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Damaris was converted by the preaching of St. Paul at Athens (Act_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 ἑôáßñáé . 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.