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InGreek mythology, theDactyls orDaktyloi (/ˈdæktɪlz/; fromAncient Greek:ΔάκτυλοιDáktuloi "fingers") were the archaic mythical race of male beings associated with theGreat Mother, whether asCybele orRhea. Their numbers vary, but often they were ten spirit-men so like the threeKorybantes[1] or theCabeiri that they were often interchangeable.[2] The Dactyls were both ancient smiths and healing magicians. In some myths, they are inHephaestus' employ, and they taught metalworking, mathematics, and the alphabet to humans.
WhenAnkhiale knew her time of delivery was come, she went to the Idaean Cave onMount Ida or, alternatively,Psychro Cave on theLasithi Plateau. As she squatted in labor she dug her fingers into the earth (Gaia), which brought forth thesedaktyloi Idaioi (Δάκτυλοι Ἰδαῖοι "Idaean fingers"),[3] thus often ten in number, or sometimes multiplied into a race of ten tens. Three is just as often given as their number. They are sometimes instead numbered as thirty-three.
When Greeks offered a most solemn oath, often they would press their hands against the earth as they uttered it.[citation needed]
The Dactyls of Mount Ida inCrete invented the art of working metals into usable shapes with fire;[4]Walter Burkert surmises that, as the societies of lesser gods mirrored actual cult associations, guilds of smiths corresponded to thedaktyloi in real life.[5] According toHesiod, they also discovered iron in Crete.[6] Three Phrygian Dactyls, in the service of the Great Mother as Adraste (Ἀδράστη), are usually namedAcmon (theanvil),Damnameneus (thehammer), andCelmis (casting). Of Celmis,Ovid (inMetamorphoses iv) made a story that when Rhea was offended at this childhood companion ofZeus, she asked Zeus to turn him to diamond-hardadamant, like a tempered blade. Zeus obliged.Zenobius wrote that Celmis was turned into iron when he offended Rhea.[7]
Later Greek attempts to justify and rationalize the relationships of Dactyls,Curetes, and Corybantes were never fully successful.Strabo says of the mythographers:
"And they suspect that both the Kouretes and theKorybantes were offspring of theDaktyloi Idaioi; at any rate, the first hundred men born in Crete were called Idaian Daktyloi, they say, and these were born of nine Kouretes, for each of these begot ten children who were called Idaian Daktyloi."[8]
TheCabeiri (Ancient Greek:Κάβειροι), whose sacred place was on the island ofSamothrace, were understood byDiodorus Siculus[9] to have been Idaean dactyls who had come west from Phrygia and whose magical practices had made local converts to their secret cult.
An Idaean dactyl namedHerakles (perhaps the earliest embodiment ofthe later hero) originated theOlympic Games by instigating a race among his four "finger" brothers. This Herakles was the "thumb"; his brothers werePaeonius (forefinger),Epimedes (middle finger),Iasius (ring finger/healing finger), andIdaius orAcesides (little finger).[citation needed]
On Rhodes,Telchines were the name given to similarchthonic men, nine in number, remembered by Greeks as dangerousUnderworld smiths and magicians, and multiplied into an entireautochthonous race that had rearedPoseidon but had been supplanted byApollo in hisHelios role.[6]
In Crete, three Dactyls bore names suggestive of healing:Paionios (later associated withAsclepius),Epimedes, andIasios. It was said that they had introduced the smithing of copper and iron. OfIasion it was told (Hesiod,Theogony 970) that he lay withDemeter, a stand-in for Rhea, in a thrice-ploughed field and the Goddess brought forthPloutos, "wealth", in the form of a bountiful harvest.Zeus struck down this impious archaic figure with athunderbolt. This is all of the public version of this myth that survives. Doubtless, initiates must have known more.