Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/997

DEMOPTOLEMUS. not mention him), and there effected the liberation of his gnindmother Aethra, who was with Helena as a slave. (Pans. x. 2.5. § 2.) According to Plutarch he was beloved by Laodico, who became by him the mother of Munychus or Munytus whom Aethra broxight up in secret at Ilium. On Demophon's return from Troy, Phyllis, the daugh- ter 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 De- mophon, when he at last returned and saw Avhat 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. Hygiu. 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 M UaWajbicf — the 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 X'^*^' (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 (Avfjioipwv). 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 continued by Deinarchus (c. Dem. p. 9B), who mentions a decree introduced by Cephalus to the above effect. Xenophon, how- ever, says that the two Athenian genei-als 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 he 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 esc<pe from death. (Diod. xvii. 93 ; Curt. ix. 4; comp. Arr. Anah. vi. J), &c. ; Plut. Alea-. 63.) [E. E.] DEMOPTO'LEMUS {AvixoTrrdKefios), one of he suitors of Penelope, slain by Odysseus after his return. (Hom. 01. xxii. 246, 266.) [L. S.] DEMOSTHENES. 979 DEMO'STHENES(AT7)tio(r0€i'7js), son of Alcis- thenes, Athenian general, is one of the prominent characters of the Peloponnesian war. He was ap- pointed in the sixth year, b. c. 426, to the com- mand 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 Acanianians, Zacynthians, Cephallenians, and Cor- ey raeans, it seemed highly probable that this im- portant ally of Sparta might be reduced. And the Acamanians were urgent for a blockade. Demos- thenes, however, had conceived, from the informa- tion of the Messenians, hopes of a loftier kind ; and, at the risk of offending the Acamanians, 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 pecidiar warfare of the ene- my. These, however, were remiss, and Demos- thenes, 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 re- treat 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, tlirough the peculiar excellence of this jiaiticular detach- ment." (Thuc. iii. .<)!, 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 Acamanians ; and Eurylochus led off his forces for the present to Calydon, Pleuroii, and Proschiuni. Yet this was but the preliminary of a more important move- ment. The Ambraciots, on a secret understand- ing with him, advanced with a large force into the country of their ancient enemy, the Amphilo- cliian Argos ; they posted themselves not far from the town, at Olpae. Eurj'lochus now broke up, and, by a judicious route, passing between the town itself and Crenae, where the Acamanians had as- sembled to intercept him, effected a junction with these allies. Presently, on the other hand, De- mosthenes 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 Acar- naniuns. An almost greater advantage was gained by the compact entered into with Menedaeus, the surviving Sjwrtan officer, for the underhand with- dniwid of the Peloponnesians. And, finallv, hav- 3 R 2'