DIAGORAS, of Melos, surnamed the Atheist, poet and sophist, flourished in the second half of the 5th century B.C. Re ligious in his youth and a writer of hymns and dithyrambs, he became an atheist because a great wrong done to him was left unpunished by the gods. In consequence of his blasphemous speeches, and especially his criticism of the Mys teries, he was condemned to death at Athens, and a price set upon his head (Aristoph. Clouds, 83o; Birds, 1,073 and Schol.). He fled to- Corinth, where he is said to have died. His work on the Mysteries was called (13pfty tot Xlryot, or 'Arorvp-ylovrEs, in which he probably attacked the Phrygian divinities.