Editing Demeter (section)

===Demeter and Poseidon===
[[File:Demeter Altemps Inv8596.jpg|thumb|left|Roman copy of 4th century BC Greek bust ([[National Roman Museum]])]]
In Arcadia, located in what is now southern Greece, the major goddess [[Despoina]] was considered the daughter of Demeter and Poseidon Hippios ("''Horse-Poseidon''"). In the associated myths, Poseidon represents the river spirit of the Underworld, and he appears as a horse, as often happens in northern European folklore. The myth describes how he pursued his older sister, Demeter, who hid from him among the horses of the king [[Onkios]], but even in the form of a mare, she could not conceal her divinity. Poseidon caught and raped his older sister in the form of a stallion. Demeter was furious at Poseidon's assault; in this furious form, she became known as ''Demeter Erinys''. Her anger at Poseidon drove her to dress all in black and retreat into a cave to purify herself, an act which was the cause of a universal famine. Demeter's absence caused the death of crops, livestock, and eventually of the people who depended on them (later Arcadian tradition held that it was ''both'' her rage at Poseidon and her loss of her daughter caused the famine, merging the two myths).<ref name=oxford_companion/> Demeter washed away her anger in the River [[Ladon (river)|Ladon]], becoming ''Demeter Lousia'', the "bathed Demeter".<ref>Other ritually bathed goddesses were Argive [[Hera]] and [[Cybele]]; [[Aphrodite]] renewed her own powers bathing herself in the sea.</ref>

"In her alliance with Poseidon," Kerényi noted,<ref>Kerényi 1951, p. 185.</ref> "she was [[Gaia (mythology)|Earth]], who bears plants and beasts, and could therefore assume the shape of an ear of [[grain]] or a mare." Moreover, she bore a daughter [[Despoina]] ({{lang|grc|Δέσποινα}}: the "Mistress"), whose name should not be uttered outside the Arcadian Mysteries,<ref>"In Arcadia, she was also a second goddess in the Mysteries of her daughter, the unnameable, who was invoked only as 'Despoina', the 'Mistress'" (Kerényi 1967, pp. 31ff., citing Pausanias, [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-eng1:8.37.9 8.37.9].</ref> and a horse named [[Arion (mythology)|Arion]], with a black mane and tail.

At [[Phigaleia]], a ''[[xoanon]]'' (wood-carved statue) of Demeter was erected in a cave which, tradition held, was the cave into which Black Demeter retreated. The statue depicted a [[Medusa]]-like figure with a horse's head and snake-like hair, holding a dove and a dolphin, which probably represented her power over air and water:<ref>L. H. Jeffery (1976). ''Archaic Greece: The Greek city states c. 800-500 B.C.'' (Ernest Benn Limited) p 23 {{ISBN|0-510-03271-0}}</ref>

{{Blockquote|The second mountain, Mount Elaius, is some thirty stades away from Phigalia, and has a cave sacred to Demeter surnamed Black ... the Phigalians say, they concluded that this cavern was sacred to Demeter and set up in it a wooden image. The image, they say, was made after this fashion. It was seated on a rock, like to a woman in all respects save the head. She had the head and hair of a horse, and there grew out of her head images of serpents and other beasts. Her tunic reached right to her feet; on one of her hands was a dolphin, on the other a dove. Now why they had the image made after this fashion is plain to any intelligent man who is learned in traditions. They say that they named her Black because the goddess had black apparel. They cannot relate either who made this wooden image or how it caught fire. But the old image was destroyed, and the Phigalians gave the goddess no fresh image, while they neglected for the most part her festivals and sacrifices, until the barrenness fell on the land.|[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]]|[http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-eng1:8.42 8.42.1–4].}}