DAVUS. Stock name for a slave in Greek comedies. DELPHI. On the Gulf of Corinth, below Mount Parnassus; an oracle of Apollo, the most famous in Greece. DEMADES. An Athenian orator, in the Macedonian interest; but put to death by Antipater, 318 B.C. DEME. An Athenian citizen was officially described by the addition of the names of his father, his deme, and his tribe, to his own. The demes were local divisions of Attica, like our parishes; the tribes were groupings, independent of locality, of these demes into ten divisions for administrative purposes. DEMETER. Sister of Zeus, mother of Persephone, Goddess of the fruits of the earth (Earth-mother). DEMETRIUS (1). Poliorcetes. King of Macedonia, 294-287 B.C. DEMETRIUS (2). A Platonic philosopher about 85 B.C. DEMETRIUS (3). A distinguished cynic philosopher, of Sunium, teacher of Demonax, and probably the hero of the story in the _Toxaris_. DEMOCRITUS. A philosopher of Abdera, 460-361 B.C., famous as the author of the atomic theory, as the laughing philosopher, and for the wide extent of his knowledge. DEMONAX. A cynic and eclectic philosopher, senior contemporary of Lucian, from whose 'Life' all that is known of him is gathered. DEMOSTHENES (1). One of the most distinguished Athenian generals in the Peloponnesian war. _See_ BRASIDAS. Put to death by the Syracusans on the failure of the Sicilian expedition. DEMOSTHENES (2). The Athenian orator. His father was a rich manufacturer of arms. Being defrauded by his guardians, took to oratory first for the purpose of suing them. His self-training is famous; the allusions in the _Demosthenes_ are thus explained: he lived in a cave to study undisturbed, shaving half his head to keep him there, studied his gestures in a mirror and corrected a shrug by hanging a naked sword over his shoulders improved his articulation and voice by holding pebbles in his mouth and shouting at the waves, took lessons from Satyrus the actor, copied out Thucydides eight times. The great object of his life was to keep Greece and especially Athens free from subjection to Macedon. DEUCALION and PYRRHA. The two who survived, according to the Greek flood-legend, to repeople the earth. DIASIA. Festival of Zeus at Athens. DIOGENES. 412-323 B.C. His father was a banker of Sinope. He went to Athens and became a philosopher of the Cynic school, which see, as a disciple of Antisthenes. He is said to have lived in a tub. DIOMEDE. One of the chief Greek heroes at the siege of Troy. DION. A citizen of Syracuse under the two Dionysii; when Plato visited Dionysius I, Dion became his disciple; being afterwards banished by Dionysius II, he returned and expelled the tyrant. DIONYSIA. There were four annual festivals in honour of Dionysus at Athens. The Great Dionysia was the chief occasion for the production of new tragedies and comedies.