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DEMOPHOON 100.00%

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Son of Celeus of Eleusis and Metanira. He was tended in infancy by Demeter, when, in her search for Persephone, she came to Eleusis in the form of an old woman. Demeter found comfort in the care of the child, and wished to confer immortality on him by anointing him with ambrosia and holding him at night over the fire. The interference of the mother, however, prevented the fulfilment of her design (see DEMETER). Triptolemus in some versions takes the place of Demophoon (see TRIPTOLEMUS).
 
CELEUS 73.17%

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A king of Eleusis, in whose home Demeter, while seeking for her daughter, received an affectionate welcome and comfort while tending her newly-born son Demophoon. (See DEMETER and DEMOPHOON.)
 
DEMOPHOON 73.17%

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Son of Theseus and Phaedra. With his brother Acamas he was committed by Theseus to Elephenor, prince of the Abantes in Eubaea. This was at the time when Theseus, on his return from the lower regions, found Menestheus in possession of the sovereignty of Attica, and was anxious to emigrate to Scyros. In the post-Homeric story Demophoon and Acamas march to Troy with their protector Elephenor. After the conquest of the city they liberate their grandmother Aethra, and take possession again of their father's kingdom, as Menestheus, who in Homer is the chief of the Athenians before Troy, had fallen there (see AeTHRA). When Diomedes was thrown upon the coast of Attica on his return from Troy, and began to plunder it in ignorance of where he was, Demophoon took the Palladium from him. Subsequently he protected the children of Heracles against the persecutions of Eurystheus, and killed the latter in battle. On his return from Troy he had betrothed himself to Phyllis, daughter of the king of Thrace. On the day appointed for the marriage he did not appear, and Phyllis hanged herself and was changed into a tree.
 
MENESTHEUS 42.65%
The son of Peteus, who seized the government of Attica, while Theseus pined away in the nether world, and commanded the Athenians before Troy, where he fell. (Cp. DEMOPHOON, THESEUS).
 
PHYLLIS 38.29%
Daughter of the Thracian king Sithon. From despair at the delay of her betrothed Demophoon (q.v., 2) in coming to wed her, she put an end to her life, and was changed into an almond tree. [Ovid, Heroides, 2.]
 
ACAMAS 29.81%
 
PHAEDRA 29.65%

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Daughter of Minos and Pasiphae, wife of Theseus, and mother of Acamas and Demophoon. When her stepson Hippolytus rejected her love, she compassed his death by slandering him to Theseus. Afterwards, in remorse for her gailt, she put an end to her life. (See HIPPOLYTUS.)
 
AETHRA 27.74%
daughter of Pittheus, king of Troezen, mother of Thresus by Aegeus. or, according to another account, by Poseidon. While Homer merely mentions her as a servant of Helen at Troy, later legend adds that, when the Dioscuri took Aphidnae and set free their sister whom Theseus had carried off, they conveyed Aethra to Sparta as a slave, whence she accompanied Helen to Troy; and that on the fall of that city, they brought her grandsons Acamas and Demophoon back to Athens.
 
PALLADIUM 16.31%
An old carven image in the citadel at Troy, on which the prosperity of the city depended. It is said to have been three cubits high, with feet shut close together, an upraised spear in its right hand, and in its left either a distaff and spindle, or a shield. Athene was said to have made it as an image of Pallas, daughter of Triton, whom she had slain unawares while playing at wrestling. Legends differ in their account of the manner of its coming to Troy. According to one of them, Pallas gave it as a dowry to Chryse, the bride of Dardanus, and he brought it to Dardania, whence Ilus carried it to Troy; according to another, Zeus caused it to fall down to Ilus (q.v.) from heaven. Since Troy could not be conquered so long as it possessed this image, Diomedes stole it with the help of Odysseus and brought it to Argos. But, according to the Attic story, it was Demophoon (q.v., 2) of Athens who deprived him of it. The palladium preserved in Rome in the temple of Vesta was traced back to 'neas, the assumption being that there had been a second image in Troy besides that stolen by Diomedes. Other Italian towns also boasted of the possession of a palladium.
 
TRIPTOLEMUS 16.12%

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Son of Eleusis (or of Celeus, see DEMOPHOON) a favourite of Demeter, who sent him about the world on a car drawn by serpents to extend the cultivation of grain, and with it agriculture. On his return to Attica, Celeus of Eleusis made an attempt upon his life, but, at the bidding of Demeter, was obliged to give up the country to him. He founded the town of Eleusis, and, as first priest of Demeter, instituted the services there held in her honour, as well as the Thesmophoria (q.v.). In various parts of Greece, as well as in Italy and Sicily, he was honoured as the founder and promoter of husbandry, but especially in Eleusis, where, as the local hero, he had a temple dedicated to him, and a spot called the threshing-floor of Trip-tolemus on the Rharian plain. The Argive legend connected him with its local genealogies, and told how, while seeking Io in Tarsus and Antioch, he founded Greek settlements and instituted the cultivation of corn. In the Attic legend of Eleusis, he is also represented as a judge of the dead. (See DEMETER, fig. 1, and VASES, fig. 12.)
 
DIOMEDES 10.14%

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Son of Tydeus and Deipyle, and one of the Epigoni. After the death of his maternal grandfather Adrastus, king of Argos, he led 80 ships against Troy, accompanied by his trusty companions Sthenelus and Euryalus. He appears in Homer, like his father, as a bold, enterprising hero, and a favourite of Athene. In the battle which took place during the absence of Achilles she enables him not only to vanquish all mortals who came in his way, Aeneas among them, but to attack and wound Ares and Aphrodite. On his meeting with Glaucus in the thick of battle, see GLAUCUS 4. When the Achaeans fly from the field, he throws himself boldly in the path of Hector, and is only checked by the lightning of Zeus, which falls in front of his chariot. In the night after the unsuccessful battle he goes out with Odysseus to explore, kills Dolon, the Trojan ap and murders the sleeping Rhesus, king of Thrace, who had just come to Troy, with twelve of his warriors. In the post-Homeric story, he makes his way again, in company with Odysseus, by an underground passage into the acropolis of Troy, and thence steals the Palladium. This, according to one version, he carried to Argos; according to another, it was stolen from him by the Athenian king, Demophoon, on his landing in Attica. After the destruction of Troy, according to Homer, he came safe home on the fourth day of his journey. His wife, Aegiale or Aegialeia (daughter or granddaughter of Adrastus), was, according to the later legend, tempted to unfaithfulness by Aphrodite in revenge for the wounds inflicted on her by Diomedes. To escape the fate of Agamemnon, Diomedes fled from Argos to Aetolia, his father's home, and there avenged his old grandfather OEneus on his oppressors. Hence he was driven by a storm to Italy, to king Daunus of Apulia, who helps him in war against the Messapians, marries his daughter Euippe, and extends his dominion over the plain of Apulia (called after him Campi Diomedei). According to one story, he died in Daunia, in another he returned to Argos, and died there; in a third, he disappeared in the islands in the Adriatic, named, after him, Insulae Diomedeae, his companions being changed into the herons that live there, the birds of Diomedes. Diomedes was worshipped as a hero not only in Greece, but on the Italian coast of the Adriatic, where his name had in all probability become confused in worship with those of the native deities of horse-taming and navigation. The foundation of the Apulian city of Argyrippa (later called Arpi) was specially attributed to him. In his native city, Argos, his shield was carried through the streets with the Palladium at the festival of Athene, and his statue washed in the river Inachus.
 
DEMETER 7.88%

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Daughter of Cronus and Rhea. Her name signifies Mother Earth, the meaning being that she was goddess of agriculture and the civilization based upon it. Her children are, by Iasion, a son Plutus, the god of riches, and by her brother Zeus, a daughter Persephone. Round Demeter and this daughter centre her worship and the fables respecting her. Hfid6s carries off Persephone, and Demeter wanders nine days over the earth seeking her, till on the tenth day she learns the trutb from the all-seeing sun. She is wrath with Zeus for permitting the act of violence, and she visits Olympus and wanders about among men in the form of an old woman under the name of Deo or the Seeker, till at length, at Elensis, in Attica, she is kindly received at the house of king Celeus, and finds comfort in tend ing his newly born son Demophoon. Surprised by his mother in the act of trying to make the child immortal by putting it in the fire, she reveals her deity, and causes a temple to he built to her, in which she gives herself up to her grief. In her wrath she makes the earth barren, so that man kind are threatened with destruction by famine, as she does not allow the fruit of the earth to spring up again until her daughter is allowed to spend two-thirds of the year with her. On her return to Olympus she leaves the gift of corn, of agriculture, and of her holy mysteries with her host, as a token of grateful recollection. She sends Triptolemus the Eleusinian round the world on her chariot, drawn by serpents, to diffuse the knowledge of agriculture and other blessings accompanying it, the settlement of fixed places of abode, civil order, and wedlock. Thus Demeter was worshipped as the goddess of agriculture and foundress of law, order, and especially of marriage, in all places where Greeks dwelt, her daughter being usually associated with her. (See THESMOPHORIA.) The most ancient seat of her worship was Athens and Eleusis, where the Rharian plain was solemnly ploughed every year in memory of the first sowing of wheat. She was also much worshipped in Sicily, which from its fertility was accounted one of her favourite places of abode (see ELEUSINIA). As the goddess of fertility, Demeter was in many regions associated with Poseidon, the god of fertilizing water. This was particularly the case in Arcadia, where Poseidon was regarded as the father of Persephone. She was also joined with Dionysus, the god of wine, and, as mother of Persephone and goddess of the earth, to which not only the seed, but the dead are committed, she is connected with the lower world under the name of Chthonia. In later times she was often confused with Gaia and Rhea, or Cybele. Besides fruit and honeycombs, the cow and the sow were offered to her, both as emblems of productivity. Her attributes are poppies and ears of corn (also a symbol of fruitfulness), a basket of fruit and a little pig. Other emblems had a mystic significance, as the torch and the serpent, as living in the earth, and as symbolizing a renewal of life by shedding its skin. The Romans identified her with their own Ceres.
 
EURIPIDES 6.70%
The third of the three great Attic tragedians. He was born in the island of Salamis, in 480 B.C., on the very day of the great battle. His father Mnesarchus is said to have been a tradesman or tavern-keeper, his mother Clito a seller of herbs. His parents, however, must have had some means, judging by the fact that they gave him a careful gymnastic education to fit him for the athletic contests. This was because they had misinterpreted an oracle given them before his birth which promised the child crowns of victory. Euripides is said in his boyhood really to have gained the prize in a public contest of this kind, but in fact lie was destined to win victories in a very different arena. He associated much with the philosophers Anaxagoras and Socrates, with the latter of whom he enjoyed an intimate friendship during the whole of his life. He also had instruction from the sophists Protagoras and Prodicus. Thus he received the best of education in philosophy and rhetoric. It was in his twenty-fifth year (B.C. 455) that he first put a tetralogy on the stage. He did not win a prize till his forty-third year, and seems indeed to have been victorious only four times in all; but he was none the less indefatigable in writing tragedies. He took a lively interest in the important events and the public questions of the time; but personally be kept aloof from public life, avoided society, and lived mostly in the enjoyment of an excellent library, amid his studies and poetical creations. He was twice unfortunate in his marriage, a fact which may have encouraged him in his surly, unsociable ways. His first wife, Chaerile, he had to divorce for infidelity. She bore him three daughters, the youngest of whom, who was named after her mother, put several of her father's tragedies on the stage after his death. His second wife, Melito, parted from him at her own desire. In 409, at the age of 71, he left Athens; it was said to get away from the ceaseless attacks of the comedians, and from his domestic troubles. He went to Magnesia in Thessaly, where he was received as a guest of the city. Thence he went on to Pella to the court of Archelaus, king of Macedonia, who had gathered round him a number of poets and artists, and who treated him with great respect. Here he spent the last two years of his life and died B.C. 405. According to a story for which there is little authority, he was torn to pieces by a pack of hounds when returning from a nocturnal festivity. The number of his tragedies is variously given as seventy-five, seventy-eight, and ninety-two. Eighteen have come down to us: the Alcestis, Andromache, Bacchae (or the arrival of Dionysus at Thebes and the murder of Pentheus), Hecuba, Helena, Electra, the Heraclidae (or Demophoon of Athens protecting the descendants of Heracles against the persecution of Eurystheus); Heracles in Madness, the Suppliants (or the mothers of the Seven Chiefs who had fallen before Thebes, at whose prayers Theseus compelled the Thebans to bury the dead heroes); Hippolytus, Iphigenia at Aulis, Iphigenia among the Tauri, Ion, Medea, Orestes, Rhesus, the Troades (or the royal house of Troy after the conquest of the city); the Phoenissae (so called after the chorus of Phoenician maidens, an incident in the story of Eteocles and POlynices); and a satyric drama, the Cyclops, the only example of this style of composition which has survived. The earliest of these pieces in point of time is the Alcestis, performed in B.C. 438. It is also noticeable because, although not a satyric drama in the proper sense, it has comic features towards the end, and was actually performed at the end of a tetralogy in place of a satyric drama. The Bacchae, on the other hand, was written in Macedonia in the poet's last years, and performed after his death at the same time as the Iphigenia at Aulis. The genuineness of the Rhesus was doubted even in antiquity. A great number of fragments have survived from about sixty pieces, and in particular from the Phaethon. The tragedies of Euripides are of very unequal merit. Some of them, for instance lofty style of Sophocles, others approach it, as the Medeaand Iphigenia in Tauris. But others, as for instance the Andromache and Electra, are very carelessly put together. His strong point is not artistic composition, well contrived disposition, or the coherent design which gives the inner motive of the action. It is sufficient, in support of this statement, to call attention to his habit of prefixing to every piece a prologue, explaining the story to the spectators, and connected loosely (if at all) with the play; to the very slight connexion between the chorus and the action, and to his liking for bringing in a deus ex machina to cut a difficult knot. On the other hand, it must be allowed that Euripides is a master in the art of devising pathetic situations, and shows extraordinary power in representing human passion, especially the resistless might of love in the case of women. In his religious views be differs essentially from Aeschylus and Sophocles. With Euripides the gods are not moral powers, and fate is not so much the result of a higher dispensation as a perverseness of accident. The lack of grandeur is also a point which distinguishes him from his great predecessors. Instead of their sublime ideas he gives us maxims of worldly wisdom, often to all appearance dragged in without occasion. The motives of action are not so pure as in Aeschylus and Sophocles, and the characters of the heroes are not raised above the level of ordinary life, but brought down to it. So fond is he of giving prominence to the faults of women, that he has been called a woman-hater. He pays more attention to the course of politics than his predecessors, and is indeed influenced by political considerations in his sketches of character. In deference to the democratic leanings of his public, he makes his kings cruel tyrants, without dignity or majesty, and the heroes of the Peloponnese, in particular, he treats with unconcealed dislike. His dialogues are often overloaded with rhetoric and sophistical dialectic. But, in spite of all these faults, for which the spirit of the age is mainly responsible, be is a great poetical genius. He was very popular with his contemporaries, and has been still more so with succeeding generations. The tragedians of the next age made him their model and pattern without qualification, and the Roman poets preferred paraphrasing his dramas to those of the other tragedians.
 
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