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Perse (mythology)

InGreek mythology, Perse (Ancient Greek: Πέρση, romanized: Pérsē, lit. 'destroyer') is one of the 3,000 Oceanids, water-nymph daughters of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys.^[1][2][3] Her name was also spelled as Persa, Perseide, Persea^[4]orPerseis (Περσηίς, Persēís).^[5] Perse married Helios, the god of the sun, and bore him several children, most notably the sorceress-goddess Circe.

Mythology[edit]

Perse was one of the wives of the sun god, Helios.^[6][7] According to Homer and Hesiod, with Helios she had Circe and Aeëtes,^[8] with later authors also mentioning their children Pasiphaë,^[9] Perses,^[10] Aloeus,^[11] and even Calypso,^[11] who is however more commonly the daughter of Atlas. It is not clear why Perse bore Helios, the source of all light, such dark and mysterious children.^[12]

When Aphrodite cursed Helios to fall in love with the mortal princess Leucothoe, he is said to have forgotten about Perse.^[13] She seems to have been linked to witchcraft and knowledge of herbs and potions, much like her daughters Circe and Pasiphaë.^[14] She might have also been associated with the witchcraft goddess Hecate, who was also called Perseis (as in "daughter of Perses")^[15][16] and who is said to be Circe's mother in one version.^[17][18]

Possible connections[edit]

Perseis' name has been linked to Περσίς (Persís), "female Persian", and πέρθω (pérthō), "destroy" or "slay" or "plunder".^{[citation needed]}

Kerenyi also noted the connection between her and Hecate due to their names, denoting a chthonic aspect of the nymph, as well as that of Persephone, whose name "can be taken to be a longer, perhaps simply a more ceremonious, form of Perse",^[19] as did Fowler, who noted that the pairing made sense given Hecate's association with the Moon.^[20] It has been suggested that Hecate's "Perseis" epithet denotes lunar connections.^[21] However, as Mooney notes, there is no evidence that Perse was ever a moon goddess on her own right.^[22]

An inscription of Mycenaean Greek (written in Linear B) was found on a tablet from Pylos, dating back to 1400–1200 BC. John Chadwick reconstructed^{[n 1]} the name of a goddess, *Preswa who could be identified with Perse. Chadwick found speculative the further identification with the first element of Persephone.^[24][25]

Genealogy[edit]

See also[edit]

• Medea
• Perimede
• Neaera
• List of Oceanids
• List of Mycenaean deities

Footnotes[edit]

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

External links[edit]

Look up Perse in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• PERSE on the Theoi Project