(i.e. the Fingers of Mount Ida), fabulous beings, regarding whom there are various accounts. The Cretans rendered them divine worship as the persons who had nursed and brought up the god Jupiter; and hence they have been identified with the Corybantes and Curetes. Strabo, however, relates, that the tradition in Phrygia was, that the Curetes and Corybantes were descendants of the Dactyli Idei; that there were originally a hundred men in the island who were called Dactyli Idei, from whom sprang nine Curetes, and each of these nine produced ten men, as many as the fingers of a man's two hands; and that this gave the name to the ancestors of the Dactyli Idei. He also mentions another opinion, namely, that there were five Dactyli Idei, who, according to Sophocles, were the inventors of iron; that these five brothers had five sisters, and that from this number they received the name of Fingers of Mount Ida, because they were ten in number, and worked at the foot of this mountain. Diodorus Siculus, however, represents the matter a little differently. He says that the first inhabitants of the land of Crete were the Dactyli Idei, who had their residence on Mount Ida; that some said they were a hundred, others only five in number, equal to the fingers of a man's hand, whence they had the name of Dactyls; that they were magicians and addicted to mystical ceremonies; that Orpheus was their disciple, and carried their mysteries into Greece, &c. Other accounts are given by other ancient authors. See CORYBANTES, &c.