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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
| Daedalus Danae Danaüs Daphne Daphnis Dardanus Demeter Deucalion Dido Diomedes |
Dionysus Dodona Dryad |
Daedalus, Athenian architect and inventor who designed the labyrinth for King Minos of Crete. It was built as a prison for the Minotaur, a man-eating monster that was half man and half bull. The labyrinth was so skillfully designed that no one who entered it could escape from the Minotaur. Daedalus revealed the secret of the labyrinth only to Ariadne, daughter of Minos, and she aided her lover, the Athenian hero Theseus, to slay the Minotaur and escape. In anger at the escape, Minos imprisoned Daedalus and his son Icarus in the labyrinth. Although the prisoners could not find the exit, Daedalus made wax wings so that they could both fly out. Icarus, however, flew too near the sun; his wings melted, and he fell into the sea. Daedalus flew to Sicily, where he was welcomed by King Cocalus. Minos later pursued Daedalus but was killed by the daughters of Cocalus.
Danae, the daughter of Acrisius, king of Argos, and, by the god Zeus, the mother of Perseus.
Danaüs, the son of Belus, king of Egypt, and Anchinoe. Aegyptus, Danaüs's twin brother, wished to settle a quarrel between them by marrying his 50 sons to the 50 daughters of Danaüs. Danaüs and his daughters, who opposed the arrangement, fled from Egypt to Argos, where Danaüs became king. The young men pursued them, however, and Danaüs finally agreed to the marriage, but gave each daughter a dagger with which to kill her husband on the wedding night. Hypermnestra, the only daughter who did not obey, was imprisoned by Danaüs but later released. As punishment for the murders, the 49 obedient sisters, known as the Danaïds, were condemned by the gods to the fruitless and eternal task of filling leaking jars in the underworld.
Daphne, nymph, daughter of the river god Peneus. She was a hunter who dedicated herself to Artemis, goddess of the hunt, and, like the goddess, refused to marry. The god Apollo fell in love with Daphne, and when she refused his advances, he pursued her through the woods. She prayed to her father for help, and as Apollo advanced upon her, she was changed into a laurel tree (Greek daphne). Grief-stricken at her transformation, Apollo made the laurel his sacred tree.
Daphnis, the Sicilian shepherd who invented pastoral poetry, born of the union of the god Hermes with a nymph. According to one legend, Daphnis was blinded after breaking a vow of fidelity to a nymph who loved him. In another account, he loved the nymph Piplea, and to rescue her from Lityerses, king of Phrygia, Daphnis entered a reaping contest with the king. Daphnis lost the contest and was about to be beheaded by the king when the hero Hercules appeared and killed Lityerses. In one Greek pastoral poem, Daphnis is the lover of the shepherdess Chloë.
Dardanus, ancestor of the Trojans and son of the god Zeus and the nymph Electra. He married the daughter of Teucer, who ruled a region in Asia Minor. After Teucer's death he became ruler of the region, which he named Dardania and which was later called Troas or Troy after Tros, Dardanus's grandson. The chief city of the region was named Troy, and the town of Dardanus, adjoining Troy, preserved the name of the ancient king.
Demeter, goddess of corn and the harvest, and daughter of the Titans Cronus and Rhea. When her daughter Persephone was abducted by Hades, god of the underworld, Demeter's grief was so great that she neglected the land; no plants grew, and famine devastated the earth. Dismayed at this situation, Zeus, the ruler of the universe, demanded that his brother Hades return Persephone to her mother. Hades agreed, but before he released the girl, he made her eat some pomegranate seeds that would force her to return to him for four months each year. In her joy at being reunited with her daughter, Demeter caused the earth to bring forth bright spring flowers and abundant fruit and grain for the harvest. However, her sorrow returned each fall when Persephone had to go back to the underworld. The desolation of the winter season and the death of vegetation were regarded as the yearly manifestation of Demeter's grief when her daughter was taken from her. Demeter and Persephone were worshiped in the rites of the Eleusinian Mysteries. The cult spread from Sicily to Rome, where the goddesses were worshiped as Ceres and Proserpine.
Deucalion, son of the Titan Prometheus. Deucalion was king of Phthia in Thessaly when the god Zeus, because of the wicked ways of the human race, destroyed them by flood. For nine days and nights Zeus sent torrents of rain. Only Deucalion and his wife, Pyrrha, survived drowning. They were saved because they were the only people who had led good lives and remained faithful to the laws of the gods. Having been warned by his father, Prometheus, of the approaching disaster, Deucalion built a boat, which carried him and Pyrrha safely to rest atop Mount Parnassus. The oracle at Delphia commanded them to cast the bones of their mother over their shoulders. Understanding this to mean the stones of the earth, they obeyed, and from the stones sprang a new race of people.
Dido, legendary founder and queen of Carthage, and daughter of Belus, king of Tyre. When Dido's husband was killed by her brother Pygmalion, king of Tyre, Dido fled with her followers to North Africa. She purchased the site of Carthage from a native ruler, Iarbus, who, when the new city began to prosper, threatened Dido with war unless she married him. Rather than subject either herself or her followers to these alternatives, Dido killed herself. The most famous version of Dido's story is told by Roman poet Vergil in his mythological epic the Aeneid. According to Vergil, the Trojan prince Aeneas was shipwrecked at Carthage after escaping from the sack of Troy with his father, son, and companions. Dido, who had pledged herself to celibacy after the murder of her husband, received the Trojans hospitably and eventually fell in love with Aeneas. The two began to live together as husband and wife. When it became clear that Aeneas intended to make Carthage his home, Jupiter warned him that he must leave Dido in order to continue on his destined mission and found Rome. In despair at his departure, Dido killed herself on a funeral pyre. Later, on his journeys, Aeneas encountered the ghost of Dido in Hades, but she refused to speak to him.
Diomedes, king of Argos, and the son of Tydeus, one of the warriors known as the Seven Against Thebes. Diomedes was one of the outstanding Greek heroes of the Trojan War. He killed several of the outstanding Trojan warriors, and, with the assistance of the goddess Athena, he wounded Aphrodite, goddess of love, and Ares, god of war, both of whom were aiding the Trojans. When he returned from the war and discovered that his wife had been unfaithful, Diomedes went to Apulia, where he remarried.
Dionysus, also Bacchus, god of wine and vegetation, who showed mortals how to cultivate grapevines and make wine. A son of Zeus, Dionysus is usually characterized in one of two ways. As the god of vegetation—specifically of the fruit of the trees—he is often represented on Attic vases with a drinking horn and vine branches. He eventually became the popular Greek god of wine and cheer, and wine miracles were reputedly performed at certain of his festivals. Dionysus is also characterized as a deity whose mysteries inspired ecstatic, orgiastic worship. The maenads, or bacchantes, were a group of female devotees who left their homes to roam the wilderness in ecstatic devotion to Dionysus. They wore fawn skins and were believed to possess occult powers. Dionysus was good and gentle to those who honored him, but he brought madness and destruction upon those who spurned him or the orgiastic rituals of his cult. According to tradition, Dionysus died each winter and was reborn in the spring. To his followers, this cyclical revival, accompanied by the seasonal renewal of the fruits of the earth, embodied the promise of the resurrection of the dead. The yearly rites in honor of the resurrection of Dionysus gradually evolved into the structured form of the Greek drama, and important festivals were held in honor of the god, during which great dramatic competitions were conducted. The most important festival, the Greater Dionysia, was held in Athens for five days each spring. It was for this celebration that the Greek dramatists Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides wrote their great tragedies. By the 5th century BC, Dionysus was also known to the Greeks as Bacchus, a name referring to the loud cries with which Dionysus was worshiped at the orgia, or Dionysiac mysteries. These frenetic celebrations, which probably originated in spring nature festivals, became occasions for licentiousness and intoxication. This was the form in which the worship of Dionysus became popular in the 2nd century BC in Roman Italy, where the Dionysiac mysteries were called the Bacchanalia. The indulgences of the Bacchanalia became increasingly extreme, and the celebrations were prohibited by the Roman Senate in 186 BC. In the 1st century AD, however, the Dionysiac mysteries were still popular, as evidenced by representations of them found on Greek sarcophagi.
Dodona, ancient Greek oracle, in the interior of Epirus, about 80 km (about 50 mi) east of Kérkira (Corfu). It was sacred to Zeus and his consort Dione. Priests of the temple interpreted the rustling of a great oak tree, the activities of doves in its branches, the clanging of brass pots hung from the branches, and the murmurs of a fountain as responses from Zeus. Both Homer and Hesiod mention Dodona. The oracle at Dodona was one of the most respected of ancient times, and it was consulted by Greeks from many cities and by foreigners. Croesus, king of Lydia, was said to have visited the temple. The shrine was destroyed in warfare by the Aetolians in 219 BC but was probably restored later. Archaeological finds have been made at the site, and the magnificent theater built by the 3rd-century BC king Pyrrhus has been restored.
Dryad, a nymph of the trees and forests. In early legend, each dryad was born with a certain tree over which she watched. She lived either in the tree (in which case she was called a hamadryad) or near it. Because the dryad died when her tree fell, the gods often punished anyone who destroyed a tree. The word dryad has also been used in a general sense for nymphs living in the forest.
