Despoina, also spelled Despoena, was a goddess worshipped in the ancient Greek mystery religions of Arcadia. Sources describe her as the daughter of Demeter and Poseidon and the twin sister of the horse Arion, born of the union of Poseidon and Demeter in the local myth of the region. She is known to surviving sources only by the title Despoina, meaning the Mistress, a cognate of the word despot, because her true name was kept secret and revealed only to initiates of her mysteries. With the decline of those mystery cults in antiquity, her actual name was lost, and her worship is remembered chiefly through her Arcadian sanctuary and its associated rites. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
Attestation
Era of Attestation Veneration TodayHistorically attested; no continuous cult 3 HistoricityNot a historical person: a divine or other-than-human being 1 Belief
TheologyPolytheistic: many gods 1 Function
Domain / FunctionAwakening and liberation 1 Sources
1. The Facts on File Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend
Anthony S. Mercatante, revised and expanded by James R. Dow, Facts on File
2. Despoina, Structured Record (Wikidata Q)
3. The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 4th edition
Simon Hornblower, Antony Spawforth and Esther Eidinow (eds.), Oxford University Press, 2012Despoina, Arcadian cult inscriptionsView the Source Wikipedia, "Despoina"
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