(Group ), the Dactyls of mount Ida in Phrygia,
fabulous beings to whom the discovery of iron and the art of working it by means of fire was
ascribed. Their name Dactyls, that is, Fingers, is accounted for in various ways; by their
number being five or ten, or by the fact of their serving Rhea just as the fingers serve the
hand, or by the story of their having lived at the foot (ad Apollon. Rhod. 1.1126; Strab. l.c.) There they
were connected with the worship of Rhea. They are sometimes confounded or identified with the
Curetes, Corybantes, Cabeiri, and Telchines; or they are described as the fathers of the
Cabeiri and Corybantes. (ad Arat. 33; Serv. ad Virg. Georg. 4.153.) This
confusion with the Cabeiri also accounts for Samothrace being in some accounts described as
their residence (ad v.
Gent. 3.41); and Diodorus states, on the authority of Cretan historians, that the
Dactyls had been occupied in incantations and other magic pursuits; that thereby they excited
great wonder in Samothrace, and that Orpheus was their disciple in these things. Their
connexion or identification with the Curetes even led to their being regarded as the same as
the Roman Penates. (Arnob. 3.40.) According to a tradition in Clemens Alexandrinus (Strom. i. p. 362) the Dactyls did not discover the iron in the Phrygian Ida,
but in the island of Cyprus; and others again transfer them to mount Ida in Crete, although
the ancient traditions of the latter island scarcely contain any traces of early working in
metal there. (ad Apollon.
l.c.). To these others were subsequently added, such as Scythes, the Phrygian, who
invented the smelting of iron (l.c.), and Delas. (Euseb. Praep. Evang. x. p. 475.) Apollonius Rhodius mentions the hero Titias and Cyllenus as
the principal Dactyls, and a local tradition of Elis mentioned, besides Heracles, Paconius,
Epimedes, Jasius, and Idas or Acesidas as Dactyls; but these seem to have been beings
altogether different from the Idaean Dactyls, for to judge from their names, they must have
been healing divinities. (de Nat. Deor. 3.16.) With regard to the real nature of the Dactyls, they
seem to be no more than the mythical representatives of the discoverers of iron and of the art
of smelting metals with the aid of fire, for the importance of this art is sufficiently great
for the ancients to ascribe its invention to supernatural beings. The original notion of the
Dactyls was afterwards extended, and they are said to have discovered various other things
which are useful or pleasing to man ; thus they are reported to have introduced music from
Phrygia into Greece, to have invented rhythm, especially the dactylic rhythm. (Plut. de Mus. 5 ; Diomedes, p. 474, ed. Putsch; de Fac. in Orb. Lun.
30; compare Lobeck, de Idaeis Dactylis; Welcker, Die
Aeschyl. Trib. p. 168, &c.)