Melinoë (; grc, Μηλινόη ) is a
chthonic
The word chthonic (), or chthonian, is derived from the Ancient Greek word ''χθών, "khthon"'', meaning earth or soil. It translates more directly from χθόνιος or "in, under, or beneath the earth" which can be differentiated from Γῆ ...
nymph
A nymph ( grc, νύμφη, nýmphē, el, script=Latn, nímfi, label=Modern Greek; , ) in ancient Greek folklore is a minor female nature deity. Different from Greek goddesses, nymphs are generally regarded as personifications of nature, are ty ...
or goddess invoked in one of the
Orphic Hymns
Orpheus (; Ancient Greek: Ὀρφεύς, classical pronunciation: ; french: Orphée) is a Thracian bard, legendary musician and prophet in ancient Greek religion. He was also a renowned poet and, according to the legend, travelled with Jason ...
and represented as a bringer of nightmares and madness. The name also appears on a metal tablet in association with
Persephone
In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Persephone ( ; gr, Περσεφόνη, Persephónē), also called Kore or Cora ( ; gr, Κόρη, Kórē, the maiden), is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter. She became the queen of the underworld after ...
. The hymns are of uncertain date but were probably composed in the 2nd or 3rd century AD. In the hymn, Melinoë has characteristics that seem similar to
Hecate
Hecate or Hekate, , ; grc-dor, Ἑκάτᾱ, Hekátā, ; la, Hecatē or . is a goddess in ancient Greek religion and mythology, most often shown holding a pair of torches, a key, snakes, or accompanied by dogs, and in later periods depicte ...
and the
Erinyes
The Erinyes ( ; sing. Erinys ; grc, Ἐρινύες, pl. of ), also known as the Furies, and the Eumenides, were female chthonic deities of vengeance in ancient Greek religion and mythology. A formulaic oath in the ''Iliad'' invokes ...
, and the name is sometimes thought to be an
epithet
An epithet (, ), also byname, is a descriptive term (word or phrase) known for accompanying or occurring in place of a name and having entered common usage. It has various shades of meaning when applied to seemingly real or fictitious people, di ...
of Hecate. The terms in which Melinoë is described are typical of
moon goddesses in Greek poetry.
Name
''Melinoë'' may derive from Greek ''mēlinos'' (μήλινος), "having the colour of
quince
The quince (; ''Cydonia oblonga'') is the sole member of the genus ''Cydonia'' in the Malinae subtribe (which also contains apples and pears, among other fruits) of the Rosaceae family (biology), family. It is a deciduous tree that bears hard ...
", from ''mēlon'' (μῆλον), "tree fruit". The fruit's yellowish-green colour evoked the pallor of illness or death for the Greeks. A name derived from ''melas,'' "black", would be ''melan-'', not ''mēlin-''.
[Morand, p. 182.]
Hymn
![Adolf Hiremy-Hirschl, Die Seelen des Acheron](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b6/Adolf_Hiremy-Hirschl%2C_Die_Seelen_des_Acheron.jpg)
Following is the translation by
Apostolos Athanassakis Apostolos N. Athanassakis ( el, Αποστολος Αθανασάκης) is a classical scholar and formerly Argyropoulos Chair in Hellenic Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). Professor Athanassakis, or "Professor A" as he ...
and Benjamin M. Wolkow, of the hymn to Melinoe:
I call upon Melinoe, saffron-cloaked nymph of the earth,
whom revered Persephone bore by the mouth of the Kokytos river
upon the sacred bed of Kronian Zeus.
In the guise of Plouton Zeus tricked Persephone and through wiley plots bedded her;
a two-bodied specter sprang forth from Persephone's fury.
This specter drives mortals to madness with her airy apparitions
as she appears in weird shapes and strange forms,
now plain to the eye, now shadowy, now shining in the darkness—
all this in unnerving attacks in the gloom of night.
O goddess, O queen of those below, I beseech you
to banish the soul's frenzy to the ends of the earth,
show to the initiates a kindly and holy face.
Birth
Melinoë is the daughter of Persephone and was fathered by Zeus, whom he tricked by taking the form of Hades via "wily plots", indicating that in the hymn Persephone is already married to Hades. This is paralleled with another Orphic myth, the birth of Melinoë's brother
Zagreus
In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Zagreus ( grc-gre, Ζαγρεύς) was sometimes identified with a god worshipped by the followers of Orphism, the "first Dionysus", a son of Zeus and Persephone, who was dismembered by the Titans and reb ...
, who was conceived when Zeus, disguised as a serpent, deceived and mated with Persephone.
A major contributory factor surrounding Melinoe's birth is the fact that Hades and Zeus were, at times, syncretised with each other. The Orphics in particular believed that Zeus and Hades were the same deity and portrayed them as such. Zeus was portrayed as having an incarnation in the underworld identifying him as literally being Hades and leading to Zeus and Hades essentially being two representations and different facets of the same god and extended divine power. The Orphic Hymn to Melinoë also references this by mentioning that Persephone was impregnated upon the bed of Zeus Kronion in the Underworld by the River Cocytus. The hymn regarding Zeus taking on the form of Plouton before impregnating Persephone was very much related to the very nature of the way the gods were portrayed and worshiped in the Orphic Religion, as well as be the explanation for why both Hades and Zeus are considered to be the father of Melinoë; moreover it is believed that Persephone's resulting anger is derived from several things: the separation from her mother,
the loss of her virginity, and the fact she had been impregnated, thus bearing children from that union.
Melinoë is born at the mouth of the
Cocytus
Cocytus or Kokytos ( grc, Κωκυτός, literally "lamentation") is the river of wailing in the underworld in Greek mythology. Cocytus flows into the river Acheron, on the other side of which lies Hades, the underworld, the mythological abo ...
, one of the rivers of the
underworld
The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underworld.
...
, where
Hermes
Hermes (; grc-gre, Ἑρμῆς) is an Olympian deity in ancient Greek religion and mythology. Hermes is considered the herald of the gods. He is also considered the protector of human heralds, travellers, thieves, merchants, and orato ...
in his
underworld aspect as
psychopomp
Psychopomps (from the Greek word , , literally meaning the 'guide of souls') are supernatural creatures, spirits, entities, angels, demons or deities in many religions whose responsibility is to escort newly deceased souls from Earth to the afte ...
was stationed. In the Orphic tradition, the Cocytus is one of four underworld rivers.
Although some
Greek myths
A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities of de ...
deal with themes of incest, in Orphic genealogies lines of kinship express theological and
cosmogonical
Cosmogony is any model concerning the origin of the cosmos or the universe.
Overview
Scientific theories
In astronomy, cosmogony refers to the study of the origin of particular astrophysical objects or systems, and is most commonly used i ...
concepts, not the realities of human family relations. The ancient Greek ''nymphē'' in the first line can mean "
nymph
A nymph ( grc, νύμφη, nýmphē, el, script=Latn, nímfi, label=Modern Greek; , ) in ancient Greek folklore is a minor female nature deity. Different from Greek goddesses, nymphs are generally regarded as personifications of nature, are ty ...
", but also "bride" or "young woman".
Thus Melinoë is described as such not in order to be designated as a divinity of lower status, but rather as a young woman of marriageable age; the same word is applied to Hecate and
Tethys (a
Titaness
In Greek mythology, the Titans ( grc, οἱ Τῑτᾶνες, ''hoi Tītânes'', , ''ho Tītân'') were the pre-Olympian gods. According to the ''Theogony'' of Hesiod, they were the twelve children of the primordial parents Uranus (Sky) and Ga ...
) in their own Orphic hymns. As an underworld "queen" ''(Basileia)'', Melinoë is at least partially
syncretized with Persephone herself.
Attributes and functions
Melinoë is described in the invocation of the Orphic Hymn as ''κροκόπεπλος (krokopeplos),'' "clad in saffron" (see ''
peplos
A peplos ( el, ὁ πέπλος) is a body-length garment established as typical attire for women in ancient Greece by circa 500 BC, during the late Archaic and Classical period. It was a long, rectangular cloth with the top edge folded down a ...
''), an epithet in ancient Greek poetry for moon goddesses. In the hymns, only two goddesses are described as ''krokopeplos,'' Melinoë and Hecate.
Melinoë's connections to Hecate and Hermes suggest that she exercised her power in the realm of the soul's passage, and in that function may be compared to the torchbearer
Eubouleos in the
mysteries.
According to the hymn, she brings night terrors to mortals by manifesting in strange forms, "now plain to the eye, now shadowy, now shining in the darkness", and can drive mortals insane. The purpose of the hymn is to placate her by showing that the Orphic initiate understands and respects her nature, thereby averting the harm she has the capacity for causing.
The translation of
Thomas Taylor (1887) has given rise to a conception of Melinoe as half-black, half-white, representing the duality of the heavenly Zeus and the infernal Hades. This had been the interpretation of
Gottfried Hermann
Johann Gottfried Jakob Hermann (28 November 1772 – 31 December 1848) was a German classical scholar and philologist. He published his works under the name Gottfried Hermann or its Latin equivalent .
Biography
He was born in Leipzig. Entering ...
in his annotated text of the hymns in 1805. This duality may be implicit, like the explanation offered by
Servius Servius is the name of:
* Servius (praenomen), the personal name
* Maurus Servius Honoratus, a late fourth-century and early fifth-century grammarian
* Servius Tullius, the Roman king
* Servius Sulpicius Rufus, the 1st century BC Roman jurist
See ...
for why the poplar leaf has a light and dark side to represent
Leuke
Snake Island, also known as Serpent Island or Zmiinyi Island ( uk, острів Змії́ний, ostriv Zmiinyi; ro, Insula Șerpilor; russian: Змеиный, Zmeinyy), is an island belonging to Ukraine located in the Black Sea, near the D ...
("White"), a nymph loved by Hades. The Orphic text poses interpretational challenges for translators in this passage.
Inscriptions
![Magic tablet from Pergamon (Wünsch, Antikes Zaubergerät)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/72/Magic_tablet_from_Pergamon_%28W%C3%BCnsch%2C_Antikes_Zauberger%C3%A4t%29.png)
Melinoë appears on a bronze tablet for use in the kind of private ritual usually known as
"magic". The style of
Greek letters
The Greek alphabet has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early 8th century BCE. It is derived from the earlier Phoenician alphabet, and was the earliest known alphabetic script to have distinct letters for vowels as w ...
on the tablet, which was discovered at
Pergamon
Pergamon or Pergamum ( or ; grc-gre, Πέργαμον), also referred to by its modern Greek form Pergamos (), was a rich and powerful ancient Greece, ancient Greek city in Mysia. It is located from the modern coastline of the Aegean Sea on a ...
, dates it to the first half of the 3rd century AD. The use of
bronze
Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...
was probably intended to drive away malevolent spirits and to protect the practitioner. The construction of the tablet suggests that it was used for
divination
Divination (from Latin ''divinare'', 'to foresee, to foretell, to predict, to prophesy') is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic, standardized process or ritual. Used in various forms throughout histor ...
. It is triangular in shape, with a hole in the center, presumably for suspending it over a surface.
The content of the triangular tablet reiterates triplicity. It depicts three crowned goddesses, each with her head pointing at an angle and her feet pointing toward the center. The name of the goddess appears above her head:
Dione (ΔΙⲰΝΗ),
Phoebe (ΦΟΙΒΙΗ), and the obscure Nyche (ΝΥΧΙΗ). ''Amibousa,'' a word referring to the phases of the moon, is written under each goddess's feet. Densely inscribed spells frame each goddess: the inscriptions around Dione and Nyche are ''
voces magicae
''Voces magicae'' (singular: ''vox magica'', "magical names" or "magical words") are Ancient Roman magical words, written in either Ancient Greek or Latin.
Definition and use
They were compensable, pronounceable, but nonsensical words with alleg ...
'', incantatory syllables ("magic words") that are mostly untranslatable. Melinoë appears in a triple invocation that is part of the inscription around Phoebe: ''O Persephone, O Melinoë, O Leucophryne''. Esoteric symbols are inscribed on the edges of the triangle. Both Leucophryne and Phoebe were used as epithets of
Artemis
In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Artemis (; grc-gre, Ἄρτεμις) is the goddess of the hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, nature, vegetation, childbirth, care of children, and chastity. She was heavily identified wit ...
, another goddess associated with the
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...
and Hecate.
In popular culture
Melinoë will be the protagonist of the upcoming video game ''
Hades II'' published by
Supergiant Games
Supergiant Games, LLC is an American independent video game developer and publisher based in San Francisco. It was founded in 2009 by Amir Rao and Gavin Simon, and is known for the critically acclaimed games '' Bastion'', ''Transistor'', ''Pyre ...
.
See also
*
Phobetor
In Ovid's ''Metamorphoses'', Phobetor ('Frightener'), so called by men, or Icelos ('Like'), so called by the gods, is one of the thousand sons of Somnus (Sleep). He appeared in dreams "in the form of beast or bird or the long serpent".
According ...
*
Macaria
Macaria or Makaria (Greek Μακαρία) is the name of two figures from ancient Greek religion and mythology. Although they are not said to be the same and are given different fathers, they are discussed together in a single entry both in the ...
Notes
References
*
*
*
*
External links
* Melinoe at th
Theoi Project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Melinoe
Orphism (art)
Children of Persephone
Underworld goddesses
Magic goddesses
Greek sleep deities
Children of Zeus
Greek goddesses
Greek death goddesses
Greek underworld
Epithets of Hecate
Lunar goddesses
Chthonic beings
Shapeshifters in Greek mythology