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Goddesses of Ancient Greece - D
Daiera
'The Wise One of the Sea', the Daughter of Oceanus and the mother of Eleusis,
identified with Aphrodite. |
Damia
Goddess of feminine health, and protectress of women. A Greek goddess
of growth in nature. Possibly equates to Demeter.
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Danae
Danae was the daughter of Acrisius. An oracle warned Acrisius that Danae's
son would someday kill him, so Acrisius shut Danae in a bronze room, away
from all male company. However, Zeus conceived a passion for Danae, and
came to her through the roof, in the form of a shower of gold that poured
down into her lap; as a result she had a son, Perseus. When Acrisius discovered
Perseus, he locked both mother and son in a chest, and set it adrift on
the sea. The chest came ashore at Seriphus, where Danae and Perseus were
welcomed. Later, King Polydectes of Seriphus fell in love with Danae and
tried to force himself on her; he was eventually killed by Perseus.
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Danaides
The fifty daughters of Danaus. He fled with his daughters in fear of his
twin brother Aegyptus, but the fifty sons of Aegyptos followed them to
Argos and forced Danaus to give them his daughters in marriage. At their
father's behest they murdered their husbands at their wedding night. The
only one who spared her husband was Hypermnestra. In Hades, the girls
were condemned eternally to pour water in a vessel with holes in its bottom.
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Daphne
("laurel") A daughter of Peneus. She was nymph who, uncharacteristic
of the breed, abhorred the embrace of men, and preferred to dance in solitude
among the mountain meadows. Pursued by Apollo, she emplored her father
to keep her chaste. He transformed her into a tree, the mountain laurel.
Apollo then blessed the laurel and made its wreath a symbol of Divine
accolade and victory of spirit.
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Deianira
A princess from Greek legend. She became the wife of Heracles after he
fought for her with Achelous. Later she unwittingly gave her husband the
poisoned blood of the centaur Nessus, who had told her it would ensure
Heracles' love for her for ever. When he tried on the shirt the poisonous
blood killed him. Deianira took her own live out of grief over his death.
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Deino
("dread") was one of the three Graeae (gray women) in Greek
Mythology. Her parents were Phorcys and Ceto. She had quite a few sisters
including Enys, Pemphredo, and Graea. Her other sisters were female monsters
known as the Gorgons. The Gorgons, who the Graea guarded, were Euryale,
Sthenno, and Medusa. The best known Gorgon, Medusa, had snakes for hair,
and turned whoever looked at her to stone. There were several ways in
which Deino and her sisters Enys and Pemphredo were unique. First, they
had been gray-haired since their birth (hence their name). But even more
interesting, they only shared one eye and one tooth among them. This occasionally
led to trouble. In one mythological story King Polydectes sent Perseus
off to bring back the head of Medusa, one of the Gorgons. Since Perseus
needed information on where to find Medusa, he went to Deino and the other
two Graeae. As the sisters were passing their eye between them, Perseus
snatched it and held it until they told him everything he wanted to know.
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Demeter
Demeter is the Goddess of the harvest, the fertile ploughed earth, the
Corn Mother; Persephone, the Corn Maiden, is the seed planted underground.
Around the 15th century BCE, the Mycenaens brought Demeter from Crete
to Eleusis, the place where she found her daughter and where the initiation
of women into the Great Mysteries was performed.
Classical Greek myth tells of Persephone having been abducted by Hades
to become Queen of the Underworld. Her mother, Demeter, implored the deities
to let her daughter return to earth. They consented but, in the meantime,
Persephone had eaten a seed from a pomegranate, forcing her to remain
in the underworld. As a compromise, it was agreed that she would inhabit
the earth for part of the year and the underworld during the other part,
a metaphor for the growing season and non-growing season.
However, long before the mythical Hades was ever conceived, in more ancient,
pre-patriarchal times, Persephone was Queen of the Underworld and was
another form of Hecate. Originally, the Triple Goddess was represented
by Kore, the virgin; Demeter, the mother preserver; and Hecate or Persephone,
the destroyer. In later years, Kore and Persephone became the same Goddess.
The pomegranate was an ancient symbol of female fertility; the souls of
the underworld ate pomegranates so that they could be reborn. The Eleusinian
mystery religion centered on her worship and on reverence for her lost
daughter. Persephone was mown down and torn from her mother exactly as
the sheaf in Demeter's hand is reaped from the bosom of Mother Earth.
Although Demeter rescues her daughter from the underworld, she bequeaths
winter dark and cold as a sign of her grief.
Derketo
The Greek rendering of Atergatis, the Syrian fish goddess.
Despina
("mistress") A daughter of Poseidon and Demeter. It is also
an epithet for multiple goddesses, such as Aphrodite, Demeter, and Persephone.
Dido
The legendary founder and queen of Carthage, daughter of Belus and sister
of Pygmalion. In Virgil, she entertained Aeneas, who arrived at Carthage
during his wanderings, and fell in love with him. When he left her to
continue his search for the new home in Italy, she killed herself on a
funeral pyre. When Aeneas later encountered her shade on a trip to the
underworld, she turned away from him, still refusing to forgive his desertion
of her.
Dike
("justice") Daughter of Zeus and Themis, one of the Horae. Goddess
of Divine Justice, She purified disputes and arbitrated controversies
by application of Divine Will. Dike was born a human and put on earth
to keep justice. When Zeus, her father, saw that was impossible, he brought
her up to the gods and goddesses to sit on the opposite side of her mother,
next to him.
Dione
A Daughter of Okeanos, at times associated as a partner with Zeus. According
to certain traditions, the goddess or Titaness Dione became by Zeus the
mother o
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Dirce
The wife of King Lycus. To fulfill his oath to his brother Nycteus, king
of Thebes, to get his daughter Antiope back, Lycus and his army marched
towards Sicyon, destroyed the city and killed Antiope's husband Epopeus.
Lycus put Antiope in his wife's care, but Dirce mistreated Antiope severely,
using her as a slave. Antiope managed to escape and was finally reunited
with her sons Amphion and Zethus, her children with Zeus. Her twins exacted
a terrible vengeance upon Dirce. They tied her to the horns of a wild
bull and in that fashion she was killed.
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Doris
A sea-Goddess, she was the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys wife of Nereus,
She had fifty daughters, called the Nereids. Amond them Amphitrite.
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Dryads
In Greek mythology, the dryads are female spirits of nature (nymphs),
who preside over the groves and forests. Each one is born with a certain
tree over which she watches. A dryad either lives in a tree, in which
case she is called a hamadryad, or close to it. The lives of the dryads
are connected with that of the trees; should the tree perish, then she
dies with it. If this is caused by a mortal, the gods will punish him
for that deed. The dryads themselves will also punish any thoughtless
mortal who would somehow injure the trees.
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Dryope
A Greek nymph, loved by the god Apollo, and the mother of Amphissus. When
once she was gathering flowers for her child she came upon a lotus and
wanted to take it, but it turned out to be the nymph Loti who was changed
into a flower. Dryope then turned into a lotus herself. She was the daughter
of Eurytus. Ovid IX, 329.
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