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Arbetta — Melinoe
Published: 2012-03-12 23:47:57 +0000 UTC; Views: 17495; Favourites: 423; Downloads: 429
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You may remember her from here: [link]She's the Greek goddess of the offerings made to the deceased. In the night, she wanders the land with a train of ghosts...
This is based on Goya's Black Paitings a little bit. Hope you like my vision of it
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Really pretty. Reminds me of something that belongs in a coffee shop.
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In certain myths, her sibling by Hades and Persephone is Zagreus. However, in the other versions it is said that Zeus *Why am I not surprised* raped her, conceiving Zagreus, who tricked Persephone into producing Melinoe. But the certain version with Zeus is less common because, since he fathered Persephone, most people find that disturbing. So, people write about that myth version much less. Either way though, Zagreus tricked Persephone into have his sister, whether it's with Hades or Zeus. Which is why this myth is, overall, passed by because of what modern society is comfortable with.
I have also read about her being directly connected to the twins (Hypnos and Thanatos) because of where she lies in ancient Greek religion. Thus, she lives in the underworld because of origins. Her name is also Latin for Dark Thought. And, Melinoe is commonly confused with Hecate, whom she is also well socialized with. A hymn *which I like* Is this I call upon Melinoe, saffron-cloaked nymph of the earth,
To whom august Persephone gave birth by the mouth of the Kokytos,
Upon the sacred bed of Kronian Zeus
He lied to Plouton and through treachery mated with Persephone,
Whose skin when she was pregnant he mangled in anger.
She drives mortals to madness with her airy phantoms,
As she appears in weird shapes and forms,
Now plain to the eye, now shadowy, now shining in the darkness,
And all this in hostile encounters in the gloom of night.
But, goddess and queen of those below, I beseech you,
To banish the soul's frenzy to the ends of the earth,
and show a kindly and holy face to the initiates.
Melinoë has characteristics that seem similar to Hecate and the Erinyes as well.(But not stated in the text I read) Her limbs were black one one side of her body and white on the other, revealing her dual chthonian and heavenly aspects.The word meilia, which forms the first part of her name, was often used to describe propitiatory offerings made to the ghosts of the dead. Melinoe was probably an Orphic title for the goddess Hekate, who was sometimes named as a daughter of Zeus and Persephone.
Excuse my long speech. Very well done!
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According to a book on funerary practices in the ancient world, in the Orphic Mysteries Plouton and Hades were worshipped as being two different beings, whereas the Eleusian Mysteries stated that they were the same god. It also states that the Orphics believed that Hades and Zeus were the same god and that Pluton was his own god (According to the Orphics Pluton was the saviour and judger of souls 'Zeus Chthonios', whereas they believed that 'Kronion Zeus' had an extension as ruler of the Underworld through Hades. This explains why 'Zeus' abducted Persephone and fathered her son Dionysus-Zagreus in the Orphic Mysteries.
The book mentions that the name Zeus is a title for a deity who happens to be a King, in other words the Orphics weren't talking about Zeus Olympios at all when they were talking about 'Zeus Chthonios' or 'Kronion Zeus', they were talking about Hades in his dual deity aspect.
This also helps explain the whole "Zeus disguised himself as Plouton" debacle surrounding Melinoe as the Orphics believed Plouton was the god of fertility, the a judger of souls and Persephone's husband, whereas Zeus-Hades was the ruler of the dead and Persephone's lover as they both represented the endless cycle of life and death.
This is the explanation to narcissusandthepomegranate's presentation of the hymn to Melinoe as being the daughter of Hades and Persephone and therefore the daughter of life and death as both deities represented the cycle and importance of life and death. This is a copy of the hymns from the photograph on her tumblr account. The first five lines are a unique expansion of the above hymn as the second half of the hymn is an exact copy of the hymn above it. Both call Melinoe's father Hades:
(I call saffron-veiled Melinoe, Daughter of Persephone and the Mystic Hades,
Where flows the mournful river Cocytus, he beguiled the daughter of the earth
So Thy limbs are partly black and partly white,
Night's daughter and the Daughter of the Light,
Thy specter, now veiled in shadow,
Now shimmering silver, inspires mortal fear,
Terrestrial Queen, expel from our hearts, the soul's mad fears wherever found,
And with holy aspect bless this incense, and Thy mystics, and this divine rite.)
(I call upon saffron-veiled Melinoe,
Sprang from the Daughter of Demeter and the Son of Kronos,
Born from when blissful life and dreaded death mixt,
It was there, where flows the lamentful river of Cocytus,
Zeus Katachthonios seduced Kore Karpophoroi,
So Thy limbs are partly black and partly white,
Night's Daughter and Daughter of the light,
Thy fair spectre, now veiled in shadow,
Now shimmering silver, inspires mortal fear.
Terrestrial Queen, expel from our hearts,
The soul's mad fears wherever found,
And with holy aspect bless this incense,
And Thy mystics, and this divine rite.)
Besides Hades is also referred to as being 'Zeus Meilichios'. Explicitly inscribed votive reliefs show that Meilichios was figured in the form of a serpent, who might be invoked as a kind of Ploutos, bringer of wealth. Ironically 'Zeus' appeared as a snake in order to seduce Persephone in Nonnus' Dionysiaca, like kata-chthonia said on the topic of the father of Melinoe and Zagreus, the father is written in a code as being Hades rather than Zeus.
In several places like Locri, Eleusis, Corinth and Ephyra, Plouton (Hades) and Persephone were the chief deities, the ones responsible for the fertility of the earth, for the cycle of life and death. As a Father-Mother god pairing much like Zeus and Hera, they had children to rule over other aspects of their dominion.
But during the rise of the polis and the writing down of oral myth, Zeus became the chief dominant god in a fractious region united by a single pantheon ruled over by a single sky god. Chief deities of the sea became Poseidon in much the same way, and Hades was relegated from rulership over the earth with his wife to rulership over only the dead. To make the pantheon make sense and include all gods, there couldn't be two chief deities of the living world. Those writing down the myths also surmised that Hades, as the ruler of the dead, was infertile and could not have produced children like Melinoe and Zagreus.
Zeus Olympios tended to obscure the earlier figure he had supplanted. Interesting little tidbit of information especially since quite a few of the books I've read mention that Zeus feared Hades because he robbed Hades of the right to be King of the gods. An Athenian of the fifth century would likely have conceived Zeus Meilichios as Zeus-Hades, Zeus "in his chthonic aspect", aka Hades, God of the Underworld.
kata-chthonia.com/post/7150411…
hi-its-kaye.tumblr.com/post/16…
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I need to read more Greek Mythology. I did not know this. I don't get why she is confused with Hecate. And about the different theories about birth... Aphrodite had 5 kids with her own son. It doesn't surprise me that Zeus would do the same. You can't swing a bat in ancient Greece without hitting one of Zeus's girlfriends... provided Hera hasn't killed them off yet.
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Goddess of Ghosts, ghostly pale.
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Thanks a lot! Much appreciated
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WWWWWOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWW that's amazing. I actually found you by typing in Melinoe, because she's my favorite Greek person 
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I'm so glad you like this! That you typed Melinoe means you know about Greek mythology and that you like it, great! 
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she is haunting, in a beautiful ghostly way. you cant help but be drawn to it, yet frightened at the same time...she is beautiful.
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Thanks a lot! And don't worry about pressing "fear", I wanted her to look a bit scary, as you said it so perfectly
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She's beautiful. And the fact you can't see her eyes adds a nice creepy factor (in any case, she was said to have black pits for eyes!)
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Yep, I love that thing about the eyes! Sometimes I draw her with black eyes and sometimes whitout them... now that's scary! Thanks for the comment!
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And like someone said, the lighting gives me the chills too.
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Lovely job! I especial love the hands and how there's some colors that seep so seamlessly between the black and white.
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Wow, this is gorgeous! ;u; And such a creepy little backstory. *hides in corner* I love the spookyyyy feeling to this! So great!!
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Ahhhh so cool and creepy at the same time!
I love the way it blends together. 
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Thanks a lot! Sorry for not answering sooner!
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You're welcome.
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Con este sí que te has salido de tu estilo habitual. ¡Me encanta! Me gusta mucho más que la otra Melinoe (aunque claro, también es un dibujo mucho más ambicioso y tal, así que es normal). La boca te ha quedado muy expresiva.
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Muchísimas gracias!!!! 
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¡Sí! Tengo ganas de ver qué clase de brujería se puede hacer con una cosa de esas.
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Pos entonces... QUEDADA ARTÍSTICAAAAAAAAAARGHSSS!!! jeje
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Wow. The lighting in this gives me chills! I want to see more work like this! It's beautiful!
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I'd love to make a really nice portrait of Persephone, good old style, for you
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Oh my goodness! That would be wonderful! And I know it would be gorgeous. We should definitely do an art trade!!! 
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