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

DEMOPTOLEMUS.
riot mention him), and there effected the liberation
of his grandmother Aethra, who was with HIelena
as a slave. (Paus. x. 25. ~ 2.) According to
Plutarch he was beloved by Laodice, who became
by him the mother of Munychus or Munytus
whom Aethra brought up in secret at Ilium. On
Demophon's return from Troy, Phyllis, the daughter of the Thracian king Sithon, fell in love with
him, and he consented to marry her. But, before
the nuptials were celebrated, he went to Attica to
settle his affairs at home, and as he tarried longer
than Phyllis had expected, she began to think that
she was forgotten, and put an end to her life. She
was, however, metamorphosed into a tree, and Demophon, when he at last returned and saw what
had happened, embraced the tree and pressed it to
his bosom, whereupon buds and leaves immediately
came forth. (Ov. Ar. Am. iii. 38, Heroid. 2; Serv.
ad Virg. Eclog. v. 10; comp. Hygin. Fab. 59.)
Afterwards, when Diomedes on his return from Troy
was thrown on the coast of Attica, and without
knowing the country began to ravage it, Demophon
marched out against the invaders: he took the
Palladium from them, but had the misfortune to
kill an Athenian in the struggle. For this murder
he was summoned by the people of Athens before
the court rl ITaXxai'y-pthe first time that a man
was tried by that court. (Paus. i. 28. ~ 9.)
According to Antoninus Liberalis (33) Demophon
assisted the Heracleidae against Eurystheus, who
fell in battle, and the Heracleidae received from
Demophon settlements in Attica, which were called
the tetrapolis. Orestes too came to Athens to seek
the protection of Demophon. He arrived during
the celebration of the Anthesteria, and was kindly
received; but the precautions which were taken
that he might not pollute the sacred rights, gave
rise to the second day of the festival, which was
called XdES. (Athen. x. p. 437; Plut. Sympos. ii.)
Demophon was painted in the Lesche at Delphi
together with Helena and Aethra, meditating how
he might liberate Aethra. (Paus. i. 28. ~ 9.)
3. A companion of Aeneas, who was killed by
Camilla. (Virg. Aen. xi. 675.) [L. S.]
DE'MOPHON (A Lompv). 1. One of the
two generals sent from Athens by a decree of the
people, according to Diodorus, to aid the Thebans
who were in arms for the recovery of the Cadmeia.
(Diod. xv. 26; Wesseling, ad loc.) This account
is in some measure confirmed by Deinarchus (c.
Dem. p. 95), who mentions a decree introduced
by Cephalus to the above effect. Xenophon, however, says that the two Athenian generals on the
frontier acted on their own responsibility in aiding
the democratic Thebans, and that the Athenians
soon after, through fear of Sparta, put one of them
to death, while the other, who fled before his trial,
was banished. (Xen. Hell. v. 4. ~~ 9, 10, 19;
Plut. Pelop. 14.)
2. A soothsayer in Alexander's army, who
warned the king of the danger to which his life
would be exposed in the attack which be was on
the point of making on the town of the Malli, B. c.
326. Alexander is said to have rejected the
warning contemptuously, and in the assault he had
a very narrow escape from death. (Diod. xvii. 93;
Curt. ix. 4; comp. Arr. Anab. vi. 9, &c.; Plut.
Alex. 63.) [E. E.]
DEMOPTO'LEMUS (Aroerr"dAegos), one of
he suitors of Penelope, slain by Odysseus after
his return. (Horn. Od. xxii. 246, 266.) [L. S.]

DEMOSTHENES. 979
DEMO'STHENES (Apoo-'pvqs), son of Alcisthenes, Athenian general, is one of the prominent
characters of the Peloponnesian war. He was appointed in the sixth year, B. c. 426, to the command with Procles of a squadron of thirty ships
sent on the annual cruise around Peloponnesus.
Their first important efforts were directed against
Leucas; and with the aid of a large force of
Acarnanians, Zacynthians, Cephallenians, and Corcyraeans, it seemed highly probable that this important ally of Sparta might be reduced. And the
Acarnanians were urgent for a blockade. Demosthenes, however, had conceived, from the information of the Messenians, hopes of a loftier kind;
and, at the Iisk of offending the Acarnanians, who
presently declined to co-operate, sailed with these
views to Naupactus. The Corcyraeans had also
left him, but he still persevered in his project,
which was the reduction of the Aetolians,-an
operation which, once effected, would open the
way to the Phocians, a people ever well disposed to
Athens, and so into Boeotia. It was not too much
to hope that northern Greece might thus be wholly
detached from the Spartan alliance, and the war
be made strictly Peloponnesian. The success of
the first move in this plan depended much on the
aid of certain allies among the Ozolian Locrians,
who were used to the peculiar warfare of the enemy. These, however, were remiss, and Demosthenes, fearing that the rumour of his purpose
would rouse the whole Aetolian nation, advanced
without them. His fear had been already realized,
and as soon as the resources of his archery were
exhausted, he was obliged to retreat, and this retreat the loss of his guide rendered even more
disastrous than might have been expected for a
force of heavy-armed men amidst the perpetual
assaults of numerous light armed enemies. " There
was every kind of flight and destruction," says
Thucydides, "and of 300 Athenians there fell 120,
a loss rendered heavy beyond proportion, through
the peculiar excellence of this particular detachment." (Thuc. iii. 91, 94, 98; Diod. xii. 60.)
This, however, seemed to be hardly the worst
consequence. The Aetolians sent ambassadors to
Sparta, to ask for aid to reduce Naupactus; and
received under the command of Eurylochus 3000
men-at-arms. The Ozolian Locrians were overawed
into decided alliance. But Naupactus Demosthenes
was enabled to save by reinforcements obtained
on urgent entreaty from the offended Acarnanians;
and Eurylochus led off his forces for the present
to Calydon, Pleuron, and Proschium. Yet this
was but the preliminary of a more important movement. The Ambraciots, on a secret understanding with him, advanced with a large force into
the country of their ancient enemy, the Amphilochian Argos; they posted themselves not far from
the town, at Olpae. Eurylochus now broke up,
and, by a judicious route, passing between the town
itself and Crenae, where the Acarnanians had assembled to intercept him, effected a junction with
these allies. Presently, on the other hand, Demosthenes arrived with twenty ships, and under
his conduct the final engagement took place at
Olpae, and was decided, by an ambuscade which
he planted, in favour of the Athenians and Acarnanians. An almost greater advantage was gained
by the compact entered into with Menedaeus, the
surviving Spartan officer, for the underhand withdrawal of the Peloponnesians. And, finally, hav3nR2