Damaris was converted by the preaching of St. Paul at Athens (Acts 17:34). The name is probably a corruption of Damalis (‘heifer’), a popular name among the Greeks. St. Chrysostom (de Sacerd. iv. 7) makes Damaris the wife of Dionysius the Areopagite, as does the Latin of Codex E (‘cum uxore suo’), though the Greek has only ‘a woman.’ W. M. Ramsay (St. Paul, 1895, p. 252) suggests that she was one of the educated ἑταίραι. She seems to have been a person of some importance, since her name is mentioned, and it is open to doubt whether a prominent Athenian woman would have been present. Codex Bezae omits all reference to her.
Literature.-F. Blass, Com. in loc.; W. M. Ramsay, The Church in the Roman Empire, London, 1892 p. 161; J. Felten, Apostelgeschichte, Freiburg i. B., 1892, p. 337.
F. W. Worsley.