A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

DEVERRA.

DEXIPPUS. 995

ed, according to the common tradition, on mount
Parnassus; others made it land on mount Othrys
in Thessaly, on mount Athos, or even on Aetna in
Sicily. (Schol. ad Pind. 01. ix. 64; Serv. ad Virg.
Eclog. vi. 41; Hygin. Fab. 153.) These differences in the story are probably nothing but local
traditions; in the same manner it was believed in
several places that Deucalion and Pyhrra were not
the only persons that were saved. Thus Megarus,
a son of Zeus, escaped by following the screams of
cranes, which led him to the summit of mount
Gerania (Paus. i. 40. ~ 1); and the inhabitants of
Delphi were said to have been saved by following
the howling of wolves, which led them to the summit of Parnassus, where they founded Lycoreia.
(Paus. x. 6. ~ 2.) When the waters had subsided,
Deucalion offered up a sacrifice to Zeus Phyxius,
that is, the helper of fugitives, and thereupon the
god sent Hermes to him to promise that he would
grant any wish which Deucalion might entertain.
Deucalion prayed that Zeus might restore mankind.
According to the more common tradition, Deucalion
and Pyrrha went to the sanctuary of Themis, and
prayed for the same thing. The goddess bade
them cover their. heads and throw the bones of
their mother behind them in walking from the
temple. After some doubts and scruples respecting
the meaning of this command, they agreed in interpreting the bones of their mother to mean the
stones of the earth; and they accordingly threw
stones behind them, and from those thrown by
Deucalion there sprang up men, and from those of
Pyrrha women. Deucalion then descended from
Parnassus, and built his first abode at Opus (Pind.
01. ix. 46), or at Cynus (Strab. ix. p. 425; Schol.
ad Pind. 01. ix. 64), where in later times the
tomb of Pyrrha was shewn. Concerning the whole
story, see Apollod. i. 7. ~ 2; Ov. MIet. i. 260, &c.
There was also a tradition that Deucalion had
lived at Athens, and the sanctuary of the Olympian Zeus there was regarded as his work, and his
tomb also was shewn there in the neighbourhood
of the sanctuary. (Paus. i. 18. ~ 8.) Deucalion
was by Pyrrha the father of Hellen, Amphictyon,
Protogeneia, and others. Strabo (ix. p. 435)
states, that near the coast of Phthiotis there were
two small islands of the name of Deucalion and
Pyrrha.
2. A son of Minos and PasiphaPe or Crete, was
an Argonaut and one of the Calydonian hunters.
He was the father of Idomeneus and Molus.
(Hom. II. xiii. 451; Apollod. iii. 1. ~ 2, 3. ~ 1;
Diod. iv. 60; Hygin. Fab. 14, 173; Serv. ad Aen.
iii. 121.)
3. A son of Hyperasius and Hypso, and brother
of Amphion. (Val. Flacc. i. 366; comp. Apollon.
Rhod. i. 176.)
4. A son of Heracles by a daughter of Thespius.
(Hygin. Fab. 162.)
5. A Trojan, who was slain by Achilles. (Hom.
11. xx. 477.) [L. S.]
DEVERRA, one of the three symbolic beingstheir names are Pilumnus, Intercidona, and Deverra-whose influence was sought by the Romans,
at the birth of a child, as a protection for the mother against the vexations of Sylvanus. The night
after the birth of a child, three men walked around
the house: the first struck the threshold with an
axe, the second knocked upon it with a pestle,
and the third swept it with a broom. These symbolic actions were believed to prevent Sylvanus

from entering the house, and were looked upon as
symbolic representations of civilized or agricultural
life, since without an axe no tree can be felled, a
pestle is necessary to pound the grain, and corn is
swept together with a broom. (Augustin, de Civ.
Dei, vi. 9; Hartung, Die Relig. der sRomer, ii.
p. 175.) [L. S.]
DEXA'MENUS (Aegdyseos), a centaur who
lived in Bura in Achaia, which town derived its
name from his large stable for oxen. (Schol. ad
Callim. Hymn. in Del. 102; Etymol. M. s. v.)
According to others, he was a king of Olenus, and
the father of Deianeira, whom Heracles seduced
during his stay with Dexamenus, who had hospitably received him. Heracles on parting promised
to return and marry her. But in his absence the
centaur Eurytion sued for Deianeira's hand, and
her father out of fear promised her to him. On
the wedding day Heracles returned and slew Eurytion. (Hygin. Feb. 33.) Deianeira is usually
called a daughter of Oeneus, but Apollodorus (ii. 5.
~ 5) calls the daughter of Dexamenus, Mnesimache,
and Diodorus (iv. 33) Hippolyte. [L. S.]
DEXI'CRATES (AeýScpar-0s), an Athenian
comic poet of the new comedy, whose drama entitled 'TY' iavurwCy I7ravLEvoie is quoted by Athenaeus (iii. p. 124, b). Suidas (s. v.) also refers to
the passage in Athenaeus. (Meineke, Frag. Comn.
Graec. i. p. 492, iv. p. 571.) [P. S.]
DEXIPPUS (A8Etwros), a Lacedaemonian, was
residing at Gela when Sicily was invaded for
the second time by the Carthaginians under Hannibal, the grandson of Hamilcar, in B. c. 406. At
the request of the Agrigentines, on whom the storm
first fell, he came to their aid with a body of mercenaries which he had collected for the purpose;
but he did not escape the charge of corruption and
treachery which proved fatal to four of the Agrigentine generals. When the defence of Agrigentum became hopeless, Dexippus returned to Gela,
the protection of that place having been assigned
him by the Syracusans, who formed the main stay
of the Grecian interest in the island. Not long
after, he was dismissed from Sicily by Dionysius,
whose objects in Gela he had refused to aid.
(Diod. xiii. 85, 87, 88, 93, 96.) [E. E.]
DEXIPPUS (Ae~7reros), a comic poet of
Athens, respecting whom no particulars are known.
Suidas (s. v. Kwpvicauos) mentions one of his plays
entitled Osavp6s, and Eudocia (p. 132) has preserved the titles of four others, viz. 'AvrnLropro~Kods, ruadpyvpos, 'IaTopioypacios, and AtaurcaNo'jesvoi. Meineke in his Hist. Crit. Corn. Graec.
has overlooked this poet. [L. S.]
DEXIPPUS (Ai7nrtros), a commentator on
Plato and Aristotle, was a disciple of the NeoPlatonic philosopher lamblichus, and lived in the
middle of the fourth century of the Christian era.
We still possess a commentary of Dexippus on the
Categories of Aristotle, in the form of a dialogue,
which, however, is printed only in a Latin translation. It appeared at Paris, 1549, 8vo., under the
title of " Quaestionum in Categorias libri tres, interprete J. Bernardo Feliciano,"and again at Venice,
1546, fo., after the work of Porphyry In Praedicanz. The Greek title in the Madrid Codex is,
AegSirrov g(phoTo6pov hAerwvircou TL V els ra's
'ApToroTEAovs Kar7'yopias 'Anropictv re Kic AvorEwv
KE5dAata ju'.
In this work the author explains to one Seleucus
the Aristotelian Categories, and endeavours at the
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