Talk:Demetrius I Poliorcetes

Poliorcetes/Orcetes

Am I right in thinking Poliorcetes specifically means "besieger of cities" and that "Orcetes" means "besieger"? Orcetes is the Greek name of a Persian governor of Ionia and Lydia under Cyrus, who resided at Magnesia on the Maeander and figures in Herodotus. At Sardis he crucified Polycrates the Samian. --Wetman 19:27, 5 June 2007 (UTC)

The word is composed of πόλις (polis, city), ἕρκος (herkos, fence), and -ητης (-etes, -er), i.e. someone who builds a fence around a city (so that no one can get out). Furius (talk) 10:49, 5 May 2019 (UTC)

Plutarch's Questionable stories

I would like to point out that while Plutarch is often one of the few sources regarding this period, this does not mean we should take everything he says as fact. Plutarch was well known for spinning and even inventing stories within his works regarding specific individuals to paint them a certain way and as a way of showing a "moral lesson". Therefore much of the ill-deeds attributed to Demetrius that are solely sourced by Plutarch should, in my opinion, either be A) moved to an apocryphal section (my preference) or B) removed (would rather not do).

As it is these are all taken as fact when they are not so. 147.26.251.150 (talk) 20:09, 2 May 2019 (UTC)

I share your concern, but just because Plutarch is sometimes unreliable (and he does claim that truth is important to him), doesn't mean that everything he reports is untrue. The whole point of his work is that these moral lessons carry weight because they are drawn from the lives of real people. The association with Dionysos is affirmed by epigraphic evidence, the ithyphallic hymn survives in full. One would need to go through current scholarly works on Demetrios and make use of them as the basis for consigning any specific things to the apocryphal section.

A separate article on the Lives of Demetrios and Antony might also be a fine thing. Furius (talk) 10:56, 5 May 2019 (UTC)

Date of Birth

Something appears to be wrong with Demetrius's date of birth on this page. The page says he was born in 357 BCE, but then mentions that he is only 22 when he debuts as a general. I'm assuming that the correct date of birth would be somewhere around the 330s BCE. Can anyone fix this? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.236.210.152 (talk) 19:11, 11 May 2022 (UTC)

You’re right. Something was wrong. Demetrius was born on 337 BC, not 357. Someone changed it to 357 on April 10 of this year. I changed it back. Charwood12 (talk) 18:04, 12 May 2022 (UTC)