Despoina- Greek GodDeity"The Mistress"
Also known as: Despoine and Δέσποινα
Description
Her true name was never written down. Pausanias visited her sanctuary at Lycosura, was initiated into her mysteries, and still would not record it. Daughter of Poseidon and Demeter, she was known to the uninitiated only as Despoina: the Mistress.
Mythology & Lore
The Hidden Goddess
Only initiates at Lycosura learned her true name. To everyone else she was Despoina, "the Mistress," a title that guarded the secret. Pausanias traveled to the sanctuary in Arcadia and underwent the initiation himself. He learned the name. He never wrote it down.
She was conceived in Arcadia, where Poseidon pursued Demeter in the form of a stallion while she had taken the shape of a mare to escape him. From that union came two children: Despoina and the divine horse Areion. Demeter brought her daughter to Lycosura, which Pausanias calls the oldest city in the world, and there mother and daughter were worshipped together.
The Sanctuary at Lycosura
Pausanias describes the sanctuary in detail. Inside the temple sat cult statues of Despoina and Demeter, carved side by side by the sculptor Damophon of Messene. Beside them stood Artemis and the Titan Anytos, who Pausanias says raised Despoina. A Titan nursing a goddess: Arcadian religion kept old traditions. Outside the temple lay a sacred grove, and restrictions governed what worshippers could carry into the precinct. The mysteries themselves Pausanias refused to describe, just as he had refused to write the name.