#Despoina

[moony-2001]

Hey hey sorry I haven’t updated in a bit, I’ve been busy with life stuff! As an apology, have some more of my interpretations of the Greek goddesses (notes below)

Hestia

- For Hestia I wanted her to be dressed very modestly. I’ve seen a lot of interpretations of Hestia wearing a veil over her face which I liked, but may change in the future for more practical reasons

- I imagine her face is always flushed from tending the fire on Olympus

Hecate

- The reason why Hecate looks like more of a fusion god is because I believe she was an import god by Hesiod. Hesiod’s father was not native to Greece so it is speculated that Hecate (or a goddess very similar to Hecate) and practices of witchcraft were incorporated by Hesiod into the Theogony as an ode to his heritage

- Her eyes are rimmed with kohl and her jewelry is sharp in case she needs to draw blood

- Hecate’s clothing, while Greek in nature, has influences from West and South-East Asia as well since that’s the area where Hesiod’s father hails from

Persephone

- Though not pictured here, Persephone is going to have curly red hair and (of course) lots and lots of freckles

- I wanted her build to be a mix between curvy and stocky. For the story I’m working on, Persephone helps Demeter with work in the mortal realm for several years before getting taken by Hades. I also wanted her build to directly contrast her sister’s build

- Persephone was drawn in garb I imagined her in as Queen of the Underworld. She’s not happy about it

Demeter

- I love big noses. Demeter has a “bigger” nose

- I also wanted to give Demeter high cheekbones like Hera

- I feel like Demeter would often wear clothing suited for field work or labour on a farm perhaps? Basically clothing that’s suited for a goddess but nothing as extravagant as Hera or even Aphrodite

Despoine

- I have 2 versions of Despoine depicted below: pre- kidnapping of Persephone and post- kidnapping of Persephone

- Unfortunately since there’s literally no information on Despoine, I took a lot of artistic liberties with her. I ultimately settled on making her the daughter of Demeter and sister of Arion and Persephone since that version of her best fit with the story I had in mind

- Opposite of Persephone, she’s tall and lanky, but not boney

- Since she’s the daughter of Demeter and Poseidon, I gave her shells and pearls to decorate her pre- kidnapping

- Her post- kidnapping clothing is very modest like Hestia’s. She also currently has a veil to cover her face though that also may change

- I also, like many other people in their artistic interpretations of Despoine, associate her with winter and snow. Note: this is not a confirmed detail about her

[aliciavance4228]

Demeter's children:

[sigyn-foxyposts]

"Demeter and her children"

[duxwriter]

Rough art today, mostly lighting and detail practice.

Pandeia and Despoine for a Hades au I want to make, these are their rough designs

Pandeia (left) and Despoine (right) trapped behind golden curtains

[genericpuff]

Does anyone else wish that more Hades x Persephone stories made use of Despoina, the daughter of Demeter and Poseidon? Some accounts have her as a goddess of winter and it would have been interesting to see how that would have played out.

So I actually have a lot of thoughts on this and it goes beyond Despoina a little bit, but bear with me here because I still think it's worth talking about. Note that I'm obviously not an authoritative figure on this topic, this is simply my two cents based on the research I've done on Despoina, the Eleusinian Mysteries, and the context of The Hymn to Demeter as a whole.

Frankly, I think the reason that the modern retellings of Hades and Persephone don't make more use of Despoina is because we still don't really know a lot about her. Even in my own research of her, from what I've gathered (i.e. I could totally be wrong on this so if I am please send me resources if you have them!!!) the claim that she was the 'goddess of winter' is pretty much on the same level as claiming there's source material about Persephone going down to the Underworld willingly - i.e. it seems like something someone said maybe 20-30 years ago and people just kind of went "yep, that's canon!" and claiming there were sources surrounding it while never actually being able to provide those sources... probably because they don't exist.

In reality we don't know much about Despoina - and thus she tends to not be depicted in these modern retellings - because she's affiliated with The Eleusinian Mysteries which are, well... a mystery! The Mysteries itself was an initiation process for a cult dedicated to Demeter and Persephone, the members within were sworn to secrecy so all of the writings we have about it are pretty minimal and theoretical aside from knowing for a fact they were associated with Demeter, Persephone, and Hecate (and in some versions, Aphrodite). So unless someone who was actually there is able to appear and tell us what the actual fuck was going on behind closed doors, all we have are the word of mouth stories and depictions told through Greek poets such as Callimachus.

By extension, we don't know all that much about Despoina who was strongly connected to the Mysteries. We know she was the offspring of Poseidon and Demeter, we sort of know she's an actual tangible goddess but there are also other works that claim "Despoine" was simply a title within the Mysteries (as it means "the mistress") used to describe certain goddesses such as Persephone, but when it comes to her as a goddess affiliated with winter specifically, really she seems to only be mentioned as a consequential footnote in Demeter's search for Kore (which led to the drought / winter season) and frankly from what I can glean, I think that's the only real 'connection' there is that people tend to conflate as "goddess of winter", because she was born the same time Demeter would have started winter.

But why would there be a goddess of winter, really? In the Mediterranean where it doesn't traditionally snow aside from on mountaintops and at higher altitudes? It does get colder, yes, but Mediterranean winters still tend to be mild and wet, you wouldn't find blistering cold "Canadian" winters in Athens as we imagine them to be when we think of Demeter and the creation of the seasons. Even the notion that Demeter used winter to kill the mortals is told in such a manner to describe the seasons but they don't necessarily mean snow literally, they mean drought, the lack of summer harvest, when Greece would go through periods of drought where harvests were minimal and mortals were at a higher risk of starvation. Remember that these myths still come from a specific regional context so what we call 'winter' isn't precisely the same as what Ancient Greek poets like Homer called 'winter'.

If there was a goddess of winter, it would technically be Demeter, but again, not exactly because it's more the absence of the Mediterranean heat and sun needed to grow the plants they traditionally consumed. The closest thing we know to be a "goddess of winter/snow/frost" with actual text and sources is Khione, a mountain nymph whose name literally translates to 'snow' due to snow being more common in, you guessed it, the mountains of Greece.

Anyways, I'm digressing now, but my point is that a lot of modern retellings frankly struggle to depict Despoina because there just isn't enough on her to know who she was like we have with Demeter and Persephone. She was an enigmatic figure spoken of within cults that kept their information behind closed doors. And a lot of the research that is out there is muddied with made-up headcanon stuff. None of this is to be argumentative, but I did want to talk about it because in all my readings of Despoina (which there are , again, not a lot of!) there just doesn't seem to be anything backing up the claims that she's the goddess of winter and frost, it seems to all just be "well I read it somewhere" only for that 'somewhere' to be a poorly-made Wiki page with no scholarly sources or references, Tumblr posts that also don't have scholarly sources (or are using sources from those aforementioned Wiki pages), or to just not exist, period.

But hey, I'm very aware I could be entirely off base on this; again, if there's actual writings about her being the goddess of winter that I've missed, please by all means send them my way. I'm just really struggling to pull up anything tangible that has her cited as such that isn't rooted in modern day hearsay or fanfiction.

[pastellguts]

Eleusinian fam bein silly

[sarafangirlart]

Greek mythology in a nutshell:

[hermesmoly]

Will we ever know Despoina’s real name…

[0lympian-c0uncil]

Hecate, *filling out legal paperwork*: Were you guys born AMAB or AFAB?

Desponia: Bold of you to assume I was born at all.

Persephone: I personally was created in a lab.

Dionysus: I just straight up spawned lol.

Demeter: It's true. I created them.

[ophii]

Mother and Daughter

guess whos trying out csp!

[acj0fiction]

[balibean]

IM BACK ON MY BSSSS!!!

So a while back i ha this idea to turn sonic characters into Greek gods so let me show you what i decided to do almost two years later

I hope you like them

Ok first up we got Artemis (Sonia) and Apollo (manic)

Next we have the Demeter family we have Demeter (vanilla) persephone (Amy (don’t ask how silver is Zeus)) and finally despoine(cream)

Next Aphrodite (rouge)

And Hephaestus (tales)

Our lovely edgelord hades(shadow)

And finally Dionysus (big)

[aliciavance4228]

Rambling about Despoina, because I have a lot of questions about her and my brain is broken.

Despoina is probably one of the most obscure Goddesses from Greek Mythology. She's considered the Goddess of Arkadian Mysteries, yet at the same time people doubt wheter or not she's a stand-alone deity or just another epithet for another goddess (usually Persephone). To make things even more complicated now, her name isn't actually one. It's an epithet, and "her true name and function were revealed only to the intitiates". "Despoina" was also an epithet used for Demeter and Persephone as well.

Now, there have been made a lot of speculations and assumptions based on the few things that we know about her. The most common theory is that Despoina was in fact the Arcadian equivalent of Persephone, and that Mycenaean Poseidon later got divided into Poseidon and Hades. On short: many people believe that back in the Mycenaean Greece there were Two Goddesses worshipped together as the Two Queens, later refferred to as the Two Mistresses: Demeter and Despoina. It is very likely that both of them are two later versions of two pre-Greek Goddesses of Arcadia. At the same time we have Mycenaean Poseidon, who was not only the god of the sea, but had strong associations with the Underworld as well. He also seemed to be in close connection with the Two Queens and form some sort of a divine trio with them, since he was refferred to as the King. Later, Despoina slowly became Persephone, whereas some of the attributes that were initially associated with Poseidon were taken away from him and used in order to create another god, Hades, because ancient people considered that it's better to have two separate deities for these two different realms. Finally, we're reaching Classic Greek Mythology, where Persephone is the daughter of Demeter and Zeus, Hades is her husband, and Poseidon is the only one of the Big Three who didn't bang her.

This theory is highly accepted because it seems the most plausible one (plus the fact that there aren't enough surviving sources from that time leaves an open door for whatever thoughts could cross people's minds), yet at the same time highly criticized for rightful reasons, such as the fact that there's a chance that Hades might've been an already existing deity in Mycenaean Mythology, but because there are no surviving written works about him from that time there's nothing certain. Another reason is because not everyone considered Despoina to be just an epithet or an older version of Persephone. And by "not everyone" I mean Pausanias:

Pausanias, Description of Greece 8. 25. 5 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :

"When Demeter was wandering in search of her daughter [Persephone], she was followed, it is said, by Poseidon, who lusted after her. So she turned, the story runs, into a mare, and grazed with the mares of Onkios (Oncius) [in Arkadia (Arcadia)]; realising that he was outwitted, Poseidon changed into a stallion and enjoyed Demeter. At first, they say, Demeter was angry at what had happened, but later on she laid aside her wrath and wished to bathe in the Ladon . . . Demeter, they say, had by Poseidon a daughter [Despoine (Despoena)], whose name they are not wont to divulge to the uninitiated, and a horse called Areion (Arion)."

According to him Despoina and Persephone aren’t the same goddess, but two different deities. On top of that, Despoina was conceived during the time when Demeter was searching for Persephone, being youger than her, and has a horse twin brother. Which is very weird, considering the fact that Pausanias wrote this about 800 years after Homeric Hymns to Demeter, and this is the only source that states that Despoina and Persephone are two different goddesses.

Here's another fragment:

Pausanias, Description of Greece 8. 37. 1 - 8. 38. 2 :

Despoine the Arkadians worship more than any other god, declaring that she is a daughter of Poseidon and Demeter. Despoine (Mistress) is her surname among the many, just as they surname Demeter's daughter by Zeus Kore (Core, the Maid). But whereas the real name of Kore (the Maid) is Persephone, as Homer and Pamphos before him say in their poems, the real name of Despoine (the Mistress) I am afraid to write to the uninitiated.

Here he states that Despoina is her surname (just how Kore is a surname for Persephone). But while we do know that Kore is Persephone, Despoina's real name still remains a secret. What is really weird here is... why would they be afraid to say her real name in the first place? We know for a matter of fact that Ancient Greeks were usually scared of saying the real names of the Underworld deities. Hades for example is always refferred to by lots of epithets and euphemisms, because people believed that by saying or writing his real name they would arouse his wrath. In this case then Despoina could be a chtonic deity as well, yet her affiliations with the Underworld are unclear, if they really exist.

But then, if Despoina would be a chtonic goddess, and she isn't Persephone, then who else could she be?

Pausanias, Description of Greece 8. 37. 1 - 8. 38. 2 :

"From Akakesion (Acacesium) [in Arkadia (Arcadia)] it is four stades to the sanctuary of Despoine (Despoena, the Mistress). First in this place is a temple of Artemis Hegemone (Leader) [probably Hekate (Hecate)], with a bronze image, holding torches, which I conjecture to be about six feet high. From this place there is an entrance into the sacred enclosure of Despoine.

[...]

Demeter carries a torch in her right hand; her other hand she has laid upon Despoine. Despoine has on her knees a staff and what is called the box, which she holds in her right hand. On both sides of the throne are images. By the side of Demeter stands Artemis [probably here identified with Hekate] wrapped in the skin of a deer, and carrying a quiver on her shoulders, while in one hand she holds a torch, in the other two serpents; by her side a bitch, of a breed suitable for hunting, is lying down.

Judging by these two experts, there is a small, vague chance that Despoina might be strongly identified with Hecate. Besides the fact that Despoina was one of Hecate's epithets as well, she was sometimes considered to be the daughter of Demeter. Hecate also plays a major role in Homeric Hymns to Demeter, and near the end of the myth she becomes Persephone's attendant and substitute queen. On top of that, Hecate shares some similarities with Poseidon, especially in Hesiod's Theogeny: ". . . and to those whose business is the in the gray discomfortable sea, and who pray to Hecate and the loud crashing Earth-Shaker, easily the glorious goddess gives great catch and easily she gives it away. . .”

Another possibility is that Despoina was supposed at one point to have a symbolic value above it all and/or to be a concept rather than a physical goddess, since "Despoina" literally means "Mistress", Persephone was refferred to as Kore ("Maiden") during her time with her mother, and while we don't know for sure what is "Demeter" supposed to mean, the "'-meter" part most probably means "mother". Which suggests that Persephone, Despoina and Demeter were probably supposed to be some sort of a Maiden/Mistress/Mother trio.

[albinoshepard]

N7 Month Challenge 2023

Day #04: Dive

Prompt List - @n7month

🎮 Mᴀss Eғғᴇᴄᴛ 3 Lᴇɢᴇɴᴅᴀʀʏ Eᴅɪᴛɪᴏɴ ℹ️ PʟᴀʏSᴛᴀᴛɪᴏɴ 4 | Lɪɢʜᴛʀᴏᴏᴍ

[duxwriter]

A more human looking Persephone and Despoina

I decided id keep the "made from the earth" aspect of Persephone and have her more the colors of clay and earth while Despoina is more deep sea and salt washed

I had a lot of fun doing this

[helihi]

The Chthonic & Miscellaneous Gods I’m the Dungeon Master of a Graeco-roman inspired dnd campaign called Champions of Olympia! Commissions The Olympians

I decided to do artwork for all the gods for my players. For this, I did a ton of research of the Greek mythology with some extra Roman add-ons since the campaign focuses on gladiators and the Coloseum. I also drew inspiration from Stray Gods, Hades, God of War, Hadestown and some YouTube channels who discuss Greek myths.