Diomea or Diomeia ( grc, Διόμεια) was a

deme In Ancient Greece, a deme or ( grc, δῆμος, plural: demoi, δημοι) was a suburb or a subdivision of Athens and other city-states. Demes as simple subdivisions of land in the countryside seem to have existed in the 6th century BC and ear ...

of ancient Attica, located in the city of Athens, both within and outside the walls of

Themistocles Themistocles (; grc-gre, Θεμιστοκλῆς; c. 524–459 BC) was an Athenian politician and general. He was one of a new breed of non-aristocratic politicians who rose to prominence in the early years of the Athenian democracy. A ...

, in interior portion included the eastern sector of the city, and the external portion contained the

Cynosarges Cynosarges ( grc-gre, Κυνόσαργες ''Kynosarges'') was a famous temple of Heracles, public gymnasium, and surrounding grove located just outside the walls of Ancient Athens on the southern bank of the Ilissos river and near the Diomeian ga ...

. It was located south of the

Ilisus The Ilisos or Ilisus ( el, Ιλισός, ) is a river in Athens, Greece. Originally a tributary of the Kifisos, it has been rechanneled to the sea. It is now largely channeled underground, though as of June 2019 there are plans to unearth the ...

, between

Alopece Alopece (Ancient Greek: Ἀλωπεκή, romanised: Alopeke, also spelt as Alopecae) was an asty-deme of the city of Athens, but located exterior to the city wall of Athens. Alopece was situated only eleven or twelve stadia from the city, and n ...

to the south and

Ancyle Ancyle or Ankyle ( grc, Ἀγκυλή) was the name of two demoi of ancient Attica: Upper Ancyle and Lower Ancyle. They were located east of Athens and bordering Agryle to the south. Upper Ancyle passed from the ''phyle'' Aigeis to Antigonis i ...

to the east. A gate of Athens was called the Diomean Gate. Originally in the ''

phyle ''Phyle'' ( gr, φυλή, phulē, "tribe, clan"; pl. ''phylai'', φυλαί; derived from ancient Greek φύεσθαι "to descend, to originate") is an ancient Greek term for tribe or clan. Members of the same ''phyle'' were known as ''symphylet ...

Aigeis Aigeis was a tribe ( phyle) of Ancient Athens which contained twenty demes. The phyle comprised twenty demes named Lower and Upper Ankyle, Araphen, Bate, Diomeia, Erchia, Erikeia, Gargettos, Halai, Hestiaia, Ikarion, Ionidai, Kollytos, Ko ...

, it was later in the ''phyle''

Demetrias Demetrias ( grc, Δημητριάς) was a Greek city in Magnesia in ancient Thessaly (east central Greece), situated at the head of the Pagasaean Gulf, near the modern city of Volos. History It was founded in 294 BCE by Demetrius Polio ...

Description

According to the legend the deme was founded by some citizens of

Collytus Collytus or Kollytos ( grc, Κολλυτός) was a deme of ancient Attica, located in the city of Athens. It was located within the walls of Themistocles, south of the Areopagus and southwest of Acropolis. It was famed due to its association with ...

and Melite, whose head was

Diomus ''Diomus'' is a genus of lady beetles in the family Coccinellidae. There are at least 20 described species in ''Diomus''. Species These 65 species belong to the genus ''Diomus'': * '' Diomus akonis'' (Ohta, 1929) * '' Diomus amabilis'' (LeCon ...

, worshiper and perhaps lover of

Heracles Heracles ( ; grc-gre, Ἡρακλῆς, , glory/fame of Hera), born Alcaeus (, ''Alkaios'') or Alcides (, ''Alkeidēs''), was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, and the foster son of Amphitryon.By his adoptive ...

. The first killing of a bull and the consummation of the sacred grain is attributed to Diomus. After the death of the demigod, Diomus offered him a sacrifice but a white dog disturbed the event, stealing the sacrificial meats and leaving them far away. At that point Diomus decided to found the Cynosarges sanctuary. Every five years a famous feast in honor of Heracles was held in Diomea. This shrine was associated with a gymnasium in which the illegitimate youth or those with only one Athenian citizen parent studied. The cynical school founded by

Antisthenes Antisthenes (; el, Ἀντισθένης; 446 366 BCE) was a Greek philosopher and a pupil of Socrates. Antisthenes first learned rhetoric under Gorgias before becoming an ardent disciple of Socrates. He adopted and developed the ethical side o ...

also gathered here at the beginning of 4th century BCE. At the Heracleion, Callimedon's dinner club of "the Sixty" met. The deme, whose external part developed outside the walls of Athens, was not of a large extent, being bordered by Alopece which was 11 or 12

stadia Stadia may refer to: * One of the plurals of stadium, along with "stadiums" * The plural of stadion, an ancient Greek unit of distance, which equals to 600 Greek feet (''podes''). * Stadia (Caria), a town of ancient Caria, now in Turkey * Stadia ...

from the city . The inhabitants of Diomea were known as arrogant and rude, so that

Aristophanes Aristophanes (; grc, Ἀριστοφάνης, ; c. 446 – c. 386 BC), son of Philippus, of the deme Kydathenaion ( la, Cydathenaeum), was a comic playwright or comedy-writer of ancient Athens and a poet of Old Attic Comedy. Eleven of his ...

, for them, coined a new word, translatable with "Diomean arrogance."

, ''Wasps'' 83-84.

People

* Callimedon (fl. 4th century BCE), orator and politician *

Stratocles Stratocles son of Euthydemos of Diomeia ( el, Στρατοκλῆς Εὐθυδήμου Διομεεὺς), was an Athenian politician during the third and fourth centuries BCE. He was a member of a family from the deme of Diomeia. At some time, ...

(fl. 4th-3rd centuries BCE), politician and writer

References

Populated places in ancient Attica Former populated places in Greece Demoi {{AncientAttica-geo-stub