𓈒 🪴 Lady , Daeira 𖦹
♰ ◞ Overview
𓏏 Daeira was surely connected with the rites of the Eleusinian Mysteries. Her name means "Knowing One" or "Teacher" from the Greek verb daô which appears to connect her with the instruction of initiates in the secret knowledge of the Mysteries. The name Daeira was also an Eleusinian title of the goddess Persephone. Daeira may also have been identified with the Eleusinian Hekate who, according to some, was a consort of Hermes Khthonios (the Guide of the Dead).
︵｡ Hellenic ♡ God of
༚ 𓏵 Fertility, water / wells ..
𓈒 🏛️ portrayed , art 𖦹
♰ ◞ often shown as a nymphe or goddess connected to the sacred well at Eleusis. Due to the secrecy of the Mysteries, there are no standardized artistic portrayals like those for more mainstream deities
𓏏 Worship / Devotional acts
︵｡ water ♡ She received cult in some Attic *demes, apparently had a shrine at *Eleusis, but was not worshipped in the *mysteries, spirit worship, Persephone worship, pomegranates
༚ 𓏵 Sources + Notes ..
Theoi.com, myeleusis.com, oxfordre.com, researchgate.net/publication/338291443_Daeira_the_lady_of_the_waters, academia.edu/39617311/Δάειρα_the_lady_of_the_waters
A particularly intriguing testimony comes from Phanodemos of Athens (fr. 15 Jacoby = 279 Harding) according to whom the priestess of Demeter was required to be absent at sacrifices to Daira and to abstain from her rites6. Based on this animosity, Phanodemos theorizes that Daeira must be equated with Aphrodite, while Phot. δ 5 preserves another opinion according to which Daeira is supposed to be identical with Hera. Daeira appears to have had her own priests: according to Pollux 1.35, among Eleusinian priests and priestesses there was a cult functionary with the title δαειρίτης. In general, Daeira’s semi-syncretism with Persephone may be due to a variety of reasons: for instance, the location of the cult may have played a role; alternatively, one may hypothesize that her identification with the cult of Demeter and Persephone was caused by the similarity between Δάειρα and δαίς ‘torch’ (cf. Δαῖρα παρὰ τὴν δᾷδα advocated by John Tzetzes in his comment on Lyc. Alex. 710, cf. Et. Magn. 244.34; it is also possible, however, that we find here a secondary inference from the cult in which Daeira had become conflated with Demeter). Be that as it may, linguistic considerations speak strongly against seeing in Δάειρα «another feminine agent of δαίω» (so Robertson 2010: 120): -ηρ (< *-er-, fem. *-er-ia) is not a known agent noun suffix in Greek.
