Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/1013

Rh UEVERRA. cd, aocording to tlie common tradition, on mount Parnassus ; otliors made it land on mount Otiirys in Thessjily, on mount Athos, or even on Aetna in Sicilj'. (Schol. aii Find. 01. ix. 4 ; Scrv. ad Viry. KcUhj. vi. 41 ; Ilygin. Fob. 153.) These differ- ences in the story are probably nothing ])ut local traditions ; in the same manner it was believed in several places that Deucalion and Pyhrra were not the only j>ersons that were saved. Thus Megarus, a son of Zeus, escaped by following the screams of cranes, which led him to the summit of mount rierania (Pans. i. 40. § 1) ; and the inhabitants of Delphi were said to have been saved by following the howling of wolves, which led them to the sum- rait of Parnassus, where they founded Lycoreia. (Pans. X.. § "2.) When the waters had subsided, Deucalion offered up a sacrifice to Zeus Phyxius, that is, the helper of fugitives, and thereupon the god sent Hermes to him to promise that he would grant any wish which Deucalion might entertain. Deucalion prayed that Zeus might restore mankind. According to the more common tradition, Deucalion and Pyrrha went to the sanctuarj' of Themis, and prayed for the same thing. The goddess bade them cover their heads and throw the bones of their mother behind them in walking from the temple. After some doubts and scruples respecting the meaning of this command, Xey agreed in in- terpreting the bones of their mother to mean the stones of the earth ; and they accordingly threw stones behind them, and from those thrown by Deucalion there sprang up men, and from those of Pyrrha women. Deucalion then descended from Paniassus, and built his first abode at Opus (Pind. 01. ix. 46), or at Cynus (Strab. ix. p. 425 ; Schol. ad Pind. 01. ix. 64), where in later times the tomb of Pyrrha was shewn. Concerning the whole story, see Apollod. i. 7. § 2 ; Ov. Met. i. 260, &c There was also a tradition that Deucalion had lived at Athens, and the sanctuary of the Olym- pian Zeus there was regarded as his work, and his tomb also was shewn there in the neighbourhood of the sanctuary. (Pans. i. 18. § 8.) Deucalion was l)y Pyrrha the father of Hellen, Amphictyon, Protogeneia, and others. Strabo (ix. p. 435) states, that near the coast of Phthiotis there were two small islands of the name of Deucalion and Pyrrha. 2. A son of Minos and Pasiphae or Crete, was an Argonaut and one of the Calydonian hunters. He was the father of Idomeneus and Molus. (Horn. //. xiii. 451 ; Apollod. iii. 1. § 2, 3. § 1 ; Diod. iv. 60; Hygin. Ftdt. 14, 173; Serv. ad Aen. iii. 121.) 3. A son of Hyperasius and Hypso, and brother of Amphion. (VaL Flacc. i. 366 ; comp. ApoUon. Rhod. i. 176.) 4. A son of Heracles by a daughter of Thespius. (Hygin. Fab. 162.) 5. A Trojan, who was slain by Achilles. ( Hom. 11. XX. 477.) [L. S.] DEVERRA, one of the three sjrmbolic beings — their names arc Pilumnus, Intcrcidona, and De- verra — whose influence was sought by the Romans, at the birth of a child, as a protection for the mo- ther against the vexations of Sylvanus. The night after the birth of a child, three men walked around the house : the first struck the threshold with an axe, the second knocked upon it with a pestle, and the third swept it with a broom. These sym- bolic actions were believed to prevent Sylvanus DEXIPPU8. &9.^ from entering the house, and were looked upon as symbolic representations of civilized or agricultural life, since without an axe no tree can be felled, a pestle is necessary to pound the grain, and com is swept together with a broom. (Augustin, de Civ. Dei^ vi. 9 ; Hartung, Die Itelig. der R'lhner, ii. p. 175.) [L.S.] DEXA'MENUS (Ae^dfitvos), a centaur who lived in Bura in Achaia, which town derived its name from his large stable for oxen. (Schol. ad Gdlim. Hymn, in Del. 102; Etymol. M. s. v.) According to others, he was a king of Olenus, and the father of Deianeira, whom Heracles seduced during his stay with Dexamenus, who had hospi- tiibly received him. Heracles on parting promised to return and marry her. But in his absence the centaur Eurytion sued for Deianeira's hand, and her father out of fear promised her to him. On the wedding day Heracles returned and slew Eu- rytion. (Hygin. Fob. 33.) Deianeira is usually called a daughter of Oeneus, but Apollodorus (ii. 5. $ 5) calls the daughter of Dexamenus, Mnesimache, and Diodorus (iv. 33) Hippolyte. [L. S.J DEXI'CRATES (A6|i»cp<iT7js), an Athenian comic poet of the new comedy, whose drama enti- tled 'T^' kaxnav irKavwfj.evoi is quoted by Athe- naeus (iii. p. 124, b). Suidas (s. v.) also refers to the passage in Athenaeus. (Meineke, Frag. Com. Graec. i. p. 492, iv. p. 571.) [P. S.] DEXIPPUS (AeliTTTros), a Lacedaemonian, was residing at Gela when Sicily was invaded for the second time by the Carthaginians under Han- nibal, the grandson of Hamilcar, in B. c. 406. At the request of the Agrigentines, on whom the storm first fell, he came to their aid with a body of mer- cenaries which he had collected for the purpose ; but he did not escape the charge of corniption jind treachery which proved fatal to four of the Agri- gentine generals. When the defence of Agrigen- tum became hopeless, Dexippus returned to Gela, the protection of that place having been assigned him by the SjTacusans, who formed the main stay of the Grecian interest in the island. Not long after, he was dismissed from Sicily by Dionysius, whose objects in Gela he had refused to aid. (Diod. xiii. 85, 87, 88, 93, dG.) [E. E.] DEXIPPUS (Ae'ltTrTros), a comic poet of Athens, respecting whom no particulars are known. Suidas (s. V. KuipvKoios) mentions one of his plays entitled @r](ravp6s, and Eudocia (p. 1 32) has pre- served the titles of four others, viz. ^PLvniropvo- €o(Tk6s^ ^iXdpyvpos, 'laropioypdcfjos, and AiaSiKa- ^ojxevoi. Meineke in his Hist. Crit. Com. Graec. has overlooked this poet. [L. S.] DEXIPPUS (A^|t7r7ros), a commentator on Plato and Aristotle, was a disciple of the Neo- Platonic philosopher lamblichus, and lived in the middle of the fourth century of the Christian era. We still possess a commentary of Dexippus on the Categories of Aristotle, in the form of a dialogue, which, however, is printed only in a Latin trans- lation. It appeared at Paris, 1549, 8vo., under the title of " Quaestionum in Categorias libri tres, in- terprete J. Bernardo Feliciano," and again at Venice, 1546, fo., after the work of Porphyry In Prae- dicam. The Greek title in the Madrid Codex is, Af^ilTKOV (pl(T6(pOV IlAaTWVlKOV TCuV CIS TCIS 'Api(TTOT€ovs KaTTtyopias 'Airopiwv re koJ Avaewv K€<pdKaia fi'. In this work the author explains to one Seleucus the Aristotelian Categories, and endeavours at the 3s2