DIONYS’IA, wife of Cleon, governor of Tarsus.  Pericles prince of Tyre commits to her charge his infant daughter Mari’na, supposed to be motherless.  When her foster-child is fourteen years old, Dionysia, out of jealousy, employs a man to murder her, and the people of Tarsus, hearing thereof, set fire to her house, and both Dionysia and Cleon are burnt to death in the flames,—­Shakespeare, Pericles, Prince of Tyre (1608).

DIONYS’IUS, tyrant of Syracuse, dethroned Evander, and imprisoned him in a dungeon deep in a huge rock, intending to starve him to death.  But Euphrasia, having gained access to him, fed him from her own breast.  Timoleon invaded Syracuse, and Dionysius, seeking safety in a tomb, saw there Evander the deposed king, and was about to kill him, when Euphrasia rushed forward, struck the tyrant to the heart, and he fell dead at her feet.—­A.  Murphy, The Grecian Daughter (1772).

[Illustration] In this tragedy there are several gross historical errors.  In act i. the author tells us it was Dionysius the Elder who was dethroned, and went in exile to Corinth; but the elder Dionysius died in Syracuse, at the age of 63, and it was the younger Dionysius who was dethroned by Timoleon, and went to Corinth.  In act v. he makes Euphrasia kill the tyrant in Syracuse, whereas he was allowed to leave Sicily, and retired to Corinth, where he spent his time in riotous living, etc.

Dionys’ius [THE ELDER] was appointed sole general of the Syracusan army, and then king by the voice of the senate.  Damon “the Pythagorean” opposed the appointment, and even tried to stab “the tyrant,” but was arrested and condemned to death.  The incidents whereby he was saved are to be found under the article DA’MON (q.v.).

Damon and Pythias, a drama by R. Edwards (1571), and another by John Banim, in 1825.

Dionys’ius [THE YOUNGER], being banished from Syracuse, went to Corinth and turned schoolmaster.

  Corinth’s pedagogue hath now
  Transferred his byword [tyrant] to thy brow.

  Byron, Ode to Napoleon.

DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE was one of the judges of the Areopagite when St. Paul appeared before this tribunal.  Certain writings, fabricated by the neo-platonicians in the fifth century, were falsely ascribed to him.  The Isido’rian Decretals is a somewhat similar forgery by Mentz, who lived in the ninth century, or three hundred years after Isidore.

  The error of those doctrines so vicious
  Of the old Areopagite Dionysius.

Longfellow, The Golden Legend.

DIOSCU’RI (sons of Zeus), Castor and Pollux.  Generally, but incorrectly, accented on the second syllable.

DIOTI’MA, the priestess of Mantineia in Plato’s Symposium, the teacher of Soc’rates.  Her opinions on life, its nature, origin, end, and aim, form the nucleus of the dialogue.  Socrates died of hemlock.