Perse (mythology)

In the Theogony, 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 and Tethys.^[1][2][3] Homer also made Perse a child of Oceanus.^[4]

Perse was one of the wives of the sun god, Helios.^[5][6] According to Homer and Hesiod, with Helios she had Circe and Aeëtes,^[7] with later authors also mentioning their children Pasiphaë,^[8] Perses,^[9] Aloeus,^[10] and even Calypso,^[10] who is however more commonly the daughter of Atlas. It is not clear why Perse bore Helios, the source of all light, such dark and mysterious children.^[11]

When Aphrodite cursed Helios to fall in love with the mortal princess Leucothoe, 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 goddess Hecate, who was also called Perseis (as in "daughter of Perses")^[14][15] as a mortal priestess of Artemis by the name Hecate is listed as Circe's mother in Diodorus Siculus' account.^[16][17]

Perseis' name has been linked to Περσίς (Persís), "female Persian", and πέρθω (pérthō), "destroy" or "slay" or "plunder".^{[citation needed]}

Kerenyi also noted the connection between her and Hecate due to their names, denoting a chthonic aspect of the nymph, as well as that of Persephone, 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 the Moon.^[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 of Mycenaean Greek (written in Linear B) was found on a tablet from Pylos, 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]

Other nymphs and magic-related figures in Greek mythology:

• Medea
• Perimede
• Neaera
• List of Oceanids
• List of Mycenaean deities