Scanned text contains errors.

On this page: Daedalion – Daedalus – Dactyli – Daduchus – Damastes – Daemon

171

D^DALION——DAEMON.

marriage procession, to the top of Cithaeron. Here they offered a goat to Zeus and a cow-to Hera, and burnt the image with the offering. At the great Daedala the images made at the little Daedala were distributed by lot among the cities of the Boeotian confederacy, and the same proceedings were then repeated.

Daedallon. Brother of Ceyx (see ceyx), threw himself down from a rock on Par­nassus for grief at the death of his daugh­ter ChI6ne, and was turned by the goda into a hawk.

Dadalus (i.e. " cunning artificer "). The mythical Greek representative of all handi­work, especially of Attic and Cretan art. As such he was worshipped by the artists’ guilds, especially in Attica. He was said to be the son of the Athenian Metlon, son of Eupalamus (the ready-handed) and grandson of Erechtheus. He was supposed to have been the first artist who represented the human figure with open eyes, and feet and arms in motion. Besides being an excellent architect, he was said to have invented many imple­ments, the axe for instance, the awl, and the bevel. His nephew and pupil (son of his sister Perdix) appeared likely to surpass him in readiness and originality. The in­vention of the saw, which he copied from the chinbone of a snake, of the potter’s wheel, of the turning lathe, and of other things of the kind, was attributed to him. Daeda­lus was so jealous of him that he threw him from the AcrOpOlis; and being detected in the act of burying the body, was condemned by the Areopagus, and fled to Crete to king Minos. Here, among other things, he made the labyrinth at Gnosus for the Minotaur. He and his son Icarus were themselves confined in it, because he had given Ariadne the clue with which she guided Theseus through the maze. But the father and son succeeded in escaping, and fled over the sea upon wings of wax feathers made by Daedalus. Icarus, however, approached too near to the sun, so that the wax melted, and he fell into the sea and was drowned. The sea was called after him the Icarian, and the island on which his body was thrown up and buried by Heracles, was called Icaria. Dsedalus came to Camicus

in Sicily, to king CBcalus, whose daughter loved him for his art, and slew Minos who came in pursuit of him. He was supposed to have died in Sicily, where buildings attributed to him were shown in many places, as also in Sardinia, Egypt and Italy, particularly at Cumae. In Greece a number of ancient wooden images were supposed to be his work, in particular a statue of Heracles at Thebes, which Daedalus was said to have made in gratitude for the burial of Icarus.

Dactyli (Daktyloi). See ioxath dactyli.

Daduchus (Qr. DaidouchSs). See eleu-

* DADALUS AND ICARUS.

(Rome, Villa Albani.)

Damastes. A monster living at Eleusis, in Attica, also called Procrustes, or the Stretcher. His custom was to lay his guests upon his bed, and if they were too short for it, to rack them to death, if too long, to cut off as much of their limbs as would make them short enough. He was slain by Theseus.

Daemon (Gr. Daimon). Originally a term applied to deity in general, manifested in its active relation to human life, with-