Melinoë is the ancient Greek goddess of Propitiation-the offerings made to the deceased by family and friends. As an underworld "queen" (Basileia), Melinoë is at least partially syncretized with Persephone herself. The ancient Greek nymphē in the first line can mean " nymph", but also "bride" or "young woman". Īlthough some Greek myths deal with themes of incest, in Orphic genealogies lines of kinship express theological and cosmogonical concepts, not the realities of human family relations. In the Orphic tradition, the Cocytus is one of four underworld rivers. Melinoë is born at the mouth of the Cocytus, one of the rivers of the underworld, where Hermes in his underworld aspect as psychopomp was stationed. 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. 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. 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 Orphics in particular believed that Zeus and Hades were the same deity and portrayed them as such. Ī major contributory factor surrounding Melinoe's birth is the fact that Hades and Zeus were, at times, syncretised with each other. Melinoë is the daughter of Persephone and was fathered by Hades.
Show to the initiates a kindly and holy face. To banish the soul's frenzy to the ends of the earth, O goddess, O queen of those below, I beseech you Now plain to the eye, now shadowy, now shining in the darkness-Īll this in unnerving attacks in the gloom of night. This specter drives mortals to madness with her airy apparitionsĪs she appears in weird shapes and strange forms,
In the guise of Plouton Zeus tricked Persephone and through wiley plots bedded her Ī two-bodied specter sprang forth from Persephone's fury. Whom revered Persephone bore by the mouth of the Kokytos river I call upon Melinoe, saffron-cloaked nymph of the earth, The Souls of Acheron (1898) by Adolf Hirémy-Hirschlįollowing is the translation by Apostolos Athanassakis and Benjamin M.
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