DIGENTIA, di-ged-ti-a, a small river which watered Horace's farm, in the country of the Sabines.
Dii, di'-i, the gods of the ancients, are very numerous. Almost all the powers of nature, and every prominent natural object, terrestrial or celestial, received divine honours, and were regarded, from poetical fancy or from ignorant terror, as animated beings. In the GREEK mythology, as represented by Homer, the gods (Veal) proper were the great family of Olympus —Zeus (Jupiter), Hera (Juno), Pallas Athena (Minerva), Phrebus Afiallo, Pesidon (Neptune), AidOneus (Pluto), Artemis (Diana), Per sephone (Proserpina), LettOna, Ares (Mars), Hermes (Mercury), Hefihastos (Vulcan), Aphrodite (Venus), Demeter (Ceres), Thirrris, Heircis (Sol), Dionysus (Bacchus), Patin, Iris, Diane, Hebe(javentas), Eris orEnyeBellona). The minor Greek deities were—(r) The greater impersonations of natural powers, and of ideas: Oceanus and Tethys, Crenos (Saturnus) and Rhea, Ourci nos (Crelum) and Gaut (Terra), Nereus and Amphitrite, Phobos (Terror), &c. : (a) The minor impersonations of natural powers : the Winds, Rivers, Nymphs (Dry ades, Oracles, Naiades, Nereides, Oceanides, &c.) : (3) Superhuman beings, exterior to the proper system of Homeric mythology : Prb tens, Lezeathea, the Sirens, Calypso, Circe, Atlas, Idethea, Perse, &c.: (4) The ministers of justice : the Raper,• (Parcx, or Rata), • (HarpVm), 'Epttv;tev (Farim) : (5) Beings midway gods and men : those translated during life, as GrinYmides, or Cleitus ; those deified after death, as Hercules, Orion, &c. ; and the kindred of the gods, or races intermediate between deity and hu manity, the Cyclops, Lastrfigenes, Phaaces. The RON1ANS reckoned two classes of the gods —Dii ma:forum gentium (or Consentes, q. v.), the twelve superior gods ; and Dii minorunz gentium, the latter class including all the other gods worshipped throughout the earth. There were six Dii selecti associated with the Commies, viz., 7rinres, Saturnus, the Genius, Lana (the Moon), Pluto (or Orcus), Bacchus. The demigods, the Dii Indigites, as Hercules, ./Eneas (or 7upter ndiges), Remains, &c., were those who deserved immortality from their exploits,or services to mankind, and the offspring of the immortal gods ; and the Toftici , those whose worship was established at particular places, such as Isis in Egypt, Astarte, Uranus at Carthage, &c. The Dii Nevensiles was the term
applied by the Romans to the gods who, the Etruscans believed, could wield the thunder bolts ; viz., Tinia or 2:01"ter, Meurva or Of Melva, Srynturle:ras or Omer (who hurled the bolts by night), Mars, Sethlans or lint admits, Vedius or Vejavis. There were Rural Deities—Fa:inns (and Fanni), the Slily' ri, Llifiercus, Pan, Picus, Silvrinus, Pales, Po mona, Vertumnus, Anna Perenna, and Ter minus; and, in process of time, the Moral Qualities, Mental Affections, and otherAbstrac tions were personified, and temples raised to them (especially by the Romans), as Virtres, Hones, Fides, Sps, Factor, Favor, Concordia, Pax, Victoria, Libertas, Scilus, 7iiventas, Mens, Fcima, Fortuna or Fors Fortfirur (the Etruscan Nortia). Other gods, not classified above, were Aurera (or Mater Matata, the Greek 'Ilk and Etruscan Thesan), Canons, Libitina (or Venus), Lavern, Ferenia, Vi cuna, Carmenta, Camence, Fata (or Parra.), Farice or Direr (or 'Ept .6e0, Manes or Lim tires, Mania (wife of Orcus, and called mother of the Manes), Lara or Leirunda or Larentia (mother of the Litres), Lara or Larentia (Acca Larentia, wife of Faustulus.) The departed spirits of ancestors who guarded their offspring, were worshipped as tutelary gods, and called Litres Familiiires, and those of the Roman city (regarded as one family) were Lanes Prrestites, and of these latter there were minor groups, Litres /birdies, Lanes COMPI idles, Lanes Viriles, Lares Permarini. The special protectors of every family, worshipped , along with the Lanes in the Pinetratia or in most part of the house, at the Focus or hearth, were called Penates; and the public Penates of the Roman people were two youthful war riors, identified later with the Greek Castor and Pollux the Aioaxoupoi of the Greeks, w o were be ieved to be in sonic way connected with the Dii Cabiri of Samo thrace. The Romans readily identified their national gods with those of Greece, but ad mitted only a few avowedly foreign deities, as ...EscalePus, Priapus. Towards the close of the republic, the worship of Isis, Anfibis, Serripis, &c., became fashionable, and many of the emperors were deified. See APO