Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 06.djvu/311

* DION^A. 265 DIONYSITJS. and separated by a narrow restriction, is the fly-trap. This organ forms the bilobed upper portion of the leaf.each lobe of which is rcniform, with the edge provided with spiny bristles. The lobes hiiijie upon the midrib and have upon their inner surfaces a few extremely sensitive hairs. When these hairs are irritated by an insect the lobes, under favorable conditions of temperature, suddenly close, the marginal spines catching the insect after the manner of a steel trap. If the in-ect is caught the traj) remains closed and, by means of secretions from the glandular inner sur- face of ihe lobes, the soft parts of the insect are digested and elaborated as food for the plant. Alter digestion and absorption, which may oc- cupy two or three weeks, have been completed the trap opens and only the cbitinous skeleton of the insect remains. If the insect is not caught the trap opens within an hour or so and is ready for the next trespasser. A single leaf seems to be capable of digesting only a few in- sects, after which its vigor diminishes; it re- sponds less actively to excitation of the glandu- lar surface and soon dries up or decays. Consult Darwin, Insectivorous Plants (New York, 1892). DIONE, di-6'ne (Lat., from Gk. Aiiin]) . A Titan who became by Zeus the mother of Aphro- dite, who is therefore sometimes called Dion.nea. •lolin r;,Tv wTote a pastoral drama under this title (1720)." DIONYSIA, dl'd-nlshl-a. See Greek Fes- TIV.LS. DIONYSI'ACA (Lat., from Gk. AwmcruiKd, Dionysiaka). A long epic in forty-eight books, by the (ireck poet Xonnus, of Panopolis in Egypt, dating probably from the fifth century v.c. It recounts the journeyings of Dionysus in the East, and is one of the chief sources for the legends concerning the god. DIONYSIUS, dr6-nlsh1-us (Lat., from Gk. Aioiiiffior, Dionysios), sumamed Thbax ('the i'hraciaii'). A Greek grammarian, native of Alexandria, who taught at Rhodes and at Rome in the first century B.C. His Art of Grammar i't^X'^ Tpa/i^TiK'^) is the foundation of all subse- ipicnt Kurojiean works on grammar. The best edition is tlint .if Uhlig (Leipzig, 1884). DIONYSIUS, orDINlZ, de-nez' (1261-1325). The sixth King of Portugal. He was the son of Alfonso III. of Portugal, and the grandson of Alfonso X. of Castile, and was bom October 9, 12G1. He succeeded his father in 1279, and after some difficulty effected a compromise with the Pope regarding the privileges of the clergy. In 12119 Dionysius's brother rebelled, but was soon subdued. Later Dionysius's son, jealous of a favorite, raised the standard of rebellion. By the intercession of the Queen-mother, Isabel of Aragon (afterwards canonized), war was avoided, and the son was allowed to exercise a powerful influence over the policy of the Government. The reiLTi of Dionysius was a period of reform. The administration of civil and criminal justice was changed and the power of the great lords curbed. Industry and commerce were fostered; the mines were made a fruitful source of revenue, and fortifications were built in more than forty places. About 1288 a universitv was fmirded at Lisbon, which in l.SOS was ' transferred to Coimbra. The militar' Order of Christ, founded in this reign, was endowed with the confiscated property of the Templars. Dionysius was one of the most liberal princes of his time, and won the title of the 'father of his country.' He died January 7, I.i2.5. DIONYSIUS OF ALEXAN'DRIA, Saint, calle<l the Great ( V-2li5). An early Christian writer. He was born at Alexandria" of a noble pagan family, but was an early convert to Chris- tianity, and under the tutelage of Origen became a priest, and head of the Alexandrian catecheti- cal school in 231. In 248 he became Bishop of Alexandria, but continued to hold liis former • position. In the persecution of Decius (250) lie was arrested an<I condemned to death, but was rescued by peasants, and remained concealed for a year in the Libyan desert. In 257 he was again exiled, but restored three years later. He was a voluminous writer, but most of his works are lost. Such as remain are in Migne, Patrol. Grwca, x.; Engl, trans, in Ante-yicene Fathers, vi. Consult: FiJrster. De Doctrina et Sententiis Dionysii Magni (Berlin, 1865) : and for his biog- raphy, consult Dittrich (Freiburg, 1867) and Paul Morize (Paris, 1881). DIONYSIUS OF HAL'ICARNAS'SUS. A learned critic, antiquarian, and rlietorician. He was the son of one Alexander of Halicarnassus, and was born probably about the middle of the first century B.C. He came to Rome at the termination of the civil wars (B.C. 29), and re- sided there for twenty-two years, familiarizing himself with the language, literature, and an- tiquities of the Romans. His death occurred shortly after B.C. 7. Dionysius's most valuable work is unquestionably his Antiquities of Rome, although it does not exhibit the finest qualities of his mind. The author was an admirable rhetorician, but had very little political discrimi- nation, and no perception of the difference be- tween a myth and a historic fact. Yet, inas- much as this work contains a mine of infor- mation about the constitution, religion, history", laws, and private life of the Romans, it will always command the regard of scholars. Of the twenty books of which it originally con- sisted, we possess only the first nine in a complete form, the tenth and eleventh nearly so ; and of the rest, only a few fragments. The first edition of the Greek original was that by Stephens ( Paris, 1546), but a very good Latin version was published as early as 1480. Angelo Mai published (Milan. 1816) a collection of the fragments of the lost books from a MS. in the library at Milan, the genuineness of which has been doubted. The rhetorical and critical works of Dionysius are of the highest literary merit. The principal are his Censura Veterum Scripto- rum, his Ars Rhetorica, and his De Compositione Verborujn, all in Greek. The complete works are edited by Usener and Rademacher (Leipzig, 1899) ; a good edition of the Antiquities is that of .Jacoby (Leipzig, 1885). DIONYSIUS THE Ar'eop'agite. A member of the Court of Areopagus (q.v.), at Athens, converted to Christianity through the preaching of Paul ( .cts xvii. .34). Nothing more is kno«Ti about him. Eusebius. on the authority of Diony- sius. Bishop of Corinth, about a.d. 175. records that he was the first Bishop of the Church of Athens, and a much later historian says he was martyred there in the reign of Domitian. Ac- cording to still another tradition, he was sent