In Greek mythology, Perse (Ancient Greek: Πέρση, romanized: Pérsē, lit. 'destroyer') or Perseis (Περσηίς, Persēís) is one of the 3,000 Oceanids, fresh water-nymph daughters of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys. Perse married Helios, the god of the Sun, and bore him several children, most notably Circe, the sorceress-goddess of Aeaea.

Family

In the Theogony, an ancient Greek epic poem about the genealogy of the gods, Hesiod included Perse in his list of the 3,000 Oceanids, water-nymphs and daughters of two Titans, Oceanus and Tethys.[1][2][3] Homer also made Perse a child of Oceanus.[4]

Mythology

Perse was one of the wives of the sun god, Helios.[5][6] According to Homer and Hesiod, with Helios she had Circe and Aeëtes,[7] with later authors also mentioning their children Pasiphaë (who was added only later on to Helios' family line and was sometimes daughter of Crete instead),[8] Perses,[9] Aloeus,[10] and even Calypso,[10] who is however more commonly the daughter of Atlas. It is not clear why Perse bore Helios, the source of all light, such dark and mysterious children.[11]

When Aphrodite cursed Helios to fall in love with the mortal princess Leucothoe, he is said to have forgotten about Perse and all his other past lovers.[12] She seems to have been linked to witchcraft and knowledge of herbs and potions, much like her daughter Circe.[13] She might have also been associated with the witchcraft goddess Hecate, who was also called Perseis (as in "daughter of Perses")[14][15] as a mortal priestess of Artemis by the name Hecate is listed as Circe's mother in Diodorus Siculus' account.[16][17]

Possible connections

Perseis' name has been linked to Περσίς (Persís), "female Persian", and πέρθω (pérthō), "destroy" or "slay" or "plunder".[citation needed]

Kerenyi also noted the connection between her and Hecate due to their names, denoting a chthonic aspect of the nymph, as well as that of Persephone, whose name "can be taken to be a longer, perhaps simply a more ceremonious, form of Perse",[18] as did Fowler, who noted that the pairing made sense given Hecate's association with the Moon.[19] It has been suggested that Hecate's "Perseis" epithet denotes lunar connections.[20] However, as Mooney notes, there is no evidence that Perse was ever a moon goddess on her own right.[21]

An inscription of Mycenaean Greek (written in Linear B) was found on a tablet from Pylos, dating back to 1400–1200 BC. John Chadwick reconstructed[n 1] the name of a goddess, *Preswa who could be identified with Perse. Chadwick found speculative the further identification with the first element of Persephone.[23][24]

Genealogy

Perse's family tree
Gaia
Uranus
HyperionTheiaOceanusTethys
HeliosPERSE
CirceAeëtesPasiphaëPersesAloeus

See also

Other nymphs and magic-related figures in Greek mythology:

Footnotes

  1. ↑ The actual word in Linear B is 𐀟𐀩𐁚, pe-re-*82 or pe-re-swa; it is found on the PY Tn 316 tablet.[22]

Notes

  1. ↑ Hesiod, Theogony 356
  2. ↑ Kerényi, Carl (1951). The Gods of the Greeks. London: Thames and Hudson. p. 40.
  3. ↑ Bane, Theresa (2013). Encyclopedia of Fairies in World Folklore and Mythology. McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers. p. 270. ISBN 978-0-7864-7111-9.
  4. ↑ Homer, Odyssey 10.135
  5. ↑ Hecataeus of Miletus, fr. 35A Fowler
  6. ↑ Hard, p. 44
  7. ↑ Homer, Odyssey 10.135; Hesiod, Theogony 956
  8. ↑ Apollonius of Rhodes, 4.591; Apollodorus, 1.9.1; Cicero, De Natura Deorum 48.4
  9. ↑ Hyginus, Fabulae Preface
  10. 1 2 Tzetzes ad Lycophron, 174.
  11. ↑ Bell, s. v. Perse
  12. ↑ Ovid, Metamorphoses 4.205[permanent dead link]
  13. ↑ Ovid, The Cure for Love Part IV
  14. ↑ Apollonius of Rhodes, 3.478
  15. ↑ Johannsen, Nina (2006). "Perse(is)". In Cancik, Hubert; Schneider, Helmuth (eds.). Brill's New Pauly. Translated by Christine F. Salazar. Kiel: Brill Reference Online. doi:10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e914920. Retrieved June 25, 2023.
  16. ↑ Diodorus Siculus, 4.45.1
  17. ↑ The Classical Review vol. 9, p. 391
  18. ↑ Karl Kerenyi, The Gods of the Greeks, 1951, pp 192-193
  19. ↑ Fowler, p. 16, vol. II
  20. ↑ The Classical Review vol. 9, pp 391–392
  21. ↑ Mooney, p. 58
  22. ↑ Raymoure, K.A. "pe-re-*82". Minoan Linear A & Mycenaean Linear B. Deaditerranean. "PY 316 Tn (44)". DĀMOS: Database of Mycenaean at Oslo. University of Oslo.
  23. ↑ Chadwick, John (1976). The Mycenaean World. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. p. 95. ISBN 0-521-29037-6. At Google Books.
  24. ↑ Comments about the goddess pe-re-*82 of Pylos tablet Tn 316, tentatively reconstructed as *Preswa
    "It is tempting to see ... the classical Perse ... daughter of Oceanus ...; whether it may be further identified with the first element of Persephone is only speculative." John Chadwick. Documents in Mycenean Greek. Second Edition

References

allikas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perse_(mythology)