Chapter 40
Melinoe Melinoë /mᵻˈlɪnoʊiː/ (Ancient Greek: Μηλινόη) is a chthonic nymph or goddess invoked in one of the Orphic Hymns and propitiated as a bringer of nightmares and madness.[1] The name also appears on a metal tablet in association with Persephone.[2] The hymns, of uncertain date but probably composed in the 2nd or 3rd century AD. In the hymn, Melinoë has characteristics that seem similar to Hecate and the Erinyes,[3] and the name is sometimes thought to be an epithet of Hecate.[4] The terms in which Melinoë is described are typical of moon goddesses in Greek poetry.
40.1 Name Melinoë may derive from Greek mēlinos (μήλινος), “having the color of quince,” from mēlon (μῆλον), “tree fruit”.[5] The fruit’s yellowish-green color evoked the pallor of illness or death for the Greeks. A name derived from melas, “black,” would be melan-, not melin-.[6]
40.2 Hymn Following is the translation by Apostolos Athanassakis and Benjamin M. Wolkow, of the hymn to Melinoe: I call upon Melinoe, saffron-cloaked nymph of the earth, whom revered Persephone bore by the mouth of the Kokytos river upon the sacred bed of Kronian Zeus. In the guise of Plouton Zeus and tricked Persephone and through wiley plots bedded her; a two-bodied specter sprang forth from Persephone’s fury. This specter drives mortals to madness with her airy apparitions as she appears in weird shapes and strange forms, now plain to the eye, now shadowy, now shining in the darkness— all this in unnerving attacks in the gloom of night. O goddess, O queen of those below, I beseech you to banish the soul’s frenzy to the ends of the earth, show to the initiates a kindly and holy face.[7]
40.3 Birth Melinoë is the daughter of Persephone, who was visited by Zeus disguised as her husband Hades.[8] Although the wording of the hymn is unclear at this point,[9] Pluto (or perhaps Zeus) becomes angry upon learning of the pregnancy and rends her flesh. The figure called Zeus Chthonios in the Orphic Hymns is either another name for Pluto or Zeus in a chthonic aspect.[10] Melinoë is born at the mouth of the Cocytus, one of the rivers of the underworld, where Hermes in his underworld aspect as psychopomp was stationed.[11] In the Orphic tradition, the Cocytus is one of four underworld rivers.[12] 318