Daeira

In Greek mythology, Daeira (Ancient Greek: Δάειρα or Δαείρας) or Daira (Δαῖρα) was a divinity connected with the Eleusinian mysteries. Her name means the "knowing one" from daô knowing which links well to the inside knowledge of the initiate.[1]

Daeira
AbodeEleusis
Personal information
ParentsOceanus and Tethys
SiblingsOceanids and Potamoi
Consort(1) Hermes
(2) Eumolpus
(3) ?Cadmus
Offspring(1) Eleusis
(2) Immaradus
(3) Semele
Greek deities
series
Water deities
Nymphs

Family

Daeira was a daughter of the Titan Oceanus[2] possibly by his sister-wife Tethys, thus one of the 3,000 Oceanids.[3] Others called her simply as the sister of Styx[4] (also an Oceanid).

By Hermes, Daira became the mother of Eleusis,[2] eponym of the town of Eleusis. Otherwise, their son was called the child of Ogygus, the primeval king of Attica. In some myths, she borne Immarados to Eumolpos.[5] Aristophanes said that Daeira was the mother of Semele.[6]

Mythology

According to Aischylos, Daeira was the same as Persephone.[7][8][9] Others said she was Persephone's nurse; Persephone's gaoler; identical with Aphrodite; identical with Demeter;[10] identical with Hera;[11] identical with Hekate;[12] an enemy of Demeter, so that the latter's priestess avoided her rites.[13][14]

The Eleusinian link is clearly fundamental, and confirmed by offerings to Daeira in an Eleusinian context in two if not three fifth- and fourth-century sacrificial calendars.[15] The chaos in the myths even in the fifth century must be due in part to the secrecy of the Mysteries, but perhaps also to the unimportance of this particular kind of accuracy in ritual matters.[16] An Attic religious official δαειρίης (Δαειρίης?) is attested by Pollux[17] of whose ritual activity Daeira may have been a projection.[18]

Notes
  1. Or people may have heard 'torch', cf. Homeric Hymn to Demeter 48 with Richardson; or 'sister-in-law' (Phot. 5), Pausanias the Atticist and Ailios Dionysios 1 Erbse ap. Eustathius loc. cit. = FGrHist 369 F 1 (cf. Phot. 25) referred to ύγρά ούοία, which they say was called δαίρα in the mysteries.
  2. Pausanias, 1.38.7
  3. Bane, Theresa (2013). Encyclopedia of Fairies in World Folklore and Mythology. McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers. p. 95. ISBN 9780786471119.
  4. Pherecydes, fr. 45 = Fowler, p. 16
  5. Clement of Alexandria, Exhortations 45.1
  6. Pherecydes, fr. 804
  7. Pherecydes, fr. 277
  8. Lycophron, Alexandra 710 with scholia
  9. Etymologicum Magnum 244.34
  10. Phanodemos FGrHi5t 325 F is, also for Aphrodite
  11. Photius, 5
  12. Scholia on Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 3.847
  13. Eustathius on Homer's Iliad 648.37
  14. Servius, Commentary on Virgil's Aeneid 4.58
  15. IG P 250 A 16 (Paiania); SEG 50.168; possibly also NGSL i.5 (Thorikos), as supplemented by N. Robertson, GRBS 37 (1996) 349; IG II 1496 = SIG 1029 where see Hiller von Gaertringen (his n. 19).
  16. Fowler, 1.7.7
  17. Pausanias, 1.35
  18. For discussion of Daeira see R. Parker, Polytheism and Society 340; Clinton, Sacred Officials 98. Pamias on fr. 45 wonders whether when Pausanias refers to οί παλαιοί he was thinking rather of Pherekydes of Syros; cf. app. crit. to fr. 177

References
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