In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, the epithet Brimo ( ; "angry"[ Obrimos, "raging" is an aspect of Ares (Harrison 1922:552).] or "terrifying") may be applied to any of several goddesses with an inexorable, dreaded and vengeful aspect that is linked to the Greek Underworld: Hecate, Persephone,[Apollonius of Rhodes, 3.861 & 1211; John Tzetzes ad Lycophron, 1176] Demeter—the angry, bereft Demeter[Arnobius, v.170.]—or Cybele.[Theodoret, Cure of the Greek Maladies i.699.] Brimo is the "furious" aspect of the Erinyes. In the solemn moment when Medea picks the dire underworld root for Jason, she calls seven times upon Brimo, "she who haunts the night, the Nursing Mother ''Harrison 1922:552. The translation is Miss Harrison's; the scholiast on the passage identifies Brimo as Hecate: "they called her Brimo because of the terror and horror of her."
The Thessalian or Thrace word Brimo was foreign in Attica.[Kerenyi 1967:92.] Brimo-Hecate was worshipped at Pherae in Thessaly and has connections with Orphic religion, in which Persephone was prominent.[R. E. Glanville Downey, "The "Pure" Meadow" Classical Philology 26.1 (January 1931, pp. 94-97), p 95.]
The Alexandra of Lycophron makes clear that when Hecuba is to be transformed into one of the hounds of the triple Hecate, Brimo is an epithet of the Thessaly goddess of the Underworld.
Clement of Alexandria was of the opinion that Brimo was only a title of Demeter at Eleusis.[Clement, Protrepticus i.15.] At the Eleusinian Mysteries, the Christian writer Hippolytus reports,[Hippolytus of Rome, Philosophoumena v.1] the hierophant announced the birth of Brimos: "The Mistress has given birth to a Holy Boy! Brimo has given birth to Brimos! that is, the Strong One to the Strong One"[ Potnia Kouros Brimou Brimon. See Jane Ellen Harrison, Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, 3rd ed. 1922:551ff; Karl Kerenyi, Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter 1967:92f.] Brimos is thus the child of Persephone, whose epiphany was at the heart of the Eleusinian Mysteries.
In later, more worldly and cynical times, the archaic and fearful spirit could be mocked: in Lucian of Samosata's parody Oracle of the Dead, Brimo is among the voters recorded by the magistrates of Hades: she groans her assent while Cerberus yelps "aye!".
In the Hermeticism found in Egypt, Brimo makes a natural appearance in incantations connected with the catabasis ritual, of entering the Underworld and returning unharmed.[Hans Dieter Betz, "Fragments from a Catabasis Ritual in a Greek Magical Papyrus" History of Religions 9.4 (May 1980), pp. 287-295.]
Notes
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Karl Kerenyi, Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Child (Princeton: Bollingen Press) 1967.
