In theTheogony, an ancient Greek epic poem about the genealogy of the gods,Hesiod included Perse in his list of the 3,000 Oceanids, water-nymphs and daughters of two Titans,Oceanus andTethys.[1][2][3]Homer also made Perse a child of Oceanus.[4]
Perse was one of the wives of thesun god, Helios.[5][6] According toHomer andHesiod, with Helios she hadCirce andAeëtes,[7] with later authors also mentioning their childrenPasiphaë,[8]Perses,[9]Aloeus,[10] and evenCalypso,[10] who is however more commonly the daughter ofAtlas. It is not clear why Perse bore Helios, the source of all light, such dark and mysterious children.[11]
WhenAphrodite cursed Helios to fall in love with the mortal princessLeucothoe, he is said to have forgotten about Perse and all his other past lovers.[12] She seems to have been linked to witchcraft and knowledge of herbs and potions, much like her daughters Circe and Pasiphaë.[13] She might have also been associated with the witchcraft goddessHecate, who was also called Perseis (as in "daughter ofPerses")[14][15] and who is said to be Circe's mother in one version.[16][17]
Perseis' name has been linked toΠερσίς (Persís), "female Persian", andπέρθω (pérthō), "destroy" or "slay" or "plunder".[citation needed]
Kerenyi also noted the connection between her and Hecate due to their names, denoting achthonic aspect of the nymph, as well as that ofPersephone, whose name "can be taken to be a longer, perhaps simply a more ceremonious, form of Perse",[18] as did Fowler, who noted that the pairing made sense given Hecate's association with theMoon.[19] It has been suggested that Hecate's "Perseis" epithet denotes lunar connections.[20] However, as Mooney notes, there is no evidence that Perse was ever a moon goddess on her own right.[21]
An inscription ofMycenaean Greek (written inLinear B) was found on a tablet fromPylos, 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.[23][24]
^Comments about the goddesspe-re-*82 ofPylos tablet Tn 316, tentatively reconstructed as*Preswa
"It is tempting to see ... the classical Perse ... daughter ofOceanus ...; whether it may be further identified with the first element of Persephone is only speculative."John Chadwick.Documents in Mycenean Greek. Second Edition
Hard, Robin,The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology", Psychology Press, 2004,ISBN9780415186360.Google Books.
