Chapter 22

See Herodotus v. 75, vi. 50-70, vii.; later writers either reproduce or embellish his narrative (Pausanias iii. 4, 3-5, 7, 7-8; Diodorus xi. 6; Polyaenus ii. 20; Seneca,De beneficiis, vi. 31, 4-12). The story that he took part in the attack on Argos which was repulsed by Telesilla, the poetess, and the Argive women, can hardly be true (Plutarch,Mul. virt.4; Polyaenus,Strat.viii. 33; G. Busolt,Griechische Geschichte, ii.2563, note 4).

(M. N. T.)

DEMERARA,one of the three settlements of British Guiana, taking its name from the river Demerara. SeeGuiana.

DEMESNE(Demeine,Demain,Domain, &c.),1that portion of the lands of a manor not granted out in freehold tenancy, but (a) retained by the lord of the manor for his own use and occupation or (b) let out as tenemental land to his retainers or “villani.” This demesne land, originally held at the will of the lord, in course of time came to acquire fixity of tenure, and developed into the modern copyhold (seeManor). It is from demesne as used in sense (a) that the modern restricted use of the word comes,i.e.land immediately surrounding the mansion or dwelling-house, the park or chase.Demesne of the crown, or royal demesne, was that part of the crown lands not granted out to feudal tenants, but which remained under the management of stewards appointed by the crown. These crown lands, since the accession of George III., have been appropriated by parliament, the sovereign receiving in return a fixed annual sum (seeCivil List).Ancient demesnesignified lands or manors vested in the king at the time of the Norman Conquest. There were special privileges surrounding tenancies of these lands, such as freedom from tolls and duties, exemption from danegeld and amercement, from sitting on juries, &c. Hence, the phrase “ancient demesne” came to be applied to the tenure by which the lands were held. Land held in ancient demesne is sometimes also called customary freehold. (SeeCopyhold.)

1The form “demesne” is an Anglo-French spelling of the Old Fr.demeineordemaine, belonging to a lord, from Med. Lat.dominicus,dominus, lord;dominicumin Med. Lat. meantproprietas(see Du Cange). From the later Fr.domaine, which approaches more nearly the original Lat., comes the other Eng. form “domain,” which is chiefly used in a non-legal sense of any tract of country or district under the rule of any specific sovereign state, &c. “Domain” is, however, the form kept in the legal phrase “Eminent Domain” (q.v.).

DEMETER,in Greek mythology, daughter of Cronus and Rhea and sister of Zeus, goddess of agriculture and civilized life. Her name has been explained as (1) “grain-mother,” fromδηαί, the Cretan form ofζειαί, “barley,” or (2) “earth-mother,” or rather “mother earth,”δᾶbeing regarded as the Doric form ofλῆ. She is rarely mentioned in Homer, nor is she included amongst the Olympian gods.

The central fact of her cult was the story of her daughter Persephone (Proserpine), a favourite subject in classical poetry. According to the HomericHymn to Demeter, Persephone, while gathering flowers on the Nysian plain (probably here a purely mythical locality), was carried off by Hades (Pluto), the god of the lower world, with the connivance of Zeus (see alsoProserpine). The incident has been assigned to various other localities—Crete, Eleusis, and Enna in Sicily, the last being most generally adopted. This rape is supposed to point to an originalἰερὸς λάμος, an annual holy marriage of a god and goddess of vegetation. Wandering over the earth in search of her daughter, Demeter learns from Helios the truth about her disappearance. In the form of an old woman named Deo (= the “seeker,” or simply a diminutive form), she comes to the house of Celeus at Eleusis, where she is hospitably received. Having revealed herself to the Eleusinians, she departs, in her wrath having visited the earth with a great dearth. At last Zeus appeases her by allowing her daughter to spend two-thirds of the year with her in the upper world. Demeter then returns to Olympus, but before her final departure from earth, in token of her gratitude, she instructs the rulers of Eleusis in the art of agriculture and in the solemnities and rites whereby she desires in future to be honoured.

Those who were initiated into the mysteries of Eleusis found a deep meaning in the myth, which was held to teach the principle of a future life, founded on the return of Persephone to the upper world, or rather on the process of nature by which seed sown in the ground must first die and rot before it can yield new life (seeMystery). At Eleusis, Demeter was venerated as the introducer of all the blessings which agriculture brings in its train—fixed dwelling-places, civil order, marriage and a peaceful life; hence her nameThesmophoros, “the bringer of law and order,” and the festivalThesmophoria(q.v.). J. G. Frazer takes the epithet to mean “bearer of the sacred objects deposited on the altar”; L. R. Farnell (Cults of the Greek States, iii. 106) suggests “the bringer of treasure or riches,” as appropriate to the goddess of corn and of the lower world; others refer the name to “the law of wedlock” (θεσμὸς λέκτροιο, Odyssey, xxiii. 296, where, however, D. B. Monro translates “place, situation”). At Eleusis also, Triptolemus (q.v.), the son of Celeus, who was said to have invented the plough and to have been sent by Demeter round the world to diffuse the knowledge of agriculture, had a temple and threshing-floor.

In the agrarian legends of Iasion and Erysichthon, Demeter also plays an important part. Iasion (or Iasius), a beautiful youth, inspired her with love for him in a thrice-ploughed field in Crete, the fruit of their union being Plutus (wealth). According to Homer (Odyssey, v. 128) he was slain by Zeus with a thunderbolt. The story is compared by Frazer (Golden Bough, 2nd ed., ii. 217) with the west Prussian custom of the mock birth of a child on the harvest-field, the object being to ensure a plentiful crop for the coming year. It seems to point to the supersession of a primitive local Cretan divinity by Demeter, and the adoption of agriculture by the inhabitants, bringing wealth in its train in the form of the fruits of the earth, both vegetable and mineral. Some scholars, identifying Iasion with Jason (q.v.), regard Thessaly as the original home of the legend, and the union with Demeter as theἱερὸς γάμοςof mother earth with a health god. Erysichthon (“tearer up of the earth”), son of Triopas or Myrmidon, having cut down the trees in a grove sacred to the goddess, was punished by her with terrible hunger (Callimachus,Hymn to Demeter; Ovid,Metam.viii. 738-878). Perhaps Erysichthon may be explained as the personification of the labourer, who by the systematic cultivation and tilling of the soil endeavours to force the crops, instead of allowing them to mature unmolested as in the good old times. Tearing up the soil with the plough is regarded as an invasion of the domain of the earth-mother, punished by the all-devouring hunger for wealth, that increases with increasing produce. According to another view, Erysichthon is the destroyer of trees, who wastes away as the plant itself loses its vigour. It is possible that the story may originally have been connected with tree-worship. Here again, as in the case of Iasion, a conflict between an older and a younger cult seems to be alluded to (for the numerous interpretations see O. Crusiuss.v.in Roscher’sLexikon).

It is as a corn-goddess that Demeter appears in Homer and Hesiod, and numerous epithets from various sources (see Bruchmann,Epitheta Deorum, supplement to Roscher’sLexikon, i. 2) attest her character as such. The nameἸουλώ(? at Delos), fromἱουλος, “corn-sheaf,” has been regarded as identifying the goddess with the sheaf, and as proving that the cult of Demeter originated in the worship of the corn-mother or corn-spirit, the last sheaf having a more or less divine character for the primitive husbandman. According to this view, the prototypes of Demeter and Persephone are the corn-mother and harvest maiden of northern Europe, the corn-fetishes of the field (Frazer,Golden Bough, 2nd ed., ii. 217, 222; but see Farnell,Cults, iii. 35). The influence of Demeter, however, was not limited to corn, but extended to vegetation generally and all the fruits of the earth, with the curious exception of the bean, the use of which was forbidden at Eleusis, and for the protection of which a special patron was invented. In this wider sense Demeter is akin to Ge, with whom she has several epithets in common, and is sometimes identified with Rhea-Cybele; thus Pindar speaks of Demeterχαλκοκρότος(“brass-rattling”), an epithet obviously moresuitable to the Asiatic than to the Greek earth-goddess. Although the goddess of agriculture is naturally inclined to peace and averse from war, the memory of the time when her land was won and kept by the sword still lingers in the epithetsχρυσάοροςandξιφηφόροςand in the name Triptolemus, which probably means “thrice fighter” rather than “thrice plougher.”

Another important aspect of Demeter was that of a divinity of the under-world; as such she isχθονίαat Sparta and especially at Hermione in Argolis, where she had a celebrated temple, said to have been founded by Clymenus (one of the names of Hades-Pluto) and his sister Chthonia, the children of Phoroneus, an Argive hero. Here there was said to be a descent into the lower world, and local tradition made it the scene of the rape of Persephone. At the festival Chthonia, a cow (representing, according to Mannhardt, the spirit of vegetation), which voluntarily presented itself, was sacrificed by three old women. Those joining in the procession wore garlands of hyacinth, which seems to attribute a chthonian character to the ceremony, although it may also have been connected with agriculture (see S. Wide,De Sacris Troezeniorum, Hermionensium, Epidauriorum, Upsala, 1888). The striking use of the termδημήτρειοιin the sense of “the dead” may be noted in this connexion.

The remarkable epithets,ἘρινύςandΜέλαινα, as applied to Demeter, were both localized in Arcadia, the first at Thelpusa (or rather Onkeion close by), the second at Phigalia (see W. Immerwahr,Die Kulte und Mythen Arkadiens, i. 1891). According to the Thelpusan story, Demeter, during her wanderings in search of Persephone, changed herself into a mare to avoid the persecution of Poseidon. The god, however, assumed the form of a stallion, and the fruit of the union was a daughter of mystic name and the horse Areion (or Erion). Demeter, at first enraged, afterwards calmed down, and washed herself in the river Ladon by way of purification. Demeter “the angry” (ἐρινύς) became Demeter “the bather” (λουσία). An almost identical story was current in the neighbourhood of Tilphossa, a Boeotian spring. In the Phigalian legend, no mention is made of the horse Areion, but only of the daughter, who is called Despoina (mistress), a title common to all divinities connected with the under-world. Demeter, clad in black (henceμέλαινα) in token of mourning for her daughter and wrath with Poseidon, retired into a cave. During that time the earth bore no fruit, and the inhabitants of the world were threatened with starvation. At last Pan, the old god of Arcadia, discovered her hiding-place, and informed Zeus, who sent the Moirae (Fates) to fetch her out. The cave, still called Mavrospēlya (“black cave”), was ever afterwards regarded as sacred to Demeter, and in it, according to information given to Pausanias, there had been set up an image of the goddess, a female form seated on a rock, but with a horse’s head and mane, to which were attached snakes and other wild animals. It was clothed in a black garment reaching to the feet, and held in one hand a dolphin, in the other a dove. The image was destroyed by fire, replaced by the sculptor Onatas from inspiration in a dream, but disappeared again before the time of Pausanias.

Bothμέλαιναandἐρινύς, according to Farnell, are epithets of Demeter as an earth-goddess of the under-world. The first has been explained as referring to the gloom of her abode, or the blackness of the withered corn. The second, according to Max Müller and A. Kuhn, is the etymological equivalent of the Sanskrit Saranyu, who, having turned herself into a mare, is pursued by Vivasvat, and becomes the mother of the two Asvins, the Indian Dioscuri, the Indian and Greek myths being regarded as identical. According to Farnell, the meaning of the epithet is to be looked for in the original conception of Erinys, which was that of an earth-goddess akin to Ge, thus naturally associated with Demeter, rather than that of a wrathful avenging deity.

Various interpretations have been given of the horse-headed form of the Black Demeter: (1) that the horse was one of the forms of the corn-spirit in ancient Greece; (2) that it was an animal “devoted” to the chthonian goddess; (3) that it is totemistic; (4) that the form was adopted from Poseidon Hippios, who is frequently associated with the earth-goddess and is said to have received the name Hippios first at Thelpusa, in order that Demeter might figure as the mother of Areion (for a discussion of the whole subject see Farnell,Cults, iii. pp. 50-62). The union of Poseidon and Demeter is thus explained by Mannhardt. As the waves of the sea are fancifully compared to horses, so a field of corn, waving in the breeze, may be said to represent the wedding of the sea-god and the corn-goddess. In any case the association of Poseidon, representing the fertilizing element of moisture, with Demeter, who causes the plants and seeds to grow, is quite natural, and seems to have been widespread.

Demeter also appears as a goddess of health, of birth and of marriage; and a certain number of political and ethnic titles is assigned to her. Of the latter the most noteworthy are:Παναχαίαat Aegium in Achaea, pointing to some connexion with the Achaean league;Ἀχαία,1“the Achaean goddess,” unless it refers to the “sorrow” of the goddess for the loss of her daughter (cf.Ἀχέαin Boeotia); and, most important of all,Ἀμφικτυονίς, at Anthela near Thermopylae, as patron-goddess of the Amphictyonic league, subsequently so well known in connexion with the temple at Delphi.

The Eleusinia and Thesmophoria are discussed elsewhere, but brief mention may here be made of certain agrarian festivals held in honour of Demeter.

1.Haloa, obviously connected withἅλως(“threshing-floor”), begun at Athens and finished at Eleusis, where there was a threshing-floor of Triptolemus, in the month Poseideon (December). This date, which is confirmed by historical and epigraphical evidence, seems inappropriate, and it is suggested (A. Mommsen,Feste der Stadt Athen, p. 365 foll.) that the festival, originally held in autumn, was subsequently placed later, so as to synchronize with the winter Dionysia. Dionysus, as the god of vines, and (in a special procession) Poseidonφυτάλμιος(“god of vegetation”) were associated with Demeter. In addition to being a harvest festival, marked by the ordinary popular rejoicings, the Haloa had a religious character. Theἀπαρχαί(“first fruits”) were conveyed to Eleusis, where sacrifice was offered by a priestess, men being prohibited from undertaking the duty. Aτελετή(“initiatory ceremony”) of women by a woman also took place at Eleusis, characterized by obscene jests and the use of phallic emblems. The sacramental meal on this occasion consisted of the produce of land and sea, certain things (pomegranates, honey, eggs) being forbidden for mystical reasons. Although the offerings at the festival were bloodless, the ceremony of the presentation of theἀπαρχαίwas probably accompanied by animal sacrifice (Farnell, Foucart); Mommsen, however, considers the offerings to have been pastry imitations. Certain games (πάτριος ἀγών), of which nothing is known, terminated the proceedings. In Roman imperial times the ephebi had to deliver a speech at the Haloa.

2.ChloeiaorChloia, the festival of the corn beginning to sprout, held at Eleusis in the early spring (Anthesterion) in honour of Demeter Chloë, “the green,” the goddess of growing vegetation. This is to be distinguished from the later sacrifice of a ram to the same goddess on the 6th of the month Thargelion, probably intended as an act of propitiation. It has been identified with theProcharisteria(sometimes calledProschaireteria), another spring festival, but this is doubtful. The scholiast on Pindar (Ol. ix. 150) mentions an Athenian harvest festivalEucharisteria.

3.Proërosia, at which prayers were offered for an abundant harvest, before the land was ploughed for sowing. It was also calledProarcturia, an indication that it was held before the rising of Arcturus. According to the traditional account, when Greece was threatened with famine, the Delphic oracle ordered first-fruits to be brought to Athens from all parts of the country, which were to be offered by the Athenians to the goddess Deo on behalf of all the contributors. The most important part of the festival was the three sacred ploughings—the Athenianὑπὸ πόλιν, the Eleusinian on the Rharian plain, the Scirian (a compromise between Athens and Eleusis). The festival itselftook place, probably some time in September, at Eleusis. In later times the ephebi also took part in the Proërosia.

4.Thalysia, a thanksgiving festival, held in autumn after the harvest in the island of Cos (see Theocritus vii.).

5. The name of Demeter is also associated with theScirophoria(seeAthena). It is considered probable that the festival was originally held in honour of Athena, but that the growing importance of the Eleusinia caused it to be attached to Demeter and Kore.

The attributes of Demeter are chiefly connected with her character as goddess of agriculture and vegetation—ears of corn, the poppy, the mystic basket (calathus) filled with flowers, corn and fruit of all kinds, the pomegranate being especially common. Of animals, the cow and the pig are her favourites, the latter owing to its productivity and the cathartic properties of its blood. The crane is associated with her as an indicator of the weather. As a chthonian divinity she is accompanied by a snake; the myrtle, asphodel and narcissus (which Persephone was gathering when carried off by Hades) also are sacred to her.

In Greek art, Demeter is made to resemble Hera, only more matronly and of milder expression; her form is broader and fuller. She is sometimes riding in a chariot drawn by horses or dragons, sometimes walking, sometimes seated upon a throne, alone or with her daughter. The Demeter of Cnidus in the British Museum, of the school of Praxiteles, apparently shows her mourning for the loss of her daughter. The articleGreek Art, fig. 67 (pl. iv.), gives a probable representation of Demeter (or her priestess) from the stone of a vault in a Crimean grave.

The Romans identified Demeter with their own Ceres (q.v.).

See L. Preller,Demeter und Persephone(1837); P. R. Förster,Der Raub und die Rückkehr der Persephone(1874), in which considerable space is devoted to the representations of the myth in art; W. Mannhardt,Mythologische Forschungen(1884); J. E. Harrison,Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion(1903); L. Dyer,The Gods in Greece(1891); J. G. Frazer,The Golden Bough(2nd ed.), ii. 168-222; L. Preller,Griechische Mythologie(4th ed., by C. Robert); O. Kern in Pauly-Wissowa’sRealencyclopädie, iv. pt. 2 (1901); L. Bloch in Roscher’sLexikon der Mythologie; O. Gruppe,Griechische Mythologie und Religionsgeschichte, ii. (1907); L. R. Farnell,Cults of the Greek States, iii. (1907); article “Ceres” by F. Lenormant in Daremberg and Saglio’sDictionnaire des antiquités.

(J. H. F.)

1O. Gruppe (Griechische Mythologie, ii. 1177, note 1) considers it “certain” thatἈχαία = Ἀχελωία, although he is unable to explain the form.

DEMETRIA,a Greek festival in honour of Demeter, held at seed-time, and lasting ten days. Nothing is known of it beyond the fact that the men who took part in it lashed one another with whips of bark (μόροττον), while the women made obscene jests. It is even doubtful whether it was a particular festival at all or only another name for the Eleusinia or Thesmophoria. The Dionysia also were called Demetria in honour of Demetrius Poliorcetes, upon whom divine honours were conferred by the Athenians.

Hesychius,s.v.μόροττον; Pollux i. 37; Diod. Sic. v. 4; Plutarch,Demetrius, 12; Daremberg and Saglio,Dictionnaire des antiquités.

DEMETRIUS,king of Bactria, was the son of the Graeco-Bactrian king Euthydemus, for whom he negotiated a peace with Antiochus the Great in 206 (Polyb. xi. 34). Soon afterwards he crossed the Hindu Kush and began the invasion of India (Strabo xi. 516); he conquered the Punjab and the valley of the Indus down to the sea and to Gujerat. The town Sangala, a town of the Kathaeans in the Punjab (Arrian v. 22, 2 ff.), he named after his father Euthydemia (Ptol. vii. 1, 46). That his power extended into Arachosia (Afghanistan) is proved by the name of a town Demetrias near Kandahar (Isidor. Charac. 19, cf. Strabo xi. 516). On his coins he wears an elephant’s skin with trunk and teeth on his head; on bronze coins, which have also an Indian legend in Kharoshti letters (seeBactria), he calls himself the unvanquished king (Βασιλέως ἀνικήτου Δημητρίου). One of his coins has already the square form used in India instead of the circular. Eventually he was defeated by the usurper Eucratides (q.v.), who meanwhile had risen to great power in Bactria. About his death we know nothing; his young son Euthydemus II. (known only from coins) can have ruled only a short time.

(Ed. M.)

DEMETRIUS,the name of two kings of Macedonia.

1.Demetrius I.(337-283B.C.), surnamedPoliorcetes(“Besieger”), son of Antigonus Cyclops and Stratonice. At the age of twenty-two he was left by his father to defend Syria against Ptolemy the son of Lagus; he was totally defeated near Gaza (312), but soon partially repaired his loss by a victory in the neighbourhood of Myus. After an unsuccessful expedition against Babylon, and several campaigns against Ptolemy on the coasts of Cilicia and Cyprus, Demetrius sailed with a fleet of 250 ships to Athens. He freed the city from the power of Cassander and Ptolemy, expelled the garrison which had been stationed there under Demetrius of Phalerum, and besieged and took Munychia (307). After these victories he was worshipped by the Athenians as a tutelary deity under the title ofSoter(“Preserver”). In the campaign of 306 against Ptolemy he defeated Menelaus (the brother of Ptolemy) in Cyprus, and completely destroyed the naval power of Egypt. In 305 he endeavoured to punish the Rhodians for having deserted his cause; and his ingenuity in devising new instruments of siege, in his unsuccessful attempt to reduce the capital, gained him the appellation of Poliorcetes. He returned a second time to Greece as liberator. But his licentiousness and extravagance made the Athenians regret the government of Cassander. He soon, however, roused the jealousy of the successors of Alexander; and Seleucus, Cassander and Lysimachus united to destroy Antigonus and his son. The hostile armies met at Ipsus in Phrygia (301). Antigonus was killed in the battle, and Demetrius, after sustaining a severe loss, retired to Ephesus. This reverse of fortune raised up many enemies against him; and the Athenians refused even to admit him into their city. But he soon afterwards ravaged the territory of Lysimachus, and effected a reconciliation with Seleucus, to whom he gave his daughter Stratonice in marriage. Athens was at this time oppressed by the tyranny of Lachares; but Demetrius, after a protracted blockade, gained possession of the city (294) and pardoned the inhabitants their former misconduct. In the same year he established himself on the throne of Macedonia by the murder of Alexander, the son of Cassander. But here he was continually threatened by Pyrrhus, who took advantage of his occasional absence to ravage the defenceless part of his kingdom (Plutarch,Pyrrhus, 7 ff.); and at length the combined forces of Pyrrhus, Ptolemy and Lysimachus, assisted by the disaffected among his own subjects, obliged him to leave Macedonia after he had sat on the throne for six years (294-288). He passed into Asia, and attacked some of the provinces of Lysimachus with varying success; but famine and pestilence destroyed the greater part of his army, and he solicited Seleucus for support and assistance. But before he reached Syria hostilities broke out; and after he had gained some advantages over his son-in-law, Demetrius was totally forsaken by his troops on the field of battle, and surrendered his person to Seleucus. His son Antigonus offered all his possessions, and even his person, in order to procure his father’s liberty; but all proved unavailing, and Demetrius died in the fifty-fourth year of his age, after a confinement of three years (283). His remains were given to Antigonus, honoured with a splendid funeral at Corinth, and thence conveyed to Demetrias. His posterity remained in possession of the Macedonian throne till the time of Perseus, who was conquered by the Romans.

SeeLifeby Plutarch; Diod. Sic. xix. xx.; Wilamowitz-Moellendorff,Antigonos von Karystos; De Sanctis,Contributi alla storia Ateniesein Beloch’sStudi di storia antica(1893); Fergusson in Lehmann’sBeiträge z. alt. Gesch.(Klio) vol. v. (1905); also authorities underMacedonian Empire.

2.Demetrius II., son of Antigonus Gonatas, reigned from 239 to 229B.C.He had already during his father’s lifetime distinguished himself by defeating Alexander of Epirus at Derdia and so saving Macedonia (about 260?). On his accession he had to face a coalition which the two great leagues, usually rivals, the Aetolian and Achaean, formed against the Macedonian power. He succeeded in dealing this coalition severe blows, wresting Boeotia from their alliance. The revolution in Epirus, which substituted a republican league for the monarchy, gravely weakened his position. Demetrius had also to defend Macedonia against the wild peoples of the north. A battle with the Dardanians turned out disastrously, and he died shortly afterwards,leaving Philip, his son by Chryseïs, still a child. Former wives of Demetrius were Stratonice, the daughter of the Seleucid king Antiochus I., Phthia the daughter of Alexander of Epirus, and Nicaea, the widow of his cousin Alexander. The chronology of these marriages is a matter of dispute.

See Thirlwall,History of Greece, vol. viii. (1847); Ad. Holm,Griech. Gesch.vol. iv. (1894); B. Niese,Gesch. d. griech. u. maked. Staaten, vol. ii. (1899); J. Beloch,Griech. Gesch.vol. iii. (1904).

(E. R. B.)

DEMETRIUS,the name of three kings of Syria.

Demetrius I.(d. 150B.C.), surnamedSoter, was sent to Rome as a hostage during the reign of his father, Seleucus IV. Philopator, but after his father’s death in 175B.C.he escaped from confinement, and established himself on the Syrian throne (162B.C.) after overthrowing and murdering King Antiochus V. Eupator. He acquired his surname ofSoter, orSaviour, from the Babylonians, whom he delivered from the tyranny of the Median satrap, Timarchus, and is famous in Jewish history for his contests with the Maccabees. Hated for his vices, Demetrius fell in battle against the usurper, Alexander Balas, in 150B.C.

Demetrius II.(d. 125B.C.), surnamedNicator, son of Demetrius I., fled to Crete after the death of his father, but about 147B.C.he returned to Syria, and with the help of Ptolemy VII. Philometor, king of Egypt, regained his father’s throne. In 140B.C.he marched against Mithradates, king of Parthia, but was taken prisoner by treachery, and remained in captivity for ten years, regaining his throne about 129B.C.on the death of his brother, Antiochus VII., who had usurped it. His cruelties and vices, however, caused him to be greatly detested, and during another civil war he was defeated in a battle at Damascus, and killed near Tyre, possibly at the instigation of his wife, a daughter of Ptolemy VII., who was indignant at his subsequent marriage with a daughter of the Parthian king, Mithradates. His successor was his son, Antiochus VIII. Grypus.

Demetrius III.(d. 88B.C.), calledEuergetesandPhilometor, was the son of Antiochus VIII. Grypus. By the assistance of Ptolemy X. Lathyrus, king of Egypt, he recovered part of his Syrian dominions from Antiochus X. Eusebes, and held his court at Damascus. In attempting to dethrone his brother, Philip Epiphanes, he was defeated by the Arabs and Parthians, was taken prisoner, and kept in confinement in Parthia by King Mithradates until his death in 88B.C.

DEMETRIUS,a Greek sculptor of the early part of the 4th centuryB.C., who is said by ancient critics to have been notable for the life-like realism of his statues. His portrait of Pellichus, a Corinthian general, “with fat paunch and bald head, wearing a cloak which leaves him half exposed, with some of the hairs of his head flowing in the wind, and prominent veins,” was admired by Lucian. He was contrasted with Cresilas (q.v.), an idealizing sculptor of the generation before. Since however the peculiarities mentioned by Lucian do not appear in Greek portraits before the 3rd centuryB.C., and since the Greek art of the 4th century consistently idealizes, there would seem to be a difficulty to explain. The date of Demetrius above given is confirmed by inscriptions found on the Athenian Acropolis.

(P. G.)

DEMETRIUS,a Cynic philosopher, born at Sunium, who lived partly at Corinth and later in Rome during the reigns of Caligula, Nero and Vespasian. He was an intimate friend of Thrasea Paetus and Seneca, and was held in the highest estimation for his consistent disregard of creature comfort in the pursuit of virtue. His contempt for worldly prosperity is shown by his reply to Caligula who, wishing to gain his friendship, sent him a large present. He replied, “If Caligula had intended to bribe me, he should have offered me his crown.” Vespasian banished him, but Demetrius laughed at the punishment and mocked the emperor’s anger. He reached the logical conclusion of Cynicism in attaching no real importance to scientific data.

DEMETRIUS DONSKOI1(1350-1389), grand duke of Vladimir and Moscow, son of the grand duke Ivan Ivanovich by his second consort Aleksandra, was placed on the grand-ducal throne of Vladimir by the Tatar khan in 1362, and married the princess Eudoxia of Nizhniy Novgorod in 1364. It was now that Moscow was first fortified by a strong wall, orkreml(citadel), and the grand duke began “to bring all the other princes under his will.” Michael, prince of Tver, appealed however for help to Olgierd, grand duke of Lithuania, who appeared before Moscow with his army and compelled Demetrius to make restitution to the prince of Tver (1369). The war between Tver and Vladimir continued intermittently for some years, and both the Tatars and the Lithuanians took an active part in it. Demetrius was generally successful in what was really a contention for the supremacy. In 1371 he won over the khan by a personal visit to the Horde,andin 1372 he defeated the Lithuanians at Lyubutsk. Demetrius then formed a league of all the Russian princes against the Tatars and in 1380 encountered them on the plain of Kulikovo, between the rivers Nepryadvaya and Don, where he completely routed them, the grand khan Mamai perishing in his flight from the field. But now Toktamish, the deputy of Tamerlane, suddenly appeared in the Horde and organized a punitive expedition against Demetrius. Moscow was taken by treachery, and the Russian lands were again subdued by the Tatars (1381). Nevertheless, while compelled to submit to the Horde, Demetrius maintained his hegemony over Tver, Novgorod and the other recalcitrant Russian principalities, and even held his own against the Lithuanian grand dukes, so that by his last testament he was able to leave not only his ancestral possessions but his grand-dukedom also to his son Basil. Demetrius was one of the greatest of the north Russian grand dukes. He was not merely a cautious and tactful statesman, but also a valiant and capable captain, in striking contrast to most of the princes of his house.

See Sergyei Solovev,History of Russia(Rus.), vols, i.-ii. (St Petersburg, 1857), &c.; Nikolai Savelev,Demetrius Ivanovich Donskoi(Rus.), (Moscow, 1837).

(R. N. B.)

1Of the Don.

DEMETRIUS PHALEREUS(c.345-283B.C.), Attic orator, statesman and philosopher, born at Phalerum, was a pupil of Theophrastus and an adherent of the Peripatetic school. He governed the city of Athens as representative of Cassander (q.v.) for ten years from 317. It is said that he so won the hearts of the people that 360 statues were erected in his honour; but opinions are divided as to the character of his rule. On the restoration of the old democracy by Demetrius Poliorcetes, he was condemned to death by the fickle Athenians and obliged to leave the city. He escaped to Egypt, where he was protected by Ptolemy Lagus, to whom he is said to have suggested the foundation of the Alexandrian library. Having incurred the displeasure of Lagus’s successor Philadelphus, Demetrius was banished to Upper Egypt, where he died (according to some, voluntarily) from the bite of an asp. Demetrius composed a large number of works on poetry, history, politics, rhetoric and accounts of embassies, all of which are lost.

The treatiseΠερὶ Ἑρμηνείας(on rhetorical expression), which is often ascribed to him, is probably the work of a later Alexandrian (1st centuryA.D.) of the same name; it has been edited by L. Radermacher (1901) and W. Rhys Roberts (1902), the last-named providing English translation, introduction, notes, glossary and complete bibliography. Fragments in C. Müller,Frag. Hist. Graec.ii. p. 362. See A. Holm,History of Greece(Eng. trans.), iv. 60.

DEMETRIUS, PSEUDO-(orFalse), the name by which three Muscovite princes and pretenders, who claimed to be Demetrius, son of Ivan the Terrible, are known in history. The real Demetrius had been murdered, while still a child, in 1591, at Uglich, his widowed mother’s appanage.

1. In the reign of Tsar Boris Godunov (1598-1605), the first of these pretenders, whose origin is still obscure, emigrated to Lithuania and persuaded many of the magnates there of his tsarish birth, and consequently of his right to the Muscovite throne. His real name seems to have been Yury or Gregory, and he was the grandson of Bogdan Otrepev, a Galician boyar, and a tool in the hands of Tsar Boris Godunov’s enemies. He first appears in historycirca1600, when his learning and assurance seem to have greatly impressed the Muscovite patriarch Job. Tsar Boris, however, ordered him to be seized and examined, whereupon he fled to Prince Constantine Ostrogsky at Ostrog, and subsequently entered the service of another Lithuanian, Prince Wisniwiecki, who accepted him for what he pretendedto be and tried to enlist the sympathy of the Polish king, Sigismund III., in his favour. The king refused to support him officially, but his cause was taken up, as a speculation, by the Polish magnate Yury Mniszek, whose daughter Marina he afterwards wedded and crowned as his tsaritsa. The Jesuits also seem to have believed in the man, who was evidently an unconscious impostor brought up from his youth to believe that he was the real Demetrius; numerous fugitives from Moscow also acknowledged him, and finally he set out, at the head of an army of Polish and Lithuanian volunteers, Cossacks and Muscovite fugitives, to drive out the Godunovs, after being received into the Church of Rome. At the beginning of 1604 he was invited to Cracow, where Sigismund presented him to the papal nuncio Rangoni. His public conversion took place on the 17th of April. In October the false Demetrius crossed the Russian frontier, and shortly afterwards routed a large Muscovite army beneath the walls of Novgorod-Syeversk. The sudden death of Tsar Boris (April 13, 1605) removed the last barrier to the further progress of the pretender. The principal Russian army, under P. F. Basmanov, at once went over to him (May 7); on the 20th of June he made his triumphal entry into Moscow, and on the 21st of July he was crowned tsar by a new patriarch of his own choosing, the Greek Isidore. He at once proceeded to introduce a whole series of political and economical reforms. From all accounts, he must have been a man of original genius and extraordinary resource. He did his best to relieve the burdens of the peasantry; he formed the project of a grand alliance between the emperor, the pope, Venice, Poland and Muscovy against the Turk; he displayed an amazing toleration in religious matters which made people suspect that he was a crypto-Arian; and far from being, as was expected, the tool of Poland and the pope, he maintained from the first a dignified and independent attitude. But his extravagant opinion of his own authority (he lost no time in styling himself emperor), and his predilection for Western civilization, alarmed the ultra-conservative boyars (the people were always on his side), and a conspiracy was formed against him, headed by Basil Shuisky, whose life he had saved a few months previously. A favourable opportunity for the conspirators presented itself on the 8th of May 1606, when Demetrius was married to Marina Mniszek. Taking advantage of the hostility of the Muscovites towards the Polish regiments which had escorted Marina to Moscow and there committed some excesses, the boyars urged the citizens to rise against the Poles, while they themselves attacked and slew Demetrius in the Kreml on the night of the 17th of May.

See Sergyei Solovev,History of Russia(Rus.), vol. viii. (St Petersburg, 1857, &c.); Nikolai Kostomarov,Historical Monographs(Rus.) vols, iv.-vi. (St Petersburg, 1863, &c.); Orest Levitsky,The First False Demetrius as the Propagandist of Catholicism in Russia(Rus.) (St Petersburg, 1886); Paul Pierling,Rome et Demetrius(Paris, 1878); R. N. Bain,Poland and Russia, cap. 10 (Cambridge, 1907).

2. The second pretender, called “the thief of Tushino,” first appeared on the scenecirca1607 at Starodub. He is supposed to have been either a priest’s son or a converted Jew, and was highly educated, relatively to the times he lived in, knowing as he did the Russian and Polish languages and being somewhat of an expert in liturgical matters. He pretended at first to be the Muscovite boyarin Nagi; but confessed, under torture, that he was Demetrius Ivanovich, whereupon he was taken at his word and joined by thousands of Cossacks, Poles and Muscovites. He speedily captured Karachev, Bryansk and other towns; was reinforced by the Poles; and in the spring of 1608 advanced upon Moscow, routing the army of Tsar Basil Shuisky, at Bolkhov, on his way. Liberal promises of the wholesale confiscation of the estates of the boyars drew the common people to him, and he entrenched himself at the village of Tushino, twelve versts from the capital, which he converted into an armed camp, collecting therein 7000 Polish soldiers, 10,000 Cossacks and 10,000 of the rabble. In the course of the year he captured Marina Mniszek, who acknowledged him to be her husband (subsequently quieting her conscience by privately marrying this impostor, who in no way resembled her first husband), and brought him the support of the Lithuanian magnates Mniszek and Sapieha so that his forces soon exceeded 100,000 men. He raised to the rank of patriarch another illustrious captive, Philaret Romanov, and won over the towns of Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Vologda, Kashin and other places to his allegiance. But a series of subsequent disasters, and the arrival of King Sigismund III. at Sinolensk, induced him to fly his camp disguised as a peasant and go to Kostroma, where Marina joined him and he lived once more in regal state. He also made another but unsuccessful attack on Moscow, and, supported by the Don Cossacks, recovered a hold over all south-eastern Russia. He was killed, while half drunk, on the 11th of December 1610, by a Tatar whom he had flogged.

See Sergyei Solovev,History of Russia(Rus.) vol. viii. (St Petersburg, 1657, &c.).

3. The third, a still more enigmatical person than his predecessors, supposed to have been a deacon called Siderka, appeared suddenly, “from, behind the river Yanza,” in the Ingrian town of Ivangorod (Narva), proclaiming himself the tsarevich Demetrius Ivanovich, on the 28th of March 1611. The Cossacks, ravaging the environs of Moscow, acknowledged him as tsar on the 2nd of March 1612, and under threat of vengeance in case of non-compliance, the gentry of Pskov also kissed the cross to “the thief of Pskov,” as he was usually nicknamed. On the 18th of May 1612 he fled from Pskov, was seized and delivered up to the authorities at Moscow, and there executed.

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