Dactyls
A class of sorcerers and scientific physicians originating in
ancient Phrygia around the fifth century B.C.E. The number of
members was given differently by different sources. Some said
it equaled the number of fingers on the handsfive male and
five female. Pausanias said five, Perecydes 52 (20 right and 32
left), while Orpheus the Argonaut mentioned a larger number.
The dactyls were magicians, exorcists, conjurers, and soothsayers.
Plutarch said they made their appearance in Italy as sorcerers.
Their mysterious practices threw the people of Samothrace
into consternation. They were credited with the first a
use of minerals and with developing the notes of the musical
scale, as well as with the discovery and use of the Ephesian
mines.
They supposedly introduced fire into Crete and musical instruments
into Greece. They were good runners and dancers
and were skilled in science and learning. They were said by
some to have been the magnetic powers and spirits, whose head
was Hercules.
371
Sources
Eliade, Mircea. Forgerons et Alchimistes. Flammarion, 1965.
Translated as The Forge and the Crucible. New York Harper &
Brothers, 1962.
