Despoina
Despoina ( Greek Δέσποινα , "mistress" or "mistress") is one of the deities of the Eleusis mysteries in Greek mythology .
Pausanias reports that Demeter was lustfully pursued by her brother Poseidon when she wandered mournfully in search of her daughter Persephone, who had been abducted by Hades . To avoid the harassment, she transformed into a mare and mingled with the herd of Onkios , a mythical king in the Arcadian Onkeion , whereupon Poseidon transformed into a stallion and mated her. The result of this connection were the immortal stallion Areion and Despoina, whose name could only be mentioned to the initiated, ie Despoina was (like Kore for Persephone) actually only a nickname. To the uninitiated, Pausanias did not dare to give the real name of Despoina.
Elsewhere, Pausanias says about a cave in a mountain called Elaios near Phigalia that, according to the residents of the city, Demeter, angry about the rape, dressed in black (appeared as Demeter Melaina "black Demeter") and stayed in this cave for a long time so that no one could find them until Pan, roaming Arcadia, discovered them. Since no crops grew during that time, the human race was starving. Zeus therefore sent the Moiren to Demeter, who could finally persuade them to overcome their anger. The inhabitants of Phigalia therefore held the cave sacred to Demeter and placed an image in it that showed the goddess sitting with a horse's head, from which snakes and other animals came. She held a pigeon in one hand and a dolphin in the other. But why the goddess was portrayed in this way should be clear to anyone who is only a little familiar with the traditions, said Pausanias at this point. An oak grove and a spring are also there.
Demeter and Persephone were worshiped together as the Desponai in Olympia , where they had an altar outside the Altis. Demeter and Despoina also shared a sanctuary in Lykosura , in the description of which Pausanias mentions a statue of the goddesses Demeter and Despoina sitting on thrones, a work of Damophon von Messene , parts of which are still preserved. Demeter carries a torch in one hand, the other rests on Despoina, who has a staff on her knees, and the mystical Cista , who she holds in her right hand. Artemis stands by Demeter's side . She wears a deer skin and a quiver. In one hand she held a torch like Demeter, in the other two snakes and at her feet lies a hunting dog. Next to Despoina is the titan Anytos , who was Despoina's educator. He wears a breastplate and a lance. In front of the entrance to the temple were three altars for Demeter, Despoina and the Mater megale , the " Great Mother of the Gods".
In the actual meaning of the word “mistress” or “mistress”, Despoina appears both as an epithet of goddesses such as Athene, Artemis, Demeter, Persephone or Hecate, as well as to designate the wife of a ruler and hostess, e.g. As is Penelope in the Odyssey of Homer also Despoina called.
literature
- Georg Steinhauer: Despoina . In: Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC). Volume III, Zurich / Munich 1986, pp. 383-384.
- Heinrich Wilhelm Stoll : Despoina . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 1, Leipzig 1, Sp. 993 f. ( [1 digitized copy] ).
- Otto Kern : Despoina . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume V, 1, Stuttgart 1903, Col. 252-254.
Web links
- Despoine in the Theoi Project (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Pausania's description of Greece 8.25.5
- ↑ Pausania's description of Greece 8.42.1
- ↑ Pausania's description of Greece 5.15.4
- ↑ Pausania's description of Greece 8.37.1-8.38.2
- ↑ Aristophanes The Knights 763
- ↑ Aeschylus fragment 188
- ↑ Aristophanes Die Thesmophoriazusen 266
- ↑ Homeric Hymn to Demeter 366
- ↑ Aeschylus, Fragment 216
- ↑ 3.403, 7.347