Dactyls ( dr. Greek Δάκτυλοι “fingers”) - in ancient Greek mythology [1] [2] demonic creatures are Lilliputians who lived on Crete on Mount Ida (or on top of Mount Ida in Phrygia , then they were considered servants of the Phrygian Mother ), where they served the Great Mother of the Gods or Rhea [3] . In some traditions, they are identified with cabir , coribant and telkhin .
Content
- 1 History
- 2 Cretan Dactyls
- 3 Phrygian Dactyls
- 4 notes
- 5 Literature
- 6 References
History
The first ten dactyls appeared during the prenatal contractions of Rhea, when she thrust her fingers into the ground ( Gaia ).
According to Sophocles , the first dactyls were 5 men who discovered iron treatment, they had 5 sisters. Their names are Kelmis, Damnamenei, Hercules and Akmon. Each of them produced 10 children. The first 100 people born in Crete are called ideological dactyls. 9 kurets and coribants were their descendants [4] .
According to the poem "Phoronid", the dactyls Kelmiy, Damnamenei and Akmon (the servants of Cybele) found iron on Ida [5] . According to another legend, Kelmid and Damnamenei found iron in Cyprus [6] . According to the story of Diodorus, the ideological dactyls lived on Ida in Phrygia , and then, together with Migdon, moved to Europe. There were 100 or 10. Their disciple in Samothrace was Orpheus. The use of fire was discovered in Crete [7] . Pausanias calls the names of dactyls (aka Kurets) from Cretan Ida: the brothers Heracles, Peony, Epimedes, Jasius, and Idas [8] .
When Rhea gave birth to Zeus, in order to ease the torment, she pressed her fingers into the ground and dactyls immediately grew from her: five women from her left hand and five men from her right. Some believe that dactyls lived long before the birth of Zeus . According to one version, they were born in the cave of Mount Dikta in Crete, where the baby Zeus was growing up; the nymph threw dust at little Zeus, and this dust turned into dactyls. Dactyls were attributed the discovery of iron treatment. There were three Phrygian dactyls: Kelmis (literally, to melt), Damnamenei (to chain) and Akmon (anvil). Kelmis was turned into iron for insulting Rhea ( Strabo , X 3, 473). The names of the Cretan female dactyls are considered a well-kept secret, and the Cretan male dactyls were called Heracles, Peon, Epimedes, Jasius and Acesid; according to other versions there were ten, fifty-two or one hundred. Pausanias narrates that the dactyl Hercules, having brought a wild olive from the Hyperboreans to Olympia, organized running competitions between the brothers, thereby laying the foundation for the Olympic Games, where Peon won. Sometimes dactyls are identified with coats , coribants and telkhins . They were also credited with the establishment of the Olympic Games in Elis .
Like the Cyclops, the ideological dactyls were attributed to the constant occupation of the melting and forging of various metals, which was rich in Mount Ida . They were also considered as artisans working from metals, by the power of magic, various unusual works. Hence, their name is dactyls, probably the result of the folk etymology of a Phrygian word in Greek ( Cicero . On the nature of the gods, 3-16, transfers their name as digiti ). Phrygian dactyls were often mixed with other similar spirits, such as, for example, with the Samothrace cabirs and coats, the Coribans , who made up the retinue of Rhea of Crete, identified with the goddess Cybele.
They said about dactyls that they were healers and experts in blacksmithing, were under the authority of Hephaestus and trained people in metallurgy , mathematics and Ephesian writing . They were the first to process iron [9] . Dactyls from Phrygia invented the “Ephesian writings,” which gave miraculous power to those who wore them [10] [11] , and the musical rhythm [12] .
The altars to all the dactyls were at Olympia [13] .
In honor of the dactyls, the satellite Dactyl of the asteroid (243) Ida , discovered in 1993, is named.
Cretan Dactyls
- Acesid . Ideal dactyl, the altar in Olympia (according to the version) [13] .
- Hercules Ideal Dactyl [4] .
- Jasius . Ideal Dactyl [8] .
- Idas [14] . Ideal Dactyl [8] . Some call him Acesid [13] .
- Kylen . One of the ideological dactyls [15] .
- Morgue . One of the ideological dactyls. Pythagoras visited his priests [16] .
- Peony . Ideal Dactyl [8] .
- Titium . One of the ideological dactyls [15] .
- Epimed . Ideal Dactyl [8] .
Phrygian Dactyls
According to another legend, they lived on Mount Ida in Phrygia. In this version, their names are:
- Akmon . Ideal Dactyl [17] .
- Damenmeni (Damnamenei). One of the ideological dactyls [18] .
- Kelmius (Kelmis, also Skelmius). "Smelter". One of the ideological dactyls [18] . Insulted Rey and turned into iron (translated by Shervinsky diamond) [19] .
Notes
- ↑ Dactyls // Myths of the peoples of the world. Encyclopedia: in 2 t / Ch. ed. S. A. Tokarev. - ed. 2nd. - M .: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1991. - T. 1: A - I. - S. 348. - ISBN 5-85270-016-9 .
- ↑ Dactyli Idaei // The Real Dictionary of Classical Antiquities / ed. F. Lubker ; Edited by members of the Society of Classical Philology and Pedagogy F. Gelbke , L. Georgievsky , F. Zelinsky , V. Kansky , M. Kutorgi and P. Nikitin . - SPb. , 1885. - S. 368.
- ↑ Schukarev A.N. Idea dactyls // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1894. - T. XIIa. - S. 797.
- ↑ 1 2 Strabo. Geography X 3, 22 (p. 473)
- ↑ Voronida, fr. 2 Bernabe; Paros Chronicle 11
- ↑ Clement. Stromats I 75, 4
- ↑ Diodorus of Sicily. Historical Library V 64, 3-7
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 Pausanias. Description of Hellas V 7, 7
- ↑ Hesiod . Ideal Dactyls, fr. 282 M.-U.
- ↑ Athenaeum . Feast of the Sages XII 548 s
- ↑ Ephesiae litterae // The Real Dictionary of Classical Antiquities / ed. F. Lubker ; Edited by members of the Society of Classical Philology and Pedagogy F. Gelbke , L. Georgievsky , F. Zelinsky , V. Kansky , M. Kutorgi and P. Nikitin . - SPb. , 1885. - S. 476.
- ↑ Clement. Stromats I 73, 1
- ↑ 1 2 3 Pausanias. Description of Hellas V 14, 7
- ↑ Lubker F. The Real Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. M., 2001. In 3 vol. T. 2. S.166
- ↑ 1 2 Apollonius of Rhodes. Argonautics I 1116
- ↑ Porphyry. The life of Pythagoras 17
- ↑ Voronida, fr. 2 Bernabe; Strabo Geography X 3, 22 (p. 473)
- ↑ 1 2 Phoronid, fr. 2 Bernabe; Paros Chronicle 11; Strabo Geography X 3, 22 (p. 473)
- ↑ Ovid. Metamorphoses IV 281–282
Literature
- Karl Kerenyi . The Gods of the Greeks , 1951.