D — Dinde to Diptych (Part 2 of 3)

Diomedean Swop An exchange in which all the benefit is on one side. This proverbial expression is founded on an incident related by Homer in the Iliad. Glaucus recognises Diomed on the battle-field, and the friends change armour.

"For Diomed's brass arms, of mean device,
For which nine oxen paid (a vulgar price),
He [Glaucus] gave his own, of gold divinely wrought,
An hundred beeves the shining purchase bought." Pope Iliad vi.

Diomedes or Diomed. King of Ætolia, in Greece, brave and obedient to authority. He survived the siege of Troy; but on his return home found his wife living in adultery, and saved his life by living an exile in Italy. (Homer: Iliad.)

Dione (3 syl.). Venus, who sprang from the froth of the sea, after the mutilated body of Uranus (the sky) had been thrown there by Saturn.

"So young Dione, nursed beneath the waves
And rocked by Nereids in their coral caves ...
Lisped her sweet tones, and tried her tender smiles."
Darwin: Economy of Vegatation, ii.

Dionysius (the younger) being banished a second time from Syracuse, retired to Corinth, where he turned schoolmaster for a living. Posterity called him a tyrant. Byron, in his Ode to Napoleon, alludes to these facts in the following lines -

"Corinth's pedagogue hath now
Transferred his byword to thy brow."

   That is, Napoleon is now called tyrant like Dionysius.

Dionysos The Greek name of Bacchus (q.v.).
   Father: Zeus (Jupiter).
   Feasts of Bacchus in Rome, Bromalia or Brumalia, in March and September.
   Mother: Semele, daughter of Cadmus
   Nurse: Brisa.
   Owls were his aversion.
   Panthers drew his chariot.
   Rams were the most general sacrifices offered to him.
   Wife: Ariadne.
   The most famous statue of this god way by Praxiteles.
   Attalus gave above £18,000 for a painting of the god by Aristides.

Diophantine Analysis Finding commensurate values of squares, cubes, triangles etc. or the sum of a given number of squares which is itself a square; or a certain number of squares etc. which are in arithmetical progression. The following examples will give some idea of the theory:
   1. To find two whole numbers, the sum of whose squares is a square;
   2. To find three square numbers which are in arithmetical progression;
   3. To find a number from which two given squares being severally subtracted, each of the remainders is a square.
    Diophantus was an Alexandrian Greek (5th cent. A.D.)

Dioscuri Castor and Pollux. (Greek, Dios kouros, young men of Zeus; dios is gen. of Zeus.)
   The horses of the Dioscuri. Cyllaros and Harpagos. (See Horse.)

Diotrephes One who loves to have the pre-eminence among others. (3 John 9.)

"Neither a desperate Judas, like the prelate Sharpe [archbishop of St. Andrew's who was murdered], that's gone to his place; nor a sanctuary-breaking Holofernes, like the bloody-minded Claverhouse; nor an ambitious Diotrephes, like the lad [Lord] Evandale ... shall resist the arrows that are whetted and the bow that is bent against you." - Sir W. Scott Old Mortality chap.xiv.

Dip (A). A tallow-chandler, one who makes or sells candles or "dips." These candles are made by dipping into melted tallow the cotton which forms the wick. (Anglo-Saxon dippan to dip.)

Diphthera The skin of the goat Amalthe'a on which Jove wrote the destiny of man. Diphtheria is an infectious disease of the throat so called from its tendency to form a false membrane.

Diploma literally means something folded (Greek). Diplomas used to be written on parchment, folded, and sealed. The word is applied to licences given to graduates to assume a degree, to clergymen, to physicians, agents, and so on.

Diplomacy The tact, negotiations, privileges, etc. of a diplomatist, or one who carries a diploma to a foreign court to authorise him to represent the Government which sends him out.