![despoina leviathan before or after thessa despoina leviathan before or after thessa](https://miro.medium.com/focal/1200/632/43/40/0*N_lMSMjUpe-ybi4a.jpg)
These could be a procession of women with animal masks or of hybrid creatures. 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. 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. Some of them, such as Pan and the Silenoi, survived into the classical age. These powers of nature developed into a belief in nymphs and in deities with human forms and the heads or tails of animals. It seems that the Greek deities started as powers of nature, and then they were given other attributes. He 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. In the myth of the isolated land of Arcadia, the river spirit of the underworld appears as a horse ( Poseidon Hippios), as was usual in northern European folklore. 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. The figure of a goddess of nature, birth, and death was dominant in both Minoan and Mycenean cults during the Bronze Age. Evidently, the religious beliefs of the first Greek-speaking people who entered the region were mixed with the beliefs of the indigenous population. The Arcadian cults come from a more primitive religion. The cult of Despoina is very important in the history of ancient Greek mystery religions. Demeter is possibly a related word, interpreted by some, as "mother of the house" (from PIE * dems-mater). 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. The masculine form is Despotes, "master of the house" ( Δεσπότης) cf. The word, Despoina ("mistress", Δέσποινα), is derived from *des-potnia, "lady or mistress of the house", from PIE * dóm(h a)os, "house(hold)" and * potnih a-, "lady, mistress" cf. Due to her anger at this turn of events, Demeter also was given the epithet, Erinys ( raging). From this union Demeter bore a daughter, Despoina, and a fabulous horse, Arion. To avoid him, she took her archaic form of a mare, but he took the form of a stallion and mated with her. In the myth, Poseidon saw Demeter and desired her. Pausanias made it clear that Kore is Persephone, although he did not reveal Despoina's proper name.
![despoina leviathan before or after thessa despoina leviathan before or after thessa](https://blogs-images.forbes.com/jplafke/files/2017/03/subnauticaconceptart-1200x675.jpg)
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. Her real name could not be revealed to anyone except those initiated to her mysteries. She was the goddess of winter and frost, who was worshipped under the title Despoina ("the mistress") alongside her mother Demeter, one of the central figures of the Eleusinian Mysteries.
![despoina leviathan before or after thessa despoina leviathan before or after thessa](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/c-rP8tKttXw/maxresdefault.jpg)
In Greek mythology, Despoina ( Greek: Δέσποινα, romanized: Déspoina) was the daughter of Demeter and Poseidon and sister of Arion.