Desponia- The mistress.

William Smith quoting Pausanias mentions two temples in the neighbourhood of Thelpusa, one above and the other below the city.

The one above was the temple of Demeter Eleusinia, containing statues of Demeter, Persephone and Dionysus, made of stone, and which probably stood at the castle opposite to Spathari.

The temple below the city was also sacred to Demeter, whom the Thelpusians called Erinnys.




When Persephone was lost, Demeter searched far and wide
Seeking her lost child

Always behind her, the reek of the sea, the dark, suck and crush of the wave.

Always following, came Poseidon

To avoid him
Demeter became a mare and ran with the other horses in the herds of king Onkios.

Then Poseidon became a stallion and as such forced himself into her, into Demeter Erinys.

Demeter the avenger.
Demeter the infernal.
Demeter the persecutor.

In a twist of words,  Apollo was almost sent to his death by a spirit of spring-water called Telphusa.

Telphusa sent him to Pytho
The Earth snake...

The python dealt with

Apollo returned to Telphusa and covered her in stone..
Created the mountain
(the hursag...where have I heard this story before..)

Whilst Tilphossa Enyres gave birth to the theban drakon (Ismenian dragon)  fathered by Lord of War, Ares.

Meanwhile at a temple at Thelpusian Onkeion, Demeter was known by the Thelpusians as Erinnys

The daughter of the horses
Child of Demeter and Poseidon
Was  Despoina- dems-potnia

Not Atana potnia...that is Ariadne.

Potnia- The mistress.

A goddess of the Arcadians
(not the Akkadians)
Honoured above all others.

Pausanius tells us
At a shrine close to Lykosura
He recognised a similar cult to the one at Phigalia


Desponia was worshiped besides the Black Demeter.
The two goddesses were portrayed sitting.

A third goddess, Artemis stood, holding a flaming torch and writhing serpents



Hecate, the 'Underworld' Artemis.
As Demeter is portrayed horse headed
With serpent locks

Slipping her masks becoming Medusa...

http://e-ska.deviantart.com/art/Medusa-105441000
Another child was born to Demeter and Poseidon
The black-maned horse, Areion.
As Pegasus was born to Medusa.





But back to Telphusa
Trying to trick Apollo at Delphi..

There is a story that before  then...
Zeus killed Apollo.
No Telphusa...

Instead

Coruscating heat.
The thunderbolt....

Gone!

Then Apollo wondered the Hypoborean lands...
Beyond the north wind.
The land of eternal spring.
Of European myth.

Swans and chariots
The star Deneb, Newgrange and Callanish.




The poet Alkaios tells us that Zeus sent the infant Apollo to Delphi on a chariot of swans.

But Apollo directs the swans to fly him to Hypoborea...

Like Nergal and Meslamtea
Dead gods must have a twin.

Each February
Apollo returns to Delphi...for a full nine months of worship, and serpent fathered, winter-king Dionysos leaves.

But when Dionysos is king.
At the January/February full moon
The dead walk among us.

The Athenian Anthesteria.
The Delphic Theophania...

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