deiphobus was killed by Agamemnon and Menelaus when Troy finally fell to the stratagem of the Wooden Horse.
Deiphyle
Daughter of Adrastus (king of Argos), sister of Argia, whom Adrastus married, and wife of Tydeus, the son of Oeneus of Calydon.
Delia
The quinquennial festival held on Delos in honor of Apollo.
Delos
One of the smallest of the Cyclades, a roughly circular group of islands in the southern Aegean Sea. Legend says that the island was raised from the seabed by Poseidon and then anchored to the bottom by Zeus; it was considered the birthplace of Apollo and, according to some sources, also of his twin sister, Artemis, though she is usually regarded as having been born on the nearby island of Ortygia.
The island became one of the most important centers of worship of Apollo, who was also known there as Lycius and Phoebus. The oracle of Apollo on Delos was said to have been consulted by Aeneas as he led his band of Trojan refugees to a new home following the end of the Trojan War. The rulers of Delos became treasurers of the Delian League between 478 B.C. and 454 B.C. The ruins on the island are particularly impressive, a vast ruined classical city with a most impressive theater and an underground system of drains and reservoirs. The sanctuary of Apollo, temple of Apollo, temple of Artemis, and the sacred way with the dried-up sacred lake and "lion terrace" cover an even greater area than does the residential area, illustrating the special religious importance of Delos. Mosaics found within the temple of Dionysos are particularly noteworthy.
Delphi
Greco-Roman Ancient Greek city situated in a rocky valley north of the Gulf of Corinth near the spring Castalia on the southern slope of Mount Parnassus. Delphi became famous as the site of the Delphic Oracle, the Oracle of Apollo that was situated in his temple. In the same temple stood the Omphalos, a conical stone said to stand at the center of earth, though some accounts say that this was the stone first swallowed and subsequently regurgitated by Cronos, the stone being substituted by Rhea for the baby Zeus.
After the sixth century B.C. Delphi became one of the richest sanctuaries of the Greek world. It was plundered by both Sulla and Nero, the latter removing more than 500 bronze statues but scarcely making an impact on the overall appearance of the temple complexes. It is still the most magnificent of all the Greek sites, though time, looters, and Christians have removed all the treasures that were unequaled during their time.
Delphic Oracle Greco-Roman The oracle of Apollo and his Dorian sanctuary, at Delphi on the southern slope of Mount Parnassus, where the god was also known as the Pythian or Loxias—"the Ambiguous." Legend gives us several variations on the origins of the Delphic Oracle, the second most important sanctuary to the ancient Greeks after Olympus.
Originally said to be the Oracle of Ge, or the Oracle of Earth, it was guarded by the she-dragon Python. Shortly after his birth, Apollo came to Delphi from Delos, killed the Python, and took over the oracle; the priestess, known as the Pythoness, thereafter became the mouthpiece of his oracles, which were imparted in hexameter verse in his temple. In this same temple was the Omphalos, the navel stone of earth that was supposed to mark its center.
Two different stories tell of its origin. One says that it was the stone swallowed and then regurgitated by Cronos who had been given it by Rhea in place of the infant Zeus. The other says that Zeus sent two eagles to fly from the two horizons, east and west, and placed this conical-stone where they met to mark the center of earth.
Apollo having slain the Python and taken over the oracle, Zeus commanded Apollo to visit the Vale of Tempe for purification and there to found and preside over the Pythian Games that were to be held in Python’s honor. Returning to Delphi, Apollo was joined by his sister, Artemis, and their mother, Leto. Hera, still implacable over Zeus’s philandering, sent the giant Tityus to violate either Leto or Artemis, but Apollo, sensing the danger, killed the giant with his arrows. The establishment of the oracle at Delphi firmly placed Apollo in the role of god of prophecy.
The original oracle appears to have been founded by pre-Hellenic people who worshipped an ambivalent mother goddess, later to be equated with Ge. When the Hellenes invaded the area and seized the site, they slew the Python, the oracular serpent, and took over the oracles in the name of Apollo; but with respect for ancient customs and the original inhabitants of the region they founded and held the Pythian Games in honor of the oracular serpent.
Within the temple of Apollo was a chasm that was supposed to give out intoxicating fumes, possibly a sulphurous fissure within the volcanic infrastructure of the region. Over this the Pythoness or Pythia sat on a tripod, maintaining an intoxicated state by chewing laurel, uttering the wisdom of the god in hexameter verse. Regarded as the mystical bride of the god, her utterances were interpreted by the oracular priests before being passed onto the questioner.
Further cults had smaller sanctuaries at Delphi, thus adding to the status and wealth of the Delphic Oracle. Among them was that of Dionysos, whose votaries were known at Delphi as Thyiads, who regularly held orgiastic Dyonisiac festivals there, his sepulchre being placed very near to the tripod of the Pythia, whereas his temple, a theater, was built at the highest point of the sacred precinct.
Many legends abound where heroes consulted the Delphic Oracle. Famous among these is the sending of Heracles to labor for 12 years for King Eurystheus, king of Argos, the Pythia being the first person to actually refer to this great hero as Heracles. Cadmos consulted the oracle, and this led him to found the city that was later to be called Thebes. Oedipus learned there that he would kill his father and then marry his own mother. Further traditions stemming from consultations of the Delphic Oracle are found in Roman legends. The Tarquins consulted it to discover which of them would succeed their father, Tarquinius Superbus. The oracle also confirmed to Camil-lus the information that Veii would only fall after the Alban Lake had been drained. This turned out to be true; following the fall of Veii, booty was sent to the Delphic Oracle.
By the second century A.D. the oracles were given in prose. Both Sulla and Nero plundered the site, the latter taking around 500 bronze statues from the site without adversely affecting its appearance. The last utterance of the oracle was to the emperor Julian: "Tell ye the kings the carven hall is fallen in decay. / Apollo hath no chapel left, no prophesying bay, no talking spring. / The stream is dry that hath much to say."
Shortly afterwards, c. 390 A.D., the oracle was closed down by the Roman Emperor Theodosius. Today the site is still magnificent, though the treasures once held there can only be wondered at, for they have been successively looted (some are preserved in a site museum).
Delphin~os, ~us
1. A dolphin who so eloquently pleaded the suit of Poseidon to Amphitrite and her father, Nereus, that Amphitrite consented to marry the god. In gratitude Poseidon transferred Delphinos to the heavens to form the constellation that bears his name. However, some confusion exists here, for this constellation is also said to represent Delphinos.
Astronomical: A small but exquisite group of stars that lies in the northern celestial hemisphere between approximate right ascensions 20h10m and 21h10m, declination from +3° to +21°.
2. A dolphin who saved the life of the poet-minstrel Arion when he leaped overboard from a ship to escape the attentions of ruffian sailors who were threatening his life. The dolphin carried Arion ashore before the ship arrived and, when it did, the crew was arrested and executed. In return for the dolphin’s service to Arion, the gods placed his image in the sky as the constellation that bears his name.
Demeter
One of the 12 Olympian deities whose Roman counterpart was Ceres, Demeter probably originated as a Minyan goddess, brought along when the Minyans entered Greece c. 2000 B.C. Revered as an earth goddess, it is thought she was also made the mate of their sky god, a character who would seem to have later developed into Poseidon or possibly even Zeus, though the former is the more likely as both Minyan deities were said to have been able to assume the shape of a horse, an attribute that carried forward into Greek legend. The Minyan goddess, merged with the Great Goddess of pre-Hellenic matriarchal society, gave rise to Demeter, specifically goddess of agriculture, nutrition, and crops and fruit, especially corn, but also goddess of human health and fertility.
Her combination with Ceres in Roman religion was mainly due to the influence of the Greek colony of Cumae. As Ceres she presided solely over the growth of cereals and other foodstuffs and was given a male counterpart, Cerus.
According to common ancient interpretation her name means "Earth Mother," and her various titles, such as Karpophoros (fruit-bearing), further emphasize her role. She was also worshipped in specific aspects as Demeter Erinys at Onkeion, and Black Demeter, at Phigaleia, the latter goddess being depicted with a horse’s head, for Demeter was said to have fled to Phigaleia following her rape by Poseidon.
Legend makes her the daughter of Cronos and Rhea, sister to Hestia, Hades, Zeus, Poseidon, and Hera. She was raped by her brother, Zeus, and became the mother by him of Persephone, also called Kore or Core, "the maiden," herself an aspect of the goddess. Hades sought permission from Zeus to marry the girl and, receiving neither approval nor refusal, carried her off while she was gathering flowers, some sources placing the abduction at Enna, others firmly at Eleusis. Grief-stricken, Demeter wandered earth in search of her daughter, and it is these wanderings that give rise to most of the legends surrounding Demeter. During them she was raped by Poseidon, who assumed the form of a stallion, for Demeter was then in the guise of a mare, the result of this union being the horse Arion and the nymph Despoena.
At the wedding of Harmonia and Cadmos she united with Iasion, Harmonia’s brother, in a ploughed field; as a result she bore the sons Plutus (Wealth) and Plilomelus (the Inventor), who some say later became the constellation Bootes.
Unable to locate Persephone, Demeter wandered far and wide, participating at one point in the banquet prepared for the gods by Tantalus at which a stew made from his son, Pelops, was served. Only Demeter, in her grief, did not notice what she was eating and consumed Pelops’s shoulder. After Tantalus had been suitably punished by Zeus and Pelops restored to life, Demeter made him a new shoulder from ivory in recompense, this ivory shoulder becoming a birthmark of sorts for his descendants.
Still Demeter could not locate her daughter until, on the tenth day of her wanderings, which appear to have taken her to almost every corner of the Greek world, Helios told her of what Hades had done. Refusing to return to Olympus, Demeter came instead to Eleusis, where she sat down by the well Callichoron and wept copiously. Here she was found by Celeus, king of Eleusis, who brought her into his home. There Metaneira, Celeus’s wife, gave her a drink of kykeon, a type of barley water, which she at first refused to drink, but Iambe finally induced her to smile with her lewd antics, and Demeter thirstily downed the drink. However, Abas, one of Celeus’s sons, derided the goddess for the avidity with which she had drunk. In retaliation Demeter changed Abas into a lizard, a form in which he, at least, could survive without water, though she still did not reveal to her host and his family her true identity.
Demeter remained with Celeus and his family, becoming the nurse of the baby De-mophoon, whom she attempted to make immortal by placing him on the fire. However,
Metaneira discovered her and cried out in alarm. Now Demeter revealed her identity and demanded the foundation of the Eleusinia, in honor of Demophoon.
Even when the temple to Demeter was finished at Eleusis, her daughter had not been returned to her. In her anger Demeter forbade anything to grow on earth, and finally Zeus said that Persephone could return from the Underworld provided she had not eaten anything while there and sent Hermes to escort the maiden back to earth. Unfortunately Hades had given Persephone a pomegranate from which she had eaten but a single seed. As a result Zeus decreed that for a third of the year, some sources say six months, Persephone would dwell in the Underworld; the remainder of the year would be spent with her mother on earth. Before leaving Eleusis, Demeter taught Triptolemus, another of Celeus’s sons, all the arts of agriculture and lent him her dragon chariot, which Triptolemus used to travel over all earth, teaching people how to grow and harvest crops wherever he went. This myth originates in the most primitive rites of the seasons, of seedtime and harvest, during an age when only women practiced the arts of agriculture.
Her time spent with Hades was taken to represent the winter, when foliage would die and nothing would grow; her time on earth with Demeter was the growing season. In addition to the Eleusinia the other major festival to Demeter, celebrated in and around Athens, was the women’s festival of the Thesmaphoria.
In art Demeter is usually depicted as a mature women with a kindly expression, bountiful and gentle. She is usually represented with a garland of corn or a ribbon, holding a scepter, corn ears, or a poppy, sometimes a torch and basket. On occasions she is shown riding in a chariot pulled by horses or dragons; others depict her walking or enthroned.
Pigs were her sacred animal. Though she was not a popular subject in Greek art, a fine statue of Demeter dating from c. 330 B.C. was found at Cnidos in Asia Minor and is today in the British Museum.
Demodoc~os, ~us
The writer of a short ballad known as the "Lay of Demodocos" that was incorporated into the eighth book of Homer’s Odyssey. It tells the humorous story of the occasion when Hephaistos trapped his philandering wife, Aphrodite, in bed with Ares by using an almost invisible net he had made, then displaying the couple to the ridicule of the other gods.
Demo(r)gorgon
There is only one reference to the Demogorgon in just one source text, the Thebaid of Statius. The line ("the dread name of Demogorgon") gives no description of what the Demogorgon might have been, but it is now generally assumed that it was a simple mistake for Demiorgos, "creator god," a mysterious and terrible infernal deity who resolved Chaos into order.
Demopho(o)n
1. The son of Celeus and Metaneira whom Demeter attempted to make immortal by immolating him on the fire in return for her hosts’ hospitality. Metaneira disturbed her in the process, her scream breaking the spell, and Demophoon died. Demeter then demanded the establishment of the Eleusinia in honor of the boy, a festival that later was combined with the Eleusinian Mysteries.
2. Son of Theseus and Phaedra, though some say his mother was Antiope; brother of Acamas and step-brother of Hippolytus. Following the Trojan War, Demophoon and Acamas rescued their grandmother, Aethra, who had been given as a slave to Helen by the Dioscuri when the divine twins rescued Helen from the village to which Theseus had abducted her. Demophoon then visited Thrace, where Phyllis, the daughter of the king, fell in love with him. Demophoon, however, left her and returned to Athens; she killed herself in despair and was transformed into a tree.
Despoena
A nymph, the daughter of Demeter, sister of the horse Arion, the offspring sired on Demeter by Poseidon when the former had disguised herself as a mare and Poseidon assumed the form of a stallion.
