Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/979

Rh DEMETER. anfl Italy, and her worship consisted in a great measure in orgic mysteries. Among tlie many festivals celebrated in her honour, the Thesmo- pboria and Eleusinia were the principal ones. {Diet, of Ant. s. w. Chloi'a, Ilaloa, T/tesmophoria, Eleusinia, Mcgalartia Chthonia.) The sacrifices offered to her consisted of pigs, the symbol of fer- tility, bulls, cows, honev-cakes, and fruits. (Macrob. Sat i. 1-2, iii. 11 ; Diod. v. 4 ; Pans. ii. 35. § 4, viii. 42, in fin. ; Ov. Fast. iv. 545.) Her temples were called Megara, and were often built in groves in the neighbourhood of towns. (Pans. i. 39. § 4, 40. § 5, vii. 26. $ 4, viii. 54. § 5, ix. 25. ^ 5 ; Strab. viii. p. 344, ix. p. 435.) Many of her surnames, which are treated of in separate articles, are descriptive of the character of the goddess. She was often represented in works of art, though sccircely one entire statue of her is preserved. Her representations appear to have been brought to ideal perfection by Praxiteles. (Pans. i. 2. $ 4.) Her image resembled that of Hera, in its maternal character, but had a softer expression, and her eyes were less widely opened. She was represented sometimes in a sitting attitude, sometimes walking, and sometimes riding in a chariot drawn by horses or dragons, but always in full attire. Around her head she wore a garland of corn-ears or a simple ribband, and in her hand she held a sceptre, corn- ears or a poppy, sometimes also a torch and the mystic basket. (Paus. iii. 19. $ 4, viii. 31. § 1, 42. § 4 ; Plin. H. N. xxxiv. 8. s. 19.) She appears most frequently on gems and vases. The Romans received the worship of Demeter, to whom they applied the name of Ceres, from Sicily. (Val. Max. i. 1. § 1.) The first temple of Ceres at Rome was vowed by the dictator A. Postumius Albinus, in b. c. 496, for the purpose of averting a famine with which Rome was threaten- ed during a war with the Latins. (Dionys. vi. 17, comp. i. 33; Tacit. Ann. ii. 49.) In intro- ducing this foreign divinity, the Romans acted in their usual manner ; they instituted a festival with games in honour of her (Did. of Ant. s. v.Cere- alia), and gave the management of the sacred rites and ceremonies to a Greek priestess, who was usually taken from Naples or Velia, and received the Roman' franchise, in order that the sacrifices on behalf of the Roman people might be offered up by a Roman citizen. (Cic. pro Daib. 24 ; Festus, J. V. Graeca sacra.) In all other respects Ceres was looked upon very much in the same light as Tellus, whose nature closely resembled that of Ceres. Pigs were sacrificed to both divinities, in the seasons of sowing and in harvest time, and also at the burial of the dead. It is strange to find that the Romans, in adopting the worship of Demeter from the Greeks, did not at the same time adopt the Greek name Demeter. The name Ceres can scarcely be explained from the Latin language. Servius informs us {ad Aen. ii. 325), that Ceres, Pales, and Fortuna were the penates of the Etruscans, and it m.ay be that the Romans applied to Demeter the name of a divinity of a similar nature, whose worship subsequently became extinct, and left no trace except the name Ceres. We remarked above that Demeter and Persephone or Cora were identified in the mythus, and it may be that Ceres is only a different form for Cora or Core. But however this may be, the worship of Ceres soon acquired considerable political im- portance at Rome. The property of traitors against DEMETRIUS. 9(51 the republic was often made over to her temple. (Dionys. vi. 89, viii. 79; Plin. //. N. xxxiv, 4. 8. 9 ; Liv. ii, 41.) The decrees of the senate were deposited in her temple for the inspection of the tribunes of the people. (Liv. iii. 55, xxxiii. 25.) If we further consider that the aediles had the special superintendence of this temple, it is very probable that Ceres, whose worship was like the plebeians, introduced at Rome from without, had some peculiar relation to the plebeian order. (Miiller, Dor. ii. 10. $ 3; Preller, Demeter und Persephone, ein Cydm mythol. Untersuch., Ham- burg, 1837, 8vo. ; Welcker, Zeilschrifi fur die alte Kunst, i. 1, p. 96, &c.; Niebuhr, Hist, of Rome, i. p. 621 ; Hartung, Die Relig. der Romer, ii. p. 135, &c.) [L. S.] DEMETRI A'N US (A77M»)Tptov(^s), of Ravenna, the father of the celebrated rhetorician Aspasius, lived in the time of the emperor Alexander Severus, and was no less distinguished as a rhetorician than as a critical mathematician. (Philostr. VU. Soph. ii. 33. $ 1 ; Suidas, s. v. 'Affirdaios.) [L. S.J DEME'TRIUS (Arj^Tirpios). 1. Son of Althae- menes, commander of one of the squadrons of Macedonian cavalry under Alexander. (Arrian, Anab. iii. 11, iv. 27, v. 21.) 2. Son of Pythonax, sumamed Pheidon, one of the select band of cavalry, called eraipoi, in the service of Alexander. (Arrian, Anab. iv. 12 ; Plut. Alex. 54.) 3. One of the body-guards of Alexander, was suspected of being engaged in the conspiracy of Philotas, and displaced in consequence. (Arrian, Atiab. iii, 27.) 4. A son of Ariarathes V., king of Cappadocia, commanded the forces sent by his father in 154 B. c. to support Attalus in his war against Prusias. (Polyb. xxxiii. 10.) 5. A native of Gadara in Syria, and a freedman of Pompey, who shewed him the greatest favour, and allowed him to accumulate immense riches. After the conquest of Syria, Pompey rebuilt and restored at his request his native town of Gadara, which had been destroyed by the Jews. (Joseph. Ant. xiv. 4. § 4, de Bell. Jud. i. 7. § 7.) An anecdote related by Plutarch shews the excessive adulation paid him in the East, on account of his well-known influence with Pompey. (Plut. Pomp. 40, Cato Min. 13.) [E. H. B,] DEME'TRIUS (AtjaitJtpioj), king of Bactria, son of Euthydemus, Polybius mentions (xi. 34), that when Antiochus the Great invaded the ter- ritories of Euthydemus, the latter sent his son Demetrius, then quite a youth, to negotiate with the Syrian king ; and that Antiochus was so much pleased with the young man''s appearance and manners, that he confirmed Euthydemus in his so- vereignty, and promised one of his own daughters in marriage to Demetrius. The other notices we possess of this prince are scanty and confused ; but it seems certain (notwithstanding the opinion to the contrary advanced by Bayer, Hist. Regni Graecorum Bactriuni, p. 83), that Demetrius suc- ceeded his father in the sovereignty of Bactria, where he reigned at least ten years. Strabo par- ticularly mentions him as among those Bactrian kings who made extensive conquests in northern India ( Strab. xi. 11. § 1), though the limit of his ac- quisitions cannot be ascertjiined. Justin, on the con- trary, calls him " rex Indorum" (xli. 6), and speaks of him as making war on and besieging Eucratides, 3q