'The h&rmony of their tonnes bath into bondage Brought my too diligent ear.'
J. Hastings. DILL.— See ANISE.
DIMINISH. — To diminish is to make less, and that primary meaning is alone in use now. We do not even use the word fiL;uratively, ' to lessen the influence of,' 'belittle,' as Ezk 5" 'therefore will I alsod. thee ' ; 29" ' I will d. them, that they shall no more rule over the nations' ; ls21" ' the mighty men . . . shall be diminished ' (RV ' shall be few ') ; Ro 11" 'if . . . the diminishing of them [be] the riches of the Gentiles ' (ri ij-mj/ia airrCm, RV ' their loss,' Sanday-Headlam ' their defeat '). Cf. Argu- ment of Ep. to Heb. in Gen. NT : ' For seing the Spirit of God is the autor thereof, it diminisheth nothing the autoritie, althofjh we knowe not with what penne he wrote it.' Still less can we speak of diminishing one thing from another, i.e. witlulraw- ing or withholding, so as to cause diminution, as Dt 4- 'Ye shall not add unto the word which I oommand you, neither .shall ye d. ouglit from it' ; Jer 26" ' d. not a word ' (KV ' keep not back '). So in Atkinson's tr. (1504) of De Imitatione, IV. ix. : ' Take from our hertis ... all that may . . . dimynyshe vg from thy eternal! loue.'
J. Hastings.
DIMNAH (nici).— A Levitical city in Zebulun, Jos '2\^. Dillmann, followed by licniictt in nau]it» OT, emends to .tis-i, Riramon (cf. 1 Ch G-"-', Jos 19"). J. A. Selbie.
DIMON, DIMONAH.— See Dibon.
DINAH (n;-'!).- The daughter of Jacob by Leah (Gn 30-'). The composite and verj- obscure narra- tive of Gn 34 relates how, when Jacob was en- camped at Shechem, after his return from Meso- potamia, she was seduced by Shechem the son of Hamor, a Hivite prince. This outrage was bitterly resented by her lull brothers, Simeon and Levi. Shechem was ready to prove his attachment by marrying the maiden, and offered to pay any marriage price or dowry that might be fixed by hcV family. I'o this her brothers consented, but only on condition that all the men of Shechem should be circumcised. This being conceded, her brotlicis made it the means of inflicting a barbarous reveii;;c for their sister's dishonour, by killing all the nuti of the place on the third day, when the efiects of the circvimcision made them incapable of self- defence. Both at the time and on his death-bed, their father Jacob (according to J) spoke of this act with indignation and abhorrence (Gn 34'° 49*"'). It was, however, approved by later Jewish fanatics (Jth O''). (l'"or the tribal significance of Dinah and the historical incidents which may underlie the above narrative, see Simeon). R. M. Boyd.
DINAITES (N:n. LXX Aeiratoi, Ezr 4»), a people settled in Samaria by Osnappar (i.e. prob- ably Assurbanipal). They joined with the other Samaritans in denouncing the Jews to Artaxerxes. The Dinaites have been variously identified with the Da-ja-6ni, a tribe of western Armenia, mentioned in inscriptions of Tiglath- pileser I. (Schrader) ; and with the inhabitants of Deinaver, a Median city (Ewald), or of Din-Sharru near Susa (Fried. Delitzsch). On account of the other peoples named in the same verse, the last view seems the most probable. See further Meyer, Judenthum, 39 f. H. A. White.
DINHABAH(n?nn).—Thecapital city of king Bela
in Edoin (Gn 36'^= 1 Ch 1«). There is some doubt as to its identification. The name, which is accented so as to mean 'Give judgment' (Ball, Genesis, ad loc.), occurs in Palmyrene as Danabn or Dahl)i!)na (K3:m) ; cf. Aavd^ri in Babylonia, and see Dillm. and Del. on Gn SO*". It has been proposed by Neuhauer (Academy, 1891, p. 200) to identify Dinlmbah with Tennib. Tiiis is accepted by Tomkins (ib. p. 284), who further identifies Tennib «-ith Thenih, E.N.E. from Heshbon, describeil in Tristram's Moab, p. 222. See further Honirnil, Anc. Ileb. Tradition, 223 n. J. A. Selbik.
DINNER.— See FOOD.
DIONYSIA {Aioviaia, Bacchanalia, EV ' Feast of Bacchus'), 2 Mac 6'. — A festival in honour of Dionysus. Dionj'sus is usually regarded as the god of the vine, but, as Fiazer shows in the Golden Bou(jh, he was a god of trees in general. As he comes before us in Greek worship, he is quite clearly a vegetation deity ; but Jevons may be right in think- ing that two cults have been combined, — that of the vegetation spirit and that of the wine-god Dionysus, the latter lending its name to the former, which at first w.as naturally nameless. The char- acter of the god is to bo determined, not from the myths told about him, which are tales invented to explain the ritual, but from the ritual itself, interpreted through comparison with parallel rites among other peoples. The festival was intended to celebrate the revival of vegetation in spring after the long sleep of winter. Not only to cele- liialc it, however, but by sympathetic magic to secure the fertility of the fielils. This imitation of the processes of nature was associated with the wildest orgies and excesses, stimulated no doubt, in this instance, by the connexion of Dionysus
608
DIONYSIUS
DIOSCURI
with the vine. Jevons givea a reconstruction of the festival as it was held at Thebes and other places. A branch, or something else representing the vegetation spirit, was carried round the cul- tivated fields, to secure his blessing on the crops. A human figure, also representing this spirit, was fastened to the top of a tree trunk, wliich had been felled and prepared for the purpose. This was hoisted up and then pelted till it fell. The women then tore it in pieces, and the woman who got the head raced with it to the temple or cliief liouse and nailed it to the door. But in many cases the rites were much more savage, and bulls or goats, which represented the god himself, were torn to pieces by the worshippers in a mad scram- ble to possess themselves of portions of the flesh, and even human beings suffered at times in this way. The flesh was taken home and some of it buried in the fields. (For parallels to this custom of killing the god the Golden Bough should be consulted. It secured a certain communion with the deity, the preservation of his vigour through the deatb of his temporary representative and his re-incarnation in a fresh life, and the fertility of the land in which the flesh was buried). The most famous festivals of Dionysus were held in Attica. Besides the Anthesteria and Lencea there were two, known as the Lesser and the Greater Dion- ysia. The former was held in country districts in December, and was a vintage festival, accompanied by dancing, songs, improvised dramatic perform- ances, and a procession, in which the phallus was borne. The utmost licence of speech and conduct characterized it. The Greater Dionysia were held in the city, and were chiefly important from the fact that at them the great dramas of the tragic and comic poets were produced. Before the dra- matic performances there was a great public pro- cession of worshippers, wearing masks and singing the dithyramb, in which an image of Dionysus was carried from one temple to another. This was followed by a chorus of boys. According to 2 Mac 6' Antioclius compelled the Jews, when the feast of Dionysia (RVm) came, to go in procession in honour of Dionysus, wearing wTeaths of ivy. The ivy was specially sacred to the god. See further xmder DiONYSUS. A. S. Peake.