Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/1067

Rh DIOPEITIIES. crifices which were offered to him in the earliest times, human sacrifices are also mentioned. ( Paus. vii. 21. § 1 ; Porphyr. de Absiin. ii. 55.) Subse- quently, however, this barbarous custom was sof- tened down into a symbolic scourging, or animals were substituted for men, as at Potniae. (Paus. viii. 23. $ 1, ix. 8. § 1.) The animal most commonly sacrificed to Dionysus was a ram. (Virg. Georg. ii. 380, 395 ; Os.Fiut. i. 357.) Among the things sacred to liim, we may notice the vine, ivy, lau- rel, and asphodel ; the dolphin, serpent, tiger, lynx, panther, and ass ; but he hated the sight of an owl. (Paus. viii. 39. $ 4 ; Theocrit. xxvi. 4 ; Plut. Sympos. iii. 5; Eustath. ad Horn. p. 87 ; Virg. Eclog. v. 30 ; Hygin. Poct, Astr. ii. 23 ; Philostr. Imay. ii. 17 ; Vit. Apollon. iii. 40.) The earliest images of the god were mere Ilermae with the phallus (Paus. ix. 12. $ 3), or his hefvd only was represented. (Eustath. ad Horn. p. 1964.) In later works of art he appears in four different forms : 1. As an infant handed over by Hennes to his nurses, or fondled and played with by satyrs and Bacchae. 2. As a manly god with a beard, commonly called the Indian Bacchus. lie there appears in the character of a wise and dignified oriental monarch ; his features are expressive of sublime tranquillity and mildness ; his beard is long and soft, and his Lydian robes {^aaadpa) are long and richly folded. His hair sometimes floats down in locks, and is sometimes neatly wound around the head, and a diadem often adorns his forehead. 3. The youthful or so-called Theban 15acchus, was carried to ideal beauty by Praxiteles. The form of his body is manly and with strong outlines, but still approaches to the female form by its softness and roundness. The expression of the countenance is languid, and shews a kind of dreamy longing ; the head, with a diadem, or a wreath of vine or ivy, leans somewhat on one Bide ; his attitude is never sublime, but easy, like that of a man who is absorbed in sweet thouglits, or slightly intoxicated. He is often seen leaning on his companions, or riding on a panther, ass, tiger, or lion. The finest statue of this kind is in the villa Ludovisi. 4. Bacchus with horns, either those of a ram or of a bull. This representation occurs chiefly on coins, but never in statues. (Welcker, Zeitschnft, p. 500, &c. ; Ilirt. Mythol. BUderb. i.Tp. 76, Sic.) [L. S.] DIOPEITHES {Aioireie-ns). 1. A half-fanatic, half-impostor, who made at Athens an apparently thriving trade of oracles. He was nmch satirized by the comic poets, and may perhaps be identified with the Locri.in juggler mentioned in Athenaeus. (i. p. 20, a.) If so, he must be distinguished from the Diopeithes of whom we read in Suidas as the author of a law which made it a capital offence for an inhabitant of the city to spend the night in the Peiraeus, and who was brought to trial for an in- voluntaiy breach of his own enactment. (Aristoph. Eq. 1081, Vesp. 380, Av. 988 ; Schol. ttd 11. cc. ; Meineke, Frag. Com. Gniec. i. p. 154, ii. pp. 3<J4, 583, 704 ; Suid. s. vv. Topywv, AiondOris,, Eitjt^- Seu/xo, 'n^laOri.) 2. An Athenian general, father of the poet Menander, was sent out to the Thracian Cherso- nesus about B. c. 344, at the head of a body of Athenian settlers or Krjpovxoi. (Dem. de Chcrs. p. 91, Phi/ipp. iii. p. 1 14 ; Pseud.- Dem. de Jfulonti. pp. 86, 87.) Disputes having arisen about their boundaries between these settlers and the Cardians, DIOPHANES 10 »9 the latter were supported, but not with arms in the first instance, by Philip of Macedon, who, when the Athenians remonstrated, proposed that their quarrel with Cardia should be referred to arbitra- tion. This proposal being indignantly rejected, Philip sent troops to the assistance of the Cardians, and Diopeithes retaliated by ravaging the maritime district of Thrace, which was subject to the Mace- donians, while Philip was absent hi the interior of the same country on his expedition against Teres and Cersobleptes. Philip sent a letter of remon- strance to Athens, and Diopeithes was arraigned by the Macedonian p»rty, not only for his aggres- sion on the king's territory, but also for the means (unjust doubtless and violent, but common enough with all Athenian generals at the time,) to which he resorted for the support of his mercenaries. He was defended by Demosthenes in the oration, still extant, on the Chersonese, B. c. 341, and the de- fence was successful, for he was permitted to retain his command. After this, and probably during the war of Philip with Byzantium (b. c. 340), Diopeithes again invaded the Macedonian territory in Thrace, took the towns of Crobyle and Tiristasia and enslaved the inhabitants, and when an ambas- sador, named Amphilochus, came to negotiate for the release of the prisoners, he seized his person in defiance of all international law, and compelled him to pay nine talents for his ransom, (Arg. ad Dem. de C/iers. ; Dem. de Cliers. passim ; Phil. Ep. ad Ath. pp. 159, 160, 161.) The enmity of Diopei- thes to Philip appears to have recommended him to the favour of the king of Persia (Artaxerxea III.), who, as we learn from Aristotle, sent him some valuable presents, which did not arrive, how- ever, till after his death. (Arist. Rhet. ii. 8. ^ 11; comp. Phil. Ep. ad Ath. p. 160 ; Dem. Philipp. iii. p. 129, in Ep. Phil. p. 153 ; Pseudo-Dem. Philipp. iv. p. 140; Diod. xvi. 75; Arr. AnaJ). ii. 14 ; Paus. i. 29.) [E. E.] DIO'PHANES (AiO(^aia?$). 1. Of Mytilene, one of the most distinguished Greek rhetoricians of the time of the Gracchi. For reasons unknown to us, he was obliged to quit his native place, and went to Rome, where he instructed Tiberius Grac- chus, and became his intimate friend. After T. Gracchus had fallen a victim to the oligarchical faction, Diophanes and many other friends of Gracchus were also put to death. (Cic. Brut. 27; Strab. xiii. p. 617 ; Plut. P. Gracch. 8, 20.) An- other much later rhetorician of the same name oc- curs in Porphyry's life of Plotinus. 2. Is quoted as the author of a history of Pon- tus, in several books. (Schol. ad Apollon. lihod. iii. 241; Eudoc. p. 31.) [L. S.] DIO'PHANES {ALO(pajrns) a native of Nicaea, in Bithynia, in the first century b. c, who abridged the agricultural work of Cassius Dionysius for the use of king Deiotarus. (Varr. De lie Rust. i. 1. 10 ; Colum. De Re Rust. i. 1. 10 ; Plin. //. A'^. Index to lib. viii.) His work consisted of six books, and was afterwards further abridged by Asinius Pollio. (Suid. s. V. Uu}iuv.) Diophanes is quoted several times in the Collection of Greek Writers, De Re Rustica. [W. A. G.J DIO'PHANES MYRINAEUS, the author of a worthless epigram in the Greek Anthology. (Brunck, Amd. ii. 259 ; Jacobs, ii. 236.) Jacobs thinks, that he is a late writer, and ought not to be identified with the Diophanes who is mentioned by Cicero and Plutarch as the instructor of Tibe-