Peitho
Peitho | |
---|---|
Personification of Persuasion | |
Okeanus and Tethys | |
Siblings | Oceanids, Potamoi |
Equivalents | |
Roman equivalent | Suada or Suadela |
In
Family
Peitho's ancestry is unclear, as various authors provide different identities for her parents.
Nonnus identifies Peitho as the wife of Hermes, the messenger of the gods.[14] However, commentary on Euripides' Orestes notes that Peitho is the first wife of Phoroneus, the primordial King of Argos, and the mother of Aegialeus and Apia.[15] An alternative Argive tradition describes her instead as the wife of Argos, Phoroneus's grandson.[5] The Byzantine encyclopedic text, Suda, states that the mother of Iynx was either Peitho or Ekho.
Mythology
Peitho plays a limited role in mythology, mainly appearing with or as a companion of Aphrodite.
A degraded fragment by
Nonnus gives her a role within the marriage of Kadmos and Harmonia, as she appears to Kadmos in the form of a mortal slave and covers Kadmos in a mist to lead him unseen through Samothrace to the palace of Electra, Harmonia's adoptive mother.[18] Peitho often appears on a 5th century epinetron by the Eretria Painter depicting Harmonia’s bridal preparations with Aphrodite, Eros, Persephone (Kore), Hebe, and Himeros as in attendance.[20] In art, she was also depicted at the weddings for Dionysus and Ariadne, Alkestis and Admetos, Thetis and Peleus, and at the union of Aphrodite and Adonis.[5] A hydria attributed to the Meidias Painter shows Peitho fleeing from the scene of the abduction of the Leukippidai by the Dioskuri, indicating either that she persuaded the women into eloping or that she does not condone the marriage by Athenian standards.[5]
When Zeus ordered the creation of the first woman, Pandora, Peitho and the Charites placed golden necklaces around her neck, and the Horae (Seasons) crowned Pandora's head with spring flowers.[21] Extravagant jewelry, particularly necklaces, were viewed with suspicion in Ancient Greek literature, as they were typically seen as a way for women to seduce men, making the necklace a way to enhance Pandora’s sexual attractiveness and persuasive abilities.[22]
In art, Peitho is often represented with Aphrodite during the abduction of Helen, symbolizing the forces of persuasion and love at work during the scene.[23] Her presence at the event may be interpreted as either Paris needing persuasion to claim Helen as a prize for choosing Aphrodite, or Helen needing to be persuaded to accompany him to Troy, as Helen's level of agency became a popular topic of discussion in the 5th century.[22] Peitho's presence brings the question of whether mortals have the ability to resist her power or whether they are bound to her persuasive abilities.[22]
Cult and function
Cults dedicated to Peitho date to at least the early 5th century.[16] In her role as an attendant or companion of Aphrodite, Peitho was intimately connected to the goddess of love and beauty. Aphrodite and Peitho were sometimes conflated, more commonly in the later periods, with the name Peitho appearing in conjunction with or as an epithet of Aphrodite's name.[22] She is also identified with Tyche in Suppliant Women (Hiketides).[24] Peitho was associated with marriage, since a suitor or his father would negotiate with the father or guardian of a young woman for her hand in marriage and offer a bridal price in return for her. The most desirable women drew many prospective suitors, and persuasive skill often determined the suitor's success. Plutarch includes her on a list of five deities for new couples to pray to, also included are Zeus (Teleios), Hera (Teleia), Aphrodite, and Artemis.[25]
Peitho was an important figure for emphasising civic harmony, particularly in Athens and Argos, and harmony within interpersonal relationships.[26] Notably in Athens, the unification (synoikismos) of the city by Theseus was only possible with the intervention of both Aphrodite and Peitho to create democratic spirit and cooperation.[5] In Argos, she was paired with the early kings of the city, functioning as a civic unifier in a similar role as Harmonia, the first Queen of Thebes.[27] On a 4th century vase from Apulia, Peitho and Hermes are depicted together instructing Tripolemus to teach agriculture to mankind, indicating Peitho's role in creating harmony through civilization.[3] Plutarch outlines Peitho’s role in interpersonal harmony in Moralia, where he states that persuasion’s role within a marriage is so that spouses can achieve their wants without quarreling. In Eumenides, Athena thanks Peitho after convincing the Furies of her reasoning in acquitting Orestes and successfully defusing strife.[28] However, Peitho may be a destructive force when used for seduction or selfish personal gains, such as in Agamemnon where Clytemnestra curses Peitho for Paris’s stealing of Helen, and she uses persuasion to convince Cassandra to enter the house in order to murder her.
Cult within Athens
Cults within other Greek cities
Despite her connection to Aphrodite in Athens, Peitho was more commonly associated with Artemis in the Peloponnese, as the two goddesses either shared a temple at Argos or "Peitho" being used as an epithet for Artemis.[5] Peitho’s association with Artemis may have formed due to a shared with importance with adult development and the loss of sexual innocence.[31] At Argos, this temple was also shared with Hypermestra, who was acquitted in trial of a case brought by her father, as she was the only Danaid who did not murder her husband on her wedding night as per her father's orders.[27][16] With this association, Peitho is connected to persuasive speech generally as opposed to just seductive persuasion.[27]
Pindar refers to courtesans and prostitutes in Corinth as "the servants of Peitho", however, he does not elaborate on whether there was any cults associated with Peitho in the city nor whether courtesans had a particular reverence for the goddess.[32] This passage has stirred debate among scholars one whether sacred prostitution was practiced in Greece.[31] Peitho was commonly shown wearing jewelry, fixing her clothing, holding jars of perfume, or looking into mirrors, traits that may be associated with hetairai.[31]
In
According to Pausanias, in addition to the cults and sanctuaries dedicated to Peitho at Athens and Argos, there was an image decorating the throne at the Temple of Zeus at Olympia where Aphrodite, rising from the sea is greeted by Eros and crowned by Peitho.[34][35] In Megara, statues of Peitho and Paregoros (personification of soothing words) stood in the Temple of Aphrodite Praxis (of intercourse).[31] There is also evidence that Peitho had cults in Paros, Thasos, and Lesbos.[22]
Notes
- ^ ISBN 9780786471119.
- Brill's New Pauly, s.v. Peitho.
- ^ a b c North, Helen (1993). "Emblems of eloquence". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 137: 406–430.
- ^ S2CID 143067078– via Taylor & Francis Group.
- ^ ISBN 9789004194175.
- ISBN 978-0472113323.
- ^ Hesiod, Theogony 346-349
- ^ Sappho fr. 200 Campbell, pp. 186–7 [= Scholia on Hesiod's Works and Days, 73c]; Gantz, p. 104.
- ^ Aeschylus, Suppliant Women, 1039.
- ^ Aeschylus, Agamemnon, 385.
- ^ Nonnus, Dionysiaca, 24.261.
- ^ Pausanias, Description of Greece, 9.35.5
- ^ Alcman, Fragments 3 & 64.
- ^ Nonnus, Dionysiaca, 8.220 & 48.230.
- ^ Scholiast on Euripides, Orestes 920
- ^ ISBN 978-0-415-96823-2.
- ^ Pindar, Pythian 9, 35-39.
- ^ a b Nonnus, Dionysiaca, 3.84.
- ^ Ibycus, Fragment 288.
- ISBN 978-90-04-13802-5.
- ^ Hesiod, Works and Days, 69-82.
- ^ ISBN 978-0195120233.
- ISBN 9780199605507.
- ^ Aeschylus, Suppliant Women (Hiketides), Line 523.
- ^ Plutarch, Moralia (Ethika), Line 264b.
- ^ ISBN 978-0472113323.
- ^ ISBN 9780521136730.
- ^ Aeschylus, Eumenides, 825-829
- ^ Pausanias, Description of Greece, 1.22.3.
- ^ a b Pala, Elisabetta (2010). "Aphrodite on the Akropolis: Evidence from Attic Pottery". Brill's Companion to Aphrodite. Leiden: Brill. pp. 195–216.
- ^ a b c d Burnett Pippin, Anne (2011). "Servants of Peitho: Pindar fr. 122". Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies. 51: 49–60.
- ^ Pindar, Eulogies Fragment 122.
- ^ Pausanias, Description of Greece, 2.7.8
- ^ Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio 2.7.7, 2.21.1 & 5.11.8
- ^ Pausanias, Description of Greece, 5.11.8
References
- .
- ISBN 978-0-8018-5362-3(Vol. 2).
- Grimal, Pierre (1996). Dictionnaire de la Mythologie Grecque Et Romaine. Wiley. p. 349. ISBN 978-0-631-20102-1.
- Hesiod, Theogony from The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.
- Hesiod, Works and Days from The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.
- Nonnus of Panopolis, Dionysiaca translated by William Henry Denham Rouse (1863-1950), from the Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 1940. Online version at the Topos Text Project.
- Nonnus of Panopolis, Dionysiaca. 3 Vols. W.H.D. Rouse. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1940-1942. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
- North, Helen F. (1993). "Emblems of Eloquence". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 137 (3): 406–430. ISBN 978-1-4223-7018-6.
- Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio. 3 vols. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Smith, William; Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London (1873). "Peitho" 1.