In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Demeter is the Olympian goddess of the harvest and agriculture, presiding over crops, grains, food, and the fertility of the earth. Although she is mostly known as a grain goddess, she also appeared as a goddess of health, birth, and marriage, and had connections to the Underworld. She is also called Deo. In Greek tradition, Demeter is the second child of the Titans Rhea and Cronus, and sister to Hestia, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus. Like her other siblings but Zeus, she was swallowed by her father as an infant and rescued by Zeus.
Poseidon is one of the Twelve Olympians in ancient Greek religion and mythology, presiding over the sea, storms, earthquakes and horses. He was the protector of seafarers and the guardian of many Hellenic cities and colonies. In pre-Olympian Bronze Age Greece, Poseidon was venerated as a chief deity at Pylos and Thebes, with the cult title "earth shaker"; in the myths of isolated Arcadia, he is related to Demeter and Persephone and was venerated as a horse, and as a god of the waters. Poseidon maintained both associations among most Greeks: he was regarded as the tamer or father of horses, who, with a strike of his trident, created springs. His Roman equivalent is Neptune.
In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Persephone, also called Kore or Cora, is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter. She became the queen of the underworld after her abduction by her uncle Hades, the king of the underworld, who would later also take her into marriage.
In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Hestia is the virgin goddess of the hearth and the home. In myth, she is the firstborn child of the Titans Cronus and Rhea, and one of the Twelve Olympians.
Rhea or Rheia is a mother goddess in ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Titaness daughter of the earth goddess Gaia and the sky god Uranus, himself a son of Gaia. She is the older sister of Cronus, who was also her consort, and the mother of the five eldest Olympian gods and Hades, king of the underworld.
The Gorgons, in Greek mythology, are three female monsters, Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa, sisters who were able to turn anyone who looked at them to stone. Euryale and Stheno were immortal, but Medusa was not and was slain by the hero Perseus.
Hygieia is a goddess from Greek mythology. Hygieia is a goddess of health, cleanliness and hygiene. Her name is the source for the word "hygiene".
Anytos or Anytus was one of the Titans of Greek mythology. He was supposed to have raised Despoina, and in Arcadia during Pausanias' time the two were represented by statues in a temple near Acacesium.
Damophon was an ancient Greek sculptor of the Hellenistic period from Messene, known for his many acroliths found in Messene, Megalopolis, Aegium, Lycosura and other cities of Peloponnesus. Other cities beyond the Peloponnese that Damophon was admired include: the Leucas, Cephallenia, Kynthos, Melos and Oiantheia.
Eurynome was a deity of ancient Greek religion worshipped at a sanctuary near the confluence of rivers called the Neda and the Lymax in classical Peloponnesus. She was represented by a statue of what we would call a mermaid. Tradition, as reported by the Greek traveller, Pausanias, identified her with the Oceanid, or "daughter of Ocean", of Greek poetry.
Arcadia is a region in the central Peloponnese. It takes its name from the mythological character Arcas, and in Greek mythology it was the home of the gods Hermes and Pan. In European Renaissance arts, Arcadia was celebrated as an unspoiled, harmonious wilderness; as such, it was referenced in popular culture.
Potnia is an Ancient Greek word for "Mistress, Lady" and a title of a goddess. The word was inherited by Classical Greek from Mycenean Greek with the same meaning and it was applied to several goddesses. A similar word is the title Despoina, "the mistress", which was given to the nameless chthonic goddess of the mysteries of Arcadian cult. She was later conflated with Kore (Persephone), "the maiden", the goddess of the Eleusinian Mysteries, in a life-death rebirth cycle which leads the neophyte from death into life and immortality. Karl Kerenyi identifies Kore with the nameless "Mistress of the labyrinth", who probably presided over the palace of Knossos in Minoan Crete.
Lycosura was a city in the ancient Parrhasia region of south Arcadia said by Pausanias to be the oldest city in the world, although there is no evidence for its existence before the fourth century BCE. Its current significance is chiefly associated with the sanctuary of the goddess Despoina, which contained a colossal sculptural group that Pausanias wrote was made by Damophon of Messene. This group comprises acrolithic-technique statues of Despoina and Demeter seated on a throne, with statues of Artemis and the Titan Anytos standing on either side of them – all in Pentelic marble. The dates of both the temple and the sculptural group have occasioned some dispute. Remains of a stoa, altars, and other structures have been found at the site as well. The Sanctuary of Despoina at Lycosoura is located 9 km WSW of Megalopolis, 6.9 km SSE of Mount Lykaion, and 160 km SW of Athens. There is a small museum at the archaeological site housing small finds as well as part of the cult group, while the remains of the cult statues of Despoina and Demeter are displayed at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens.
Despoina or Despoena was the epithet of a goddess worshiped by the Eleusinian Mysteries in Ancient Greece as the daughter of Demeter and Poseidon and the sister of Arion. Surviving sources refer to her exclusively under the title Despoina alongside her mother Demeter, as her real name could not be revealed to anyone except those initiated into her mysteries and was consequently lost with the extinction of the Eleusinian religion. Writing during the second century A.D., Pausanias spoke of Demeter as having two daughters; Kore being born first, before Despoina was born, with Zeus being the father of Kore and Poseidon as the father of Despoina. Pausanias made it clear that Kore is Persephone, although he did not reveal Despoina's proper name.
In Greek mythology and ancient religion, Nike; Ancient Greek: Νίκη, romanized: Nike, lit. 'victory'; pronounced[nǐː.kɛː], modern: ) is the goddess who personifies victory in any field including art, music, war, and athletics. She is often portrayed in Greek art as Winged Victory in the motion of flight; however, she can also appear without wings as "Wingless Victory" when she is being portrayed as an attribute of another deity such as Athena.
Parrhasia was a region in south Arcadia, Greece. Parrhasius, son of Lycaon gave it his name.
The religious element is difficult to identify in Mycenaean Greece, especially as regards archaeological sites, where it remains very problematic to pick out a place of worship with certainty. John Chadwick points out that at least six centuries lie between the earliest presence of Proto-Greek speakers in Hellas and the earliest inscriptions in the Mycenaean script known as Linear B, during which concepts and practices will have fused with indigenous Pre-Greek beliefs, and—if cultural influences in material culture reflect influences in religious beliefs—with Minoan religion. As for these texts, the few lists of offerings that give names of gods as recipients of goods reveal little about religious practices, and there is no other surviving literature.
Elissonas is a river in Greece, in the central part of the Peloponnese peninsula, in Arcadia, the right tributary of the Alfeios. It takes its source on the western slopes of the Menalon Mountains, northwest of Tripolis. It flows into Alfeios near the city of Megalopolis. Known in antiquity as Helisson. Pausanias reports that the river takes its source from the city of the same name, founded by Helisson, the son of Lycaon. From the son of Lycaon, the city and the river were named. Divided the ancient Megalopolis into two parts. Forms the gorge of Barmbutsana, also known by this name. Above the gorge between the villages of Arakhamites and Vangos there is a stone bridge of the 19th century.
The Arcadian Cults of the Mistresses are ancient cults that were practised in the region of Arcadia. Religious cults across Greece took on regional characteristics according to their location. As such, though the Arcadian Mistresses, Demeter and Kore, were worshipped elsewhere in Greece, their worship in Arcadia was distinctive to the region, with the third Arcadian Mistress, Despoina, being a goddess whose cults were geographically limited to Arcadia.
The Lycosoura Artemis is the remnant of a colossal sculpture of Artemis, created in the Hellenistic period and discovered in Lycosura, present day Arcadia, Greece.
