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 ("the Mistress," cognate of "Despot") 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 the myth, Poseidon saw Demeter and desired her. To avoid him, she took her archaic form of a mare, but he took the form of a stallion and mated with her. From this union Demeter bore a daughter, Despoina, and a fabulous horse, Arion. Due to her anger at this turn of events, Demeter also was given the epithet Erinys (raging).
Etymology
The first element of the name Des-poina is derived from the PIE root *dem- meaning "house, household", Sanskrit damah "house;" Avestan demana- "house;" Greek domos "house"; Latin domus "house". Related words despotēs "master, lord"; Latin dominus "master of a household"; Armenian tanu-ter "house-lord". The second element is derived from the hypothetical PIE form *, "mistress", "lady", "wife", is the feminine counterpart to *pótis, "husband"; cf. Latin ho, "host", Sanskrit , "master", "husband", fem. , "lady", "wife". The Greek female equivalent for despotēs was despoina "lady, queen, mistress," source of the fem. proper name Despina. (Etymologically the "mistress of the house".)
Related attested forms, written in the Linear B syllabary, are the Mycenaean Greek , po-ti-ni-ja, (potnia) and perhaps , po-se-da-o, and , po-se-da-wo-ne (Poseidon), which were inherited into classical Greece with identical or related meanings. An alternative etymology of the goddess Demeter is derived from the hypothetical PIE *dems-méh₂tēr, meaning "mother of the house". In Modern Greek the title "despoinis" () means "Miss", literally "little mistress", and can be used to address young ladies and waitresses, amongst others.
Cult of Despoina
The cult of Despoina was significant in the history of ancient Greek mystery religions in Lycosoura, which belonged to a stratum of an earlier religion in Arcadia. Evidently, the religious beliefs of the first Greek-speaking people who entered the region were mixed with the beliefs of the indigenous population. The figure of a goddess of nature, birth, and death was dominant in both Minoan and Mycenean cults during the Bronze Age. Wanax was her male companion (paredros) in the Mycenean cult, and usually, this title was applied to the god Poseidon as king of the sea.
In the myth of the isolated land of Arcadia, Poseidon appears as a beast (horse :(Poseidon Hippios)) which represents the river spirit of the underworld. This conception was usual in northern European folklore and not unusual in Greece. The horse (numina) was related with the liquid element, and with the underworld. The river god Acheloos is represented as a bull. Poseidon mates with the mare, Demeter, and from the union she bears the horse, Arion (mythology), and a daughter who originally had the shape of a mare too. It seems that the Greek deities started as powers of nature, and then they were given other attributes. These powers of nature developed into a belief in nymphs and in deities with human forms and the heads or tails of animals. Some of them, such as Pan and the Silenoi, survived into the classical age. The two great Arcadian goddesses, Demeter and Despoina (later Persephone), were closely related to the springs and the animals, and especially, to the goddess Artemis (Potnia Theron: "The mistress of the animals"), who was the first nymph.
On a marble relief at Lycosura is the veil of Despoina, on which human figures are represented with the heads of different animals, seemingly, in a ritual dance. Some of them hold flutes. These could be a procession of women with animal masks or of hybrid creatures. Similar processions of daemons or human figures with animal masks appear on Mycenean frescoes and gold rings. Most of the temples were built near springs, and in some of them there is evidence of a fire which always was kept burning. At Lycosura, a fire burned in front of the temple of Pan, the goat god. The megaron of Eleusis is quite similar to the "megaron" of Despoina at Lycosura.