Editing Damon and Pythias (section)

==Idiomatic use==
"Damon and Pythias" came to be an idiomatic expression for "true friendship."

* [[Denis Diderot]]'s [[short story]], "The Two Friends from Bourbonne" (1770), begins: "There used to be two men here who might be called the Damon and Pythias of Bourbonne."  
* In ''[[The Small House at Allington]]'' (1864) by [[Anthony Trollope]], the Countess De Courcy teases the young Adolphus Crosbie for a long stay in the country with his friend Bernard Dale by remarking, "Quite a case of Damon and Pythias."  
* The canines [[Bummer and Lazarus]] were eulogized as "the Damon and Pythias of San Francisco" upon Bummer's death in 1865.<ref>{{cite web
| url        = http://www.oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/tf8n39p5k3/?layout=metadata
| title      = Bummer and Lazarus/The Damon and Pythias of San Francisco
| date       = 1865
| access-date = 2014-09-07
}}</ref>  
* In [[Robert Louis Stevenson]]'s [[novella]] ''[[Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde]]'', Henry Jekyll's two oldest friends, Dr. Lanyon and Mr. Utterson (a lawyer), have an exchange while discussing Dr. Jekyll's apparent self-imposed isolation. In the discussion (below), the use of the Damon-and-Pythias idiom would seem to indicate that, whether the difference was on a point of science or something else, it was not "only" some trivial difference:
 
<blockquote>...said Utterson. "I thought you had a common bond of interest".

"We had", was the reply. "But it is more than ten years since Henry Jekyll became too fanciful for me.  He began to go wrong, wrong in the mind... Such unscientific balderdash", said the doctor, flushing suddenly purple, "would have estranged Damon and Pythias".

This little spirit of temper was somewhat of a relief to Mr. Utterson. "They have only differed on some point of science", he thought...</blockquote>

* Chapter Two (titled "Damon and Pythias") of [[Gustave Flaubert]]'s 1869 novel ''[[Sentimental Education]]'' tells of the friendship of Frederick Moreau and Charles Deslauriers.
* The 1889 novel ''[[A Marriage Below Zero]]'' by Alfred J. Cohen (pen name: Alan Dale) has a young gay couple continually referring to themselves as Damon and Pythias. Soon the upscale social world that they try pass in begins to refer to them with the same term, but as a derogatory codeword for 'gay couple.'
* [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]]'s [[Hamlet]] addresses his close friend Horatio as "O Damon dear."
* In the novel ''[[Little Men]]'' by [[Louisa M. Alcott]] (1871), Chapter 14 is entitled "Damon and Pythias". This is a reference to two of the characters, Nat and Dan. Early in the book, Nat is responsible for introducing Dan to the school which is the setting of the novel. Later, when Nat is falsely accused of theft, Dan stands by him and then later takes responsibility for the theft himself, saying that he could bear the mistrust and anger of the other boys more easily than his weaker friend. In fact, neither boy is guilty, and they are later cleared of involvement.
* Two clerks arrested for drunk and disorderly conduct in [[Charles Dickens]]'s story "Making a Night of It" (in ''[[Sketches by Boz]]'') allude to Damon and Pythias.
* In ''[[A Bell for Adano (novel)|A Bell for Adano]]'', by [[John Hersey]], Captain Purvis's and Mayor Joppolo's friendship is compared to the friendship of Damon and Pythias because they dated sisters.
* In 1895, [[Jack London]] used Damon and Pythias as the nicknames of the two main characters in "Who Believes in Ghosts!"
* In the 1940 movie ''[[The Philadelphia Story (film)|The Philadelphia Story]]'', Tracy Lord ([[Katharine Hepburn]]) remarks, with great irony, that C. K. Dexter Haven ([[Cary Grant]]) and George Kittredge ([[John Howard (American actor)|John Howard]]) are just like Damon and Pythias.
* During World War II, [[North American P-51 Mustang|P-51]] fighter pilots Major [[Dominic Salvatore Gentile]] (1920–1951) and his wingman Captain [[John T. Godfrey]] (1922–1958), both of the [[4th Fighter Group]], were referred to as "Damon and Pythias". This remarkable team destroyed over 50 German aircraft.<ref>''Great American Fighter Pilots of World War II'' by Robert D. Loomis, p. 180, Landmark Books, copyright 1961, {{LCCN|61-7780}}.</ref>
* In the 1950 [[The Bowery Boys|Bowery Boys]] movie ''[[Blonde Dynamite]]'', the boys establish a male escort service out of their foil Louie's ice cream parlor while they have conveniently sent him to Coney Island on vacation; Slip Mahoney ([[Leo Gorcey]]) tells the other boys to "Let Damon and Pythias fight it out!"—meaning to let Sach ([[Huntz Hall]]) and Whitey (Billy Benedict) fight to see which would be included in a group date with a bevy of femmes fatale.
* [[Jim Kjelgaard]]'s 1957 novel ''Double Challenge'' names two trophy whitetail bucks as Damon and Pythias in the rurals of Pennsylvania.
* In season 2, episode 32 (aired May 7, 1959) of ''[[Leave It to Beaver]]'', "Friendship", Ward Cleaver uses it as a reference to his sons, due to Beaver having an argument with his friend Larry Mondello.
* In the 1971 [[P. G. Wodehouse]] novel ''[[Much Obliged, Jeeves]]'', [[Bertie Wooster]] tells his Aunt Dahlia that at Oxford, his friendship with Ginger Winship was comparable to that of Damon and Pythias. It is not the author's only usage of the reference, as it crops up when introducing the central characters of his 1919 story [[The Clicking of Cuthbert|"A Woman Is Only a Woman"]], whose friendship is compared to them as well.
* In Episode 8, season 1 of ''[[Peter Gunn]]'', a character describes his friendship for the murder victim by saying that people referred to them as "Damon and what's-his-name."
* In a 1997 episode of the TV series ''[[Highlander: The Series|Highlander]]'' entitled "A Modern Prometheus," a character portraying Lord Byron mentions Damon and Pythias before he jumps with another man to their "death."
* In Season 9, Episode 22 of ''[[Law & Order]]'', "Admissions", ADA Carmichael used the reference to describe the relationship between two graduate students who were covering each other in the murder of a fellow female student.
* In the Anthony Trollope novel ''The Three Clerks'', when two of the clerks have a falling out he says, "Damon and Pythias [were] no longer; that war waged between them."
* In the western movie ''[[Showdown (1973 film)|Showdown]]'' (1973), Childhood friends Billy Massey ([[Dean Martin]]) and Chuck Jarvis ([[Rock Hudson]]) go in opposite directions after Chuck ends up married to Billy's former sweetheart, Kate ([[Susan Clark]]). Billy becomes a train robber, Chuck a sheriff. But they end up joining forces against common enemies in a final SHOWDOWN. A series of life circumstances put two close childhood friends pitted against each other. The seemingly inevitable ending takes a twist that allows the friendship to continue after Billy commits an act of bravery that he knows is suicidal but saves Chuck's life. Kate (Susan Clark) refers to Chuck and Billy's friendship as that of Damon and Pythias.