Part 18

DEMONAX. A cynic and eclectic philosopher, senior contemporary of Lucian, from whose 'Life' all that is known of him is gathered.

DEMOSTHENES (1). One of the most distinguished Athenian generals in the Peloponnesian war. _See_ BRASIDAS. Put to death by the Syracusans on the failure of the Sicilian expedition.

DEMOSTHENES (2). The Athenian orator. His father was a rich manufacturer of arms. Being defrauded by his guardians, took to oratory first for the purpose of suing them. His self-training is famous; the allusions in the _Demosthenes_ are thus explained: he lived in a cave to study undisturbed, shaving half his head to keep him there, studied his gestures in a mirror and corrected a shrug by hanging a naked sword over his shoulders improved his articulation and voice by holding pebbles in his mouth and shouting at the waves, took lessons from Satyrus the actor, copied out Thucydides eight times. The great object of his life was to keep Greece and especially Athens free from subjection to Macedon.

DEUCALION and PYRRHA. The two who survived, according to the Greek flood-legend, to repeople the earth.

DIASIA. Festival of Zeus at Athens.

DIOGENES. 412-323 B.C. His father was a banker of Sinope. He went to Athens and became a philosopher of the Cynic school, which see, as a disciple of Antisthenes. He is said to have lived in a tub.

DIOMEDE. One of the chief Greek heroes at the siege of Troy.

DION. A citizen of Syracuse under the two Dionysii; when Plato visited Dionysius I, Dion became his disciple; being afterwards banished by Dionysius II, he returned and expelled the tyrant.

DIONYSIA. There were four annual festivals in honour of Dionysus at Athens. The Great Dionysia was the chief occasion for the production of new tragedies and comedies.

DIONYSIUS I and II. Father and son, tyrants of Syracuse, 405-343 B.C. The elder was a great patron of literature, and himself wrote verses and tragedies.

DIONYSUS, or BACCHUS. Son of Zeus and the Theban Semele. For his birth see SEMELE. Travelled through Egypt, Asia, &c., introducing the vine and punishing all who slighted his power. His female worshippers were known as Bacchantes, who roamed the country with dishevelled locks, carrying the thyrsus and crying _evoe_.

DIOPITHES. An Athenian commander frequently employed against Philip of Macedon.

DIOSCURI. _See_ CASTOR.

DIOTIMA. A priestess at Mantinea, called by Socrates (in Plato's _Symposium_) his instructress in the art of love.

DODONA. Ancient oracle of Zeus in Epirus, where responses were given by the rustling leaves of the sacred trees.

DOSIADAS. Author of two enigmatic poems whose verses are so arranged as to present the profile of an altar.

DRACHMA. Greek coin worth tenpence.

DRACO. Ancient Athenian lawgiver, 621 B.C.

DROMO. Stock name for a slave.

ELECTRA. _See_ AGAMEMNON.

ELEUSIS. A town a few miles from Athens, where the Mysteries were celebrated.

ELEVEN, THE. The board at Athens in charge of prisons and executions.

EMPEDOCLES. A Pythagorean philosopher, 444 B.C. His skill in medicine and natural knowledge caused him to be credited with supernatural powers. He fell or threw himself into the crater of Etna, as some say that by his sudden disappearance he might be believed to be a God; but his brazen sandal was thrown up and betrayed him.

EMPUSA. A monstrous spectre believed to devour human beings, and capable of assuming different forms.

ENDYMION. A beautiful Carian youth with whom Selene fell in love.

ENIPEUS. A river and river-god in Thessaly.

EPHIALTES and OTUS. The two giants who piled Ossa upon Olympus and Pelion upon Ossa to scale heaven.

EPICTETUS. A celebrated Stoic philosopher of the first century A.D. Expelled from Rome with the other philosophers by Domitian. His _Discourses_ and _Enchiridion_, still much read, are the notes of his teaching collected by his pupil Arrian.

EPICUREANS. The school of philosophy instituted by Epicurus (342-270 B.C.). He combined the physics of Democritus with the ethics of Aristippus; adopting the atomic theory of the former, he deduced from it the indifference or non-existence of Gods; and he qualified Aristippus's exaltation of pleasure by preferring mental and permanent to bodily and immediate gratification. Their religious attitude caused them to be held in abhorrence by other schools.

EPIMENIDES. Poet and prophet of Crete. The _Rip van Winkle_ of antiquity, but a historical character.

EPIMETHEUS, 'after-thought,' was the brother of Prometheus, 'forethought.'

ERECHTHEUS II. Ancient king of Athens. Posidon, offended by the slaying of his son Eumolpus, demanded the sacrifice of one of Erechtheus's daughters; one being drawn by lot, the other three would not survive her.

ERICHTHONIUS, or ERECHTHEUS I. King of Athens, and son of Hephaestus; his mother was not Athene, but Ge.

ERIDANUS. Greek name of the Po.

ERIGONE. _See_ Icarus.

ERINYES. Also called Furies, Eumenides, and Dread Goddesses, employed in punishing the wicked, whether in Hades or on earth, where they represent the pangs of conscience.

ERIS. The Goddess of discord; for her story, see _Dialogues of Sea-Gods_, v.

EROS. God of love, the Latin Cupid. Lucian plays with the two accounts of his birth and age. According to one, he was older than all the Olympian Gods; according to the other, son of Zeus and Aphrodite.

ETHIOPIANS. The Gods were in the habit of visiting the 'blameless Ethiopians' and being feasted by them, according to Homer.

EUBULUS. The most influential statesman of the Athenian party opposed to Demosthenes and in favour of peace with Philip.

EUCTEMON. An Athenian suborned by Demosthenes's enemy Midias to bring against Demosthenes a charge of deserting while on military service.

EUMOLPUS. A Thracian bard who joined the Eleusinians in an expedition against Athens, but was defeated and slain. He was regarded as the founder of the Eleusinian Mysteries, and his family, the Eumolpidae, continued to be the priests of Demeter there.

EUPHORBUS. _See_ PYTHAGORAS.

EUPHORION. Epic poet of Chalcis, 276 B.C.

EUPOLIS. Among the most famous poets of the Old Comedy, with Aristophanes and Cratinus.

EURIPIDES. The most philosophic of the Greek tragedians. Born 480 B.C., died 406 B.C. at the court of Archelaus, king of Macedonia, whither he had retired from Athens about 408 B.C.

EUROPA. Daughter of the Phoenician king Agenor, and sister of Cadmus; carried away by Zeus, who assumed the form of a white bull.

EURYBATUS. An Ephesian who betrayed Croesus to Cyrus, and became a byword for treachery.

EURYDICE. _See_ ORPHEUS.

EURYSTHEUS. King of Tiryns. _See_ HERACLES.

EURYTUS. King of Oechalia; challenged Apollo to a match with the bow, and was killed for his presumption.

EUXINE. 'The hospitable' (#euxenos#); a euphemism for 'the inhospitable,' #axenos#. The Black Sea.

EXADIUS. One of the Lapithae, who were assisted by Nestor in their fight against the Centaurs.

FATES. The Three Sisters to whose power even the Gods must submit, and who regulate every human life. Clotho holds the distaff, Lachesis spins, and Atropus cuts the thread of life. Lucian also gives them other functions.

FAVORINUS. A famous sophist, contemporary with Demonax, whose jests against him depend on the fact that he was supposed to be a eunuch.

GALATEA. The 'milk-white,' a Nereid, loved by Polyphemus.

GALLI. _See_ ATTIS.

GANYMEDE. A beautiful Trojan youth, beloved by Zeus, and carried off by him to be the Gods' cupbearer.

GE. 'Earth,' wife of Uranus ('Heaven'), mother of Cronus, Rhea, and the other Titans.

GERYON. A three-bodied Spanish giant. _See_ HERACLES.

GIANTS. The brood that sprang from the blood of Uranus when mutilated. They made war on Heaven, armed with rocks and trees; but the Gods destroyed them and buried them under volcanoes.

GLAUCUS. A famous boxer.

GLYCERA. Stock name for a courtesan.

GODS. The XII were Zeus, Posidon, Apollo, Ares, Hephaestus, Hermes, Hera, Athene, Artemis, Aphrodite, Hestia, Demeter.

GORGIAS. Orator and sophist, of Leontini in Sicily, fifth century B.C. He is a character in one of Plato's dialogues.

GORGONS. Three sisters with snaky hair, brazen claws, wings, scales, &c. Medusa, the only mortal one, was slain by Perseus with Athene's help, to whom he gave the head (which had the power of petrifying all who looked upon it) after using it against the sea-monster.

GYGES. A Lydian who found a ring that being turned rendered him invisible. By its means he usurped the Lydian throne, which he held 716-678 B.C. His wealth was proverbial.

GYLIPPUS. The Spartan chiefly instrumental in defeating the Sicilian expedition of the Athenians.

HARMONIA. Daughter of Ares and Aphrodite, wife of Cadmus.

HARPIES. Monstrous birds with women's faces, sent by Zeus to torment Phineus by defiling and carrying off all food placed on his table.

HECATE. A deity attendant on Persephone in Hades. Goddess of cross-roads and much invoked by witches. For Hecate's supper, and 'dining with Hecate,' see note on _Dialogues of the Dead_, i.

HECUBA. Wife of Priam; a character in many Greek tragedies.

HEGESIAS. Sculptor. _See_ CRITIUS, the description of whom applies to him also.

HELEN. Most of her history will be found in _Dialogues of the Gods_, xx. Her abduction by Paris caused the Trojan war, after which she returned to Menelaus.

HELIUS. God of the sun; one of the Titans.

HELLE. _See_ ATHAMAS.

HELLEBORE. _See_ CHRYSIPPUS.

HELLESPONT. _See_ XERXES.

HEPHAESTION. A Macedonian, the special friend of Alexander, who caused divine honours to be paid him after his death, 325 B.C.

HEPHAESTUS. Son of Zeus and Hera; god of fire and of metal-working, having his forge in Etna.

HERA. Daughter of Cronus and Rhea, wife and sister of Zeus, queen of Heaven.

HERACLES. Son of Alcmena, who bore twins, the divine Heracles son of Zeus, and the mortal Iphicles son of her husband Amphitryon. Married Megara, but, driven mad by the jealous Hera, killed their children. To expiate the crime entered the service of Eurystheus for twelve years, and performed for him twelve labours, among which were: Slaying of Hydra (as two heads sprang for each cut off, Iolaus assisted him by searing the stumps); Shooting of Stymphalian birds; Capture of Diomede's man-eating horses; Cleansing of the stables of Augeas; Slaying of Nemean lion (whose skin he always afterwards wore); Driving away of Geryon's oxen (on which expedition he erected the Pillars of Hercules at the straits of Gibraltar). Other incidents: He went down to Hades to rescue Alcestis; founded and presided at the Olympic games; held up the heavens for Atlas; served with Omphale in woman's dress to atone for the murder, in a fit of madness, of his friend Iphitus; while drinking wine with Pholus, was attacked by the other centaurs and slew them. His last wife, Deianira, being jealous gave him a poisoned shirt; and in the resulting agony he caused Philoctetes to build a pyre and burn him on Mount Oeta, leaving his bow and arrows to the boy.

HERACLITUS. A physical philosopher of Ephesus, about 500 B.C. Conceived fire as the origin of all things, and continual movement as the necessary condition of existence. Known as the weeping philosopher, in opposition to Democritus, the laughing.

HERMAGORAS. 'Hermes of the Market'; a statue of Hermes in the Athenian market-place.

HERMAPHRODITUS. _See_ APHRODITE.

HERMES. Son of Zeus and Maia. Messenger, cupbearer, porter, crier, &c., of the Gods. God of windfalls, trade, thievery, music, and speech. He is represented with wings on his sandals and hat, and with the caduceus, a staff entwined with serpents. For his slaying of Argus, see _Dialogues of the Gods_, iii. He is charged with the conducting of the dead to Hades. Said to have been born on Mount Cyllene in Arcadia. Identified with the dog-headed Egyptian God Anubis.

HERMOCRATES. The Syracusan most energetic in resisting the Sicilian expedition.

HERODES ATTICUS. Born about 104 A.D. The most famous rhetorician of his time. Used his great wealth in conferring benefits on the Greek towns, especially Athens; the aqueduct at Olympia is an instance. Mourned his wife Regilla and his favourite Pollux in the manner described in the _Demonax_.

HERODOTUS. Of Halicarnassus, born 484 B.C. Wrote in the Ionic dialect a history of the Graeco-Persian War, in nine books, to which the names of the Muses were given in recognition of their excellence.

HEROES. Used in two senses: (1) of demi-gods, born of a mortal and an immortal parent; (2) of the chiefs of the Trojan war period.

HESIOD. Of Ascra in Boeotia, about 850 B.C. According to his own account he was originally a shepherd, who, tending his flocks on Helicon, received from the Muses a laurel-branch, and with it the gift of poetry. His chief poems are the _Works and Days_, a didactic agricultural poem, and the _Theogony_, a work on the genealogies of Gods and heroes. The passage on Virtue so often alluded to by Lucian runs as follows: 'Vice you may have in abundance with ease; smooth is the road to it, and very near it dwells. But this side of Virtue the immortal Gods have set much toil; long and steep is the track to it, and rough at its setting out: but when a man has reached the top, then is its hardness turned to ease.'

HIMERAEUS. An Athenian orator, who opposed Macedonia after the death of Alexander, and fled to escape being surrendered to Antipater. Being caught by Archias, he was put to death.

HIPPIAS. A sophist of Elis, able but vain, contemporary of Socrates; a character in two of Plato's dialogues.

HIPPOCLIDES. An Athenian of the sixth century B.C.; lost his chance of marrying the daughter of Clisthenes tyrant of Sicyon by dancing on his head, and remarked that 'Hippoclides did not care.'

HIPPOCRATES. A famous physician of Cos, 469-357 B.C.

HIPPOCRENE and OLMEUM. Fountains on Mount Helicon sacred to the Muses.

HIPPOLYTA. _See_ THESEUS.

HIPPOLYTUS. Son of Theseus and Hippolyta. His step-mother Phaedra fell in love with him, and being rejected accused him to his father. Theseus believed and asked Posidon to destroy him; he was thrown from his chariot and dragged to death by his horses, frightened at a monster sent by Posidon.

HIPPONAX. Greek iambic poet, 546-520 B.C.

HOMER. His poems formed the basis of Greek education and religion; Lucian perpetually quotes him, and refers to the questions of his birthplace and blindness. Famous ancient Homeric critics were Zoïlus (called Homeromastix), Zenodotus, and Aristarchus.

HYACINTH. _See_ APOLLO.

HYDRA. _See_ HERACLES.

HYLAS. Beautiful youth, beloved by Heracles, and carried off by the water-nymphs.

HYMENAEUS. The God of marriage.

HYMETTUS. Mountain of Attica, famous for marble and bees.

HYPERBOLUS. A disreputable Athenian demagogue, murdered 411 B.C.

HYPERBOREANS. A mythical people dwelling beyond the North wind in perpetual sunshine and happiness. Magical powers were attributed to them.

HYPERIDES. Athenian orator, generally acting with Demosthenes, though he accused him on one occasion. His tongue was cut out and he was executed by Antipater.

IAMBULUS. A Greek writer on India, sufficiently characterized in _The True History_(3). 'Oceanica' is not an actual title.

IAPETUS. A Titan, brother of Cronus, and father of Prometheus.

ICARIUS. An Athenian who received Dionysus in Attica and learned from him the cultivation of the vine. Some peasants to whom he gave wine slew him in drunkenness. His daughter Erigone was led to his grave by his dog Maera, and hanged herself on the tree under which he lay. Dionysus placed the three in heaven as Arcturus, The Virgin, and Procyon (the lesser dog-star).

ICARUS. _See_ DAEDALUS.

IDA. Mountain close to Troy.

ILISSUS. A small river at Athens.

ILITHYIA. Goddess of child-birth, generally identified with Artemis.

INO. _See_ ATHAMAS.

IO. Daughter of Inachus, king of Argos. Zeus in love with her and changed her to a heifer for concealment; Hera discovering it placed her under the care of Argus, who however was slain by Hermes at Zeus's command. Io swam to Egypt, conducted by Hermes, and there bore a son to Zeus.

IOLAUS. Nephew of Heracles, and helped him against the hydra. Restored to youthful vigour by Hebe.

IPHIGENIA. Daughter of Agamemnon, was to be sacrificed to Artemis to secure the passage of the Greek fleet to Troy; but Artemis substituted a hart, and transported her to Tauri in Scythia, where as priestess she had to sacrifice all strangers. She saved her brother Orestes, on the point of being thus immolated, and fled with him to Greece.

IRIS. Goddess of the rainbow, sometimes charged with messages from heaven to earth.

IRUS. The beggar in the _Odyssey_ who boxes with Odysseus.

ISIS. Egyptian Goddess, sometimes identified with Io.

ISMENUS. The river of Thebes.

ISOCRATES. 436-338 B.C. The greatest of Greek oratorical writers and teachers, but debarred from speaking by timidity and a weak voice.

IXION. King of the Lapithae, admitted by Zeus to the table of the Gods; his story will be found in _Dialogues of the Gods_, vi.

LABDACIDS. Laïus, Oedipus, Eteocles and Polynices, Antigone and Ismene, the subjects of many Greek tragedies, were descended from Labdacus the Theban.

LAERTES. Father of Odysseus and king of Ithaca.

LAÏS. A famous courtesan of Corinth.

LAÏUS. King of Thebes and father of Oedipus, who slew him in ignorance of his identity, and so fulfilled an oracle.

LAOMEDON. _See_ APOLLO.

LAPITHAE. A Thessalian people. When they invited the centaurs to the marriage feast of Pirithoüs, who was one of them, a quarrel and bloodshed arose.

LEDA. Wife of Tyndareus, king of Sparta, loved by Zeus, who took the form of a swan. She produced two eggs, from one of which came Pollux and Helen, children of Zeus, and from the other Castor and Clytemnestra, of Tyndareus.

LEMNIAN WOMEN. Having offended Aphrodite, were abandoned by their husbands, and in revenge murdered all their male relations.

LEONIDAS. The king of Sparta who held Thermopylae with a small force against all the host of Xerxes till nearly all his men were slain, 480 B.C.

LEOSTHENES. Commander of the Greeks in the Lamian war, for emancipation after Alexander's death.

LETHE. One of the rivers of Hades, of which all must drink and forget their lives on earth. Lucian, however, like other writers, does not trouble himself about this forgetfulness when it is inconvenient. There is also a river of the name in Spain, to which perhaps Charon refers in the _Voyage to the Lower World_.

LETO. A Goddess loved by Zeus, and regarded with jealousy by Hera, who set the serpent Pytho to watch her, and induced the earth to refuse her a place in which to be delivered of her children. Posidon solved the difficulty by bringing up Delos from the depths of the sea and fixing it. Here Leto gave birth to Apollo and Artemis. Apollo afterwards slew Pytho. Leto was insulted by Niobe, daughter of Tantalus, proud of her seven sons and seven daughters; she was avenged by Apollo and Artemis, who shot all Niobe's children, and Niobe wept till she turned to stone.

LEUCOTHEA. _See_ ATHAMAS.

LOTUS. The plant of which he who ate lost all wish of returning home.

LYCEUM. _See_ PERIPATETICS.

LYCOPHRON. Poet and grammarian 270 B.C. His poem _Alexandra_ or _Cassandra_ consists of supposed oracles of Cassandra, 'of no poetic value, but forms an inexhaustible mine of grammatical, historical, and mythological erudition.'

LYCURGUS (1). Ancient lawgiver at Sparta, who established the constitution and training that gave Sparta its military pre-eminence, 884 B.C.

LYCURGUS (2). Attic orator, a warm supporter of Demosthenes.

LYNCEUS. One of the Argonauts; could distinguish small objects at nine miles.

LYSIMACHUS. One of Alexander's generals, succeeded to Thrace on the division of the Macedonian empire. His wife Arsinoë made him believe that his son Agathocles was plotting against him, and he put him to death.

LYSIPPUS. A great sculptor, of Sicyon, in the time of Alexander.

MAEANDRIUS. Secretary to Polycrates, tyrant of Samos, to whose power he succeeded in 522 B.C.

MAGI. A priesthood among the Medes and Persians, founded by Zoroaster.

MAIA. Mother of Hermes.

MALTHACE. Stock name for a courtesan.

MANDROBULUS. Of Samos. He found a great treasure, his gratitude for which was expressed at the time with an offering of a golden sheep, on the first anniversary of the event with a silver one, on the second with a copper, and on the third with none at all.

MARATHON. A village in Attica, the scene of a great victory of the Athenians over the Persians in 490 B.C.

MARGITES. Hero of a comic epic poem, formerly supposed to be Homer's. His name became proverbial for stupidity.

_Marsyas_. A Phrygian Satyr, who challenged Apollo to a musical contest, and being defeated by him was flayed alive.

MAUSOLUS. King of Caria, 377-353 B.C. His wife Artemisia raised a splendid monument to him after his death.

MEDEA. Daughter of Æetes king of Colchis, and famous for her skill in witchcraft. Falling in love with Jason when he came to Colchis for the Golden Fleece, she assisted him to obtain it, and followed him to Greece as his wife. When Jason afterwards deserted her for the daughter of Creon, she revenged herself by slaying her own children by him, and his second wife.

MELAMPUS. A seer, whose ears were cleansed by some young snakes that he had preserved from death, with the result that he was enabled to understand the language of birds.

MELEAGER. Son of Oeneus, king of Calydon, and leader of the heroes who slew the boar that Artemis, offended at Oeneus's neglect in not asking her to a certain feast, had sent to ravage his country. Being in love with Atalanta, he gave her the boar's hide, and subsequently slew his mother's brothers for taking it from her. To avenge their death, his mother Althaea threw into the fire that fatal firebrand whose consumption, as she knew from the Fates, must be followed by his death.

MELETUS. An obscure tragic poet, one of the accusers of Socrates.

MELIA. A Nereid, mother of the river-god Ismenus.

MELICERTES. _See_ ATHAMAS.

MENANDER. A distinguished Athenian poet of the New Comedy, 342-291 B.C.

MENELAUS. Brother of Agamemnon, and Helen's husband. The abduction of Helen by the Trojan Paris was the cause of the Trojan War.

MENIPPUS. A Cynic philosopher, originally a slave, of Gadara in Coele-Syria. His date is placed about 60 B.C. It is probable that Lucian was much indebted to the writings of Menippus, which are now lost, though an imitation of them is still preserved in the _Menippean Satires_ of Varro. Among the titles of his works are _A Visit to the Shades_, _Wills_, and _Letters of the Gods_. He appears frequently as a character in Lucian's dialogues.

MENTOR. A famous silversmith, before 356 B.C.

METRODORUS. A distinguished Epicurean philosopher, 330-277 B.C.

MIDAS. A king of Phrygia, to whom Dionysus granted the power of changing all that he touched into gold. Being unable in consequence to obtain any nourishment, Midas was permitted to cancel this privilege by bathing in the Pactolus. Chosen as a judge in a musical contest between Pan and Apollo he decided against the latter, who changed his ears into those of an ass.

MIDIAS. A wealthy Athenian, and a bitter enemy of Demosthenes, whose speech against him is extant.

MILO. Of Croton, a famous athlete, of whom various feats of strength are recorded.

MILTIADES. Son of Cimon. Commanded the Athenians at Marathon. He afterwards used the power entrusted to him for his private purposes, and the charges brought against him were better justified than is implied in _Slander_ (29).

MINA. A sum of money--£4 1_s._ 3_d._

MINOS I. Son of Zeus and Europa, brother of Rhadamanthus. King and legislator of Crete and, after his death, a judge in Hades.

MINOS II. Grandson of Minos I, and king of Crete. Made war on the Athenians and compelled them to send to Crete an annual tribute of seven youths and seven maidens, to be devoured by the Minotaur, the monstrous offspring of Pasiphae and a bull. _See_ THESEUS.

MINOTAUR. See MINOS II

MITHRAS. God of the sun among the Persians.

MOMUS. Son of Night, and God of criticism.

MORMO. A female spectre, used to frighten children with.

MUSAEUS. The supposed author of various poetical works. His origin is doubtful; he is sometimes called the son of Orpheus.