DIOMEDES DION/EA MUSCIPULA. 



681 



and corruption, attacking them with satire and irony. 

 The people, and even the higher classes, heard him 

 with pleasure, and tried their wit upon him. When 

 he made them feel his superiority, they often had re- 

 course to abuse, by which, however, he was little 

 moved. He rebuked them for expressions and ac- 

 tions which violated decency and modesty, and there- 

 fore it is not credible tliat he was guilty of the exces- 

 ses with which his enemies have reproached him. 

 His rudeness offended the laws of good-breeding ra- 

 ther than the principles of morality. Many anec- 

 dotes, however, related of tliis singular person, are 

 mere fictions. On a voyage to the island of jEgina, 

 he fell into the hands of pirates, who sold him as a 

 slave to the Corinthian Xeniades in Crete. The lat- 

 ter emancipated him, and intrusted him with the edu- 

 cation of his children. He attended to the duties of 

 his new employment with the greatest care, com- 

 monly living hi summer at Corinth, and in winter at 

 Athens. It was at the former place that Alexander 

 found him on the road-side, basking in the sun, and, 

 astonished at the indifference with which the ragged 

 beggar regarded him, entered into conversation with 

 him, and finally gave him permission to ask for a 

 boon. "I ask nothing," answered the philosopher, 

 " but that thou wouldst get out of my sunshine." 

 Surprised at this proof of content, the king is said to 

 have exclaimed, " Were I not Alexander, I would be 

 Diogenes." At another time he was carrying a lan- 

 tern through the streets of Athens, in the daytime : 

 on being asked what he was looking for, he answered, 

 " I am seeking a man." Thinking he had found, in 

 the Spartans, the greatest capacity for becoming such 

 men as he wished, he said, " Men I have found no- 

 where ; but children, at least, I have seen at Lace- 

 daemon." Being asked, " What is the most dangerous 

 animal ?" his answer was, " Among wild animals, the 

 slanderer ; among tame, the flatterer." He died 324 

 B. C., at a great age. When he felt death approach- 

 ing, he seated himself on the road leading to Olympia, 

 where he died with philosophical calmness, in the 

 presence of a great number of people, who were col- 

 lected around him. 



Another philosopher of the same name, who lived 

 earlier, and belonged to the Ionian school, was Dio- 

 genes of Apollonia. He considered ah- as the ele- 

 ment of all things. He lived at Athens, in the fifth 

 century B. C. 



DIOMEDES ; 1. a king of the Bistones, who fed 

 his horses on human flesh, and used to throw all 

 strangers, who entered his territory, to those animals 

 to be devoured. He was killed by Hercules, who 

 carried off the horses. 



2. One of the heroes at the siege of Troy, the son 

 of Tydeus and Deiphyle, and king of Argos. He 

 early lost his father, who was slain before Thebes, 

 took part in the second expedition to Thebes, 

 and became one of the suitors of Helen. After she 

 was carried off, the Grecian chiefs resolved on an expe- 

 dition to Troy, to avenge this outrage against Greece, 

 and Diomedes engaged in the expedition, at the head 

 of the Argives, Tyrinthians, and several other nations. 

 El is daring courage rendered him one of the most dis- 

 tinguished heroes, and, according to the testimony of 

 Nestor, superior to all his contemporaries. Protected 

 by Pallas, he not only encountered the most valiant 

 of the enemies, many of whom he killed, but even 

 ventured to attack the immortals. When Venus has^ 

 tened to the rescue of her son JEneas, whom he was 

 on the point of putting to death, he wounded the god- 

 dess in her hand with his spear, and would have torn 

 ^Eneas from her arms but for the interference of 

 Apollo. He thrice assailed even Apollo himself, 

 nor did he desist till terrified by the threats of the 

 god. Animated by Pallas, he then turned his arms 



against Mars, wounded him in his belly, and com- 

 pelled him to return to Olympus. He was equally 

 distinguished in the council. He boldly opposed the 

 proposal of Agamemnon to leave the plains of Troy 

 without having gained the object of the expedition, 

 and prevailed ; he even adhered to his opinion, after 

 Achilles had rejected the proffered reconciliation. By 

 carrying off the horses of Rhcesus from the enemies' 

 tents, he fulfilled one of the conditions on which alone 

 Troy could be conquered. With Ulysses, he removed 

 Philoctetes, who had the arrows of Hercules, from 

 Lemnos, which was another condition of the fall of 

 Troy. Finally, he was one of the heroes who were 

 concealed in the wooden horse, by whom the cap- 

 ture of Troy was at length accomplished. Though 

 he reached home in safety, the vengeance of Venus 

 awaited him. During his absence, that goddess had 

 inspired his wife, ^Egiale, with a criminal passion for 

 Cometes; and Dioraedes, on his arrival, was compel- 

 led to leave Argos, and promise never to return,under 

 pain of death. Accompanied by his most faithful 

 friends, he set sail for Italy. Of his residence there, 

 the accounts are contradictory and fabulous : some 

 say that he died there at a great age ; others, that he 

 was slain by king Daunus ; others, that he suddenly 

 disappeared on the islands that have been called after 

 his name. After his death, he was worshipped as a 

 demi-god. 



DION of Syracuse, who acquired immortal glory 

 in the history of that state, lived hi the times or the 

 two kings who bore the name of Dionysius. He 

 was related to them, and long exercised great in- 

 fluence over them. He attempted to reform the 

 tyrannical disposition of the younger Dionysius by 

 the precepts of philosophy, but his enemies succeeded 

 in rendering him suspected by the king, and in ef- 

 fecting his banishment. Dion went over to Greece, 

 where the beauty of his person, and, still more, the 

 excellent qualities of his mind and heart, gained him 

 so many friends, that he resolved to employ force to 

 deliver his country from a prince who had closed his 

 ears to remonstrances. With this design, he em- 

 barked with 800 valiant warriors, landed in Sicily, 

 and, hearing that Dionysius had set out a few days 

 before for Italy, hastened to Syracuse, and entered 

 the city amidst the acclamations of the people. 

 After some ineffectual attempts to recover his autho- 

 rity, Dionysius was at length obliged to abandon the 

 crown, and fled, with his treasures, to Italy. Dion 

 was also, soon after, obliged to leave the city, on ac- 

 count of the unjust suspicions of his fellow citizens. 

 New troubles having broken out in Syracuse, he 

 was recalled, and was about to restore the repub- 

 lican government, when he was assassinated by his 

 treacherous friend, Calippus of Athens, 354 B. C. 

 Thus perished a man of noble sentiments, great 

 courage, and inflexible patriotism, He was the inti- 

 mate iriend of Plato. His life has been written by 

 Plutarch, and Corn. Nepos. 



DION^EA MUSCIPULA (Venus s fly-trap) is a 

 remarkable plant, inhabiting the basin of Cape Fear 

 river, in North Carolina. The leaves are radical, 

 spreading upon the ground, and terminated by an 

 orbicular appendage, composed of two hemispherical 

 lobes, which are fringed with hairs : when the inside 

 of this appendage is touched, the lobes close sud- 

 denly, and thus imprison flies and other small insects. 

 These, having no outlet, must necessarily perish, un- 

 less delivered by tearing the leaf. It is not until the 

 insect is dead, and, of course, no longer affects the 

 parts of the leaf by its motions, that the leaf opens, 

 and lets the body of the animal fall. The insects 

 seem to be allured by a sweet moisture on the sur- 

 face of the leaf. In Europe the seed of this plant 

 has not been brought to ripen. The stem is eight or 



