In Greek mythology, Peitho ( or 'winning eloquence'[ Brill's New Pauly, s.v. Peitho.] She is typically presented as an important companion of Aphrodite. Her opposite is Bia, the personification of force.
Family
Peitho's ancestry is unclear, as various authors provide different identities for her parents.
Hesiod in
Theogony identifies Peitho as the daughter of the Titans Tethys and
Oceanus, which would make her an
Oceanid and the sister of notable goddesses such as Dione, Doris, and Metis.
[Hesiod, Theogony 346–349 & 362–366 ] According to the lyric poet
Sappho, she was the daughter of Aphrodite.
[Sappho fr. 200 Campbell, pp. 186–7 =; Gantz, p. 104.] Aeschylus identifies her as the daughter of Aphrodite in
Suppliant Women (Hiketides), but also describes her as the child of Ate in
Agamemnon.
[Aeschylus, Suppliant Women, 1039.][Aeschylus, Agamemnon, 385.] Nonnus in his
Dionysiaca describes the
Charites (Graces), an ensemble of goddesses of grace and charm, as including Peitho,
Pasithea, and Aglaia, and all of them are identified as daughters of
Dionysus.
[Nonnus, Dionysiaca, 24.261.] The Hellenistic era
elegiac poet Hermesianax also refers to Peitho as one of the Charites.
[Pausanias, Description of Greece, 9.35.5] Alcman describes her as the daughter of
Prometheus and the sister of
Tyche and
Eunomia.
[Alcman, Fragments 3 & 64.]
Nonnus identifies Peitho as the wife of Hermes, the messenger of the gods.[Nonnus, Dionysiaca, 8.220 & 48.230.] However, commentary on Euripides Orestes notes that Peitho is the wife of Phoroneus, the primordial King of Argos, and the mother of Aegialeus, Apis, Europs and Niobe.[Scholia ad Euripides, Orestes 932] An alternative Argive tradition describes her instead as the wife of Argos, Phoroneus's grandson.[Scholia ad Euripides, Phoenissae 1116] The Byzantine Empire Encyclopedia text, Suda, states that the mother of Iynx was either Peitho or Ekho.
Mythology
Peitho plays a limited role in mythology, mainly appearing with or as a companion of Aphrodite.
A degraded fragment by Sappho may identify Peitho as an attendant of Aphrodite, although other possibilities are Hebe, Iris, or even Hekate.[Pindar, Pythian 9, 35-39.] She is also described as the nurse of the baby Erotes, who are Aphrodite's children.[Nonnus, Dionysiaca, 3.84.] A fragment by Ibycus describes Aphrodite and Peitho, who is described as tendered eyed ( aganoblepharos), nursing Euryalus among rose blossoms.[Ibycus, Fragment 288.]
Nonnus gives her a role within the marriage of Cadmus and Harmonia, as she appears to Kadmos in the form of a mortal slave and covers Kadmos in a mist to lead him unseen through Samothrace to the palace of Electra, Harmonia's adoptive mother.
When Zeus ordered the creation of the first woman, Pandora, Peitho and the Charites placed golden around her neck, and the Horae crowned Pandora's head with spring flowers.[Hesiod, Works and Days, 69-82.] Extravagant jewelry, particularly necklaces, were viewed with suspicion in Ancient Greek literature, as they were typically seen as a way for women to seduce men, making the necklace a way to enhance Pandora’s sexual attractiveness and persuasive abilities.
In art, Peitho is often represented with Aphrodite during the abduction of Helen, symbolizing the forces of persuasion and love at work during the scene.
Cult and function
Cults dedicated to Peitho date to at least the early 5th century.
In her role as an attendant or companion of Aphrodite, Peitho was intimately connected to the goddess of love and beauty. Aphrodite and Peitho were sometimes conflated, more commonly in the later periods, with the name Peitho appearing in conjunction with or as an
epithet of Aphrodite's name.
She is also identified with
Tyche in
Suppliant Women (Hiketides).[Aeschylus, Suppliant Women (Hiketides), Line 523.] Peitho was associated with marriage, since a suitor or his father would negotiate with the father or guardian of a young woman for her hand in marriage and offer a bridal price in return for her. The most desirable women drew many prospective suitors, and persuasive skill often determined the suitor's success.
Plutarch includes her on a list of five deities for new couples to pray to, also included are Zeus (Teleios),
Hera (Teleia), Aphrodite, and
Artemis.
[Plutarch, Moralia, Line 264b.]).]]Peitho was an important figure for emphasising civic harmony, particularly in
Athens and Argos, and harmony within interpersonal relationships.
Notably in Athens, the unification (
Synoecism) of the city by
Theseus was only possible with the intervention of both Aphrodite and Peitho to create democratic spirit and cooperation.
In Argos, she was paired with the early kings of the city, functioning as a civic unifier in a similar role as
Harmonia, the first Queen of Thebes.
On a 4th century vase from
Apulia, Peitho and Hermes are depicted together instructing
Triptolemus to teach agriculture to mankind, indicating Peitho's role in creating harmony through civilization.
Plutarch outlines Peitho’s role in interpersonal harmony in
Moralia, where he states that persuasion’s role within a marriage is so that spouses can achieve their wants without quarreling. In
Oresteia, Athena thanks Peitho after convincing the
Erinyes of her reasoning in acquitting
Orestes and successfully defusing strife.
[Aeschylus, Eumenides, 825-829] However, Peitho may be a destructive force when used for seduction or selfish personal gains, such as in
Oresteia where
Clytemnestra curses Peitho for Paris’s stealing of Helen, and she uses persuasion to convince
Cassandra to enter the house in order to murder her.
Cult within Athens
Pausanias reports that after the unification (
Synoecism) of
Athens, Theseus set up a cult of Aphrodite Pandemos and Peitho on the south slope of Acropolis of Athens.
[Pausanias, Description of Greece, 1.22.3.] In recognition of this myth, both goddesses were worshipped in the Attic
Aphrodisia.
Peitho was worshipped independently as the goddess of both sexual and rhetorical persuasion in Athens from the 4th century into the
Roman Empire, the time of Pausanias’s writing.
However, some scholars believe it is possible that worship dates to the 6th century, but there is not strong evidence for this assertion.
A votive inscription to Peitho was found at the site of the Temple of Aphrodite, reinforcing the link between these goddesses at Athens.
The Theatre of Dionysus had seat reserved for the priestess of Peitho.
Peitho was an important figure to Athenian
in 5th century and was considered an important figure for human affairs, as persuasion was a major component to rhetoric. Rhetorician
Isocrates notes in Section 249 of
Antidosis that sacrifices are made to Peitho in the city annually.
Furthermore, comic poet
Eupolis said that Peitho sat on the lips of
Pericles for his persuasive skills.
Persuasion was considered essential for the democratic state's success.
Cults within other Greek cities
Despite her connection to Aphrodite in Athens, Peitho was more commonly associated with Artemis in the
Peloponnese, as the two goddesses either shared a temple at Argos or "Peitho" being used as an epithet for Artemis.
Peitho’s association with Artemis may have formed due to a shared with importance with adult development and the loss of sexual innocence.
At Argos, this temple was also shared with
Hypermnestra, who was acquitted in trial of a case brought by her father, as she was the only Danaid who did not murder her husband on her wedding night as per her father's orders.
With this association, Peitho is connected to persuasive speech generally as opposed to just seductive persuasion.
Pindar refers to courtesans and prostitutes in Corinth as "the servants of Peitho", however, he does not elaborate on whether there was any cults associated with Peitho in the city nor whether courtesans had a particular reverence for the goddess.[Pindar, Eulogies Fragment 122.] This passage has stirred debate among scholars one whether sacred prostitution was practiced in Greece.
In Sicyon, Peitho had a cult and a temple, which was connected to the cults of Artemis and Apollo.[Pausanias, Description of Greece, 2.7.8] The aetiological myth for this practice was that the citizens of Sicyon refused to purify the twin gods after the slaying of Python, and as a result a plague was sent to the city. Seven boys and girls went to the river to convince the gods to return, they were successful, indicating that even the gods are susceptible to the power of persuasion, and the sanctuary to Peitho was established at this spot.
According to Pausanias, in addition to the cults and sanctuaries dedicated to Peitho at Athens and Argos, there was an image decorating the throne at the Temple of Zeus at Olympia where Aphrodite, rising from the sea is greeted by Eros and crowned by Peitho.[Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio 2.7.7, 2.21.1 & 5.11.8][Pausanias, Description of Greece, 5.11.8] In Megara, statues of Peitho and Paregoros (personification of soothing words) stood in the Temple of Aphrodite Praxis (of intercourse).
Notes
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Brill’s New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World. Antiquity, Volume 10, Obl-Phe, editors: Hubert Cancik, Helmuth Schneider, Brill Publishers, 2007. . Online version at Brill.
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Timothy Gantz, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, Two volumes: (Vol. 1), (Vol. 2).
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Hesiod, Theogony from The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.
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Hesiod, Works and Days from The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.
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Nonnus, Dionysiaca translated by William Henry Denham Rouse (1863-1950), from the Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 1940. Online version at the Topos Text Project.
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Nonnus of Panopolis, Dionysiaca. 3 Vols. W.H.D. Rouse. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1940-1942. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
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Pausanias, Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. . Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
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Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio. 3 vols. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
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Smith, William; Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London (1873). "Peitho" 1.
Further reading
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