Diocles
Διοκλῆς
(Διοκλῆς).
1. A brave Athenian, who lived in exile at Megara. Once in a battle he protected with his shield a youth whom he loved, but he lost his own life in consequence. The Megarians rewarded the gallant man with the honours of a hero, and instituted the festival of the Diocleia, which they celebrated in the spring of every year. (Theocrit. 12.27, &c.; Aristoph. Ach. 774; Plut. Thes. 10; Dict. of Ant. s. v. Διόκλεια.)
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.