If she wished it, her sendings could easily drive a mortal insane. Melinoë could cause nightmares and night terrors in people, which she did by shifting into bizarre forms, turning invisible, and appearing as a shadow – a power she shared with Hades. In some myths, she is conflated with her mother, are both are considered Underworld queens. She was born at the mouth of the Cocytus River, which was the base of her cousin Hermes in his role as a psychopomp (an escort to the Underworld for souls). She was the goddess of the restless dead – those who were never buried or given funerals – and her ghost companions were the reason that dogs bark at seemingly thin air. In Orphic myth, both Hades and Zeus, separate and one at the same time, are her father. Her father was sometimes listed as Zeus rather than Hades, though like Zagreus, this is partly because Orphic myth conflated Zeus and Hades into one deity. Melinoë was either a goddess or an under-earth nymph, born of Persephone. Nevertheless, both have strong ties to death, honor, Hades, Persephone, and the Underworld. It’s unclear whether this is the case or whether the names are coincidental and the two Makarias are separate entities. She may have there been adopted as a daughter by Hades, and after this been reborn as the goddess. For this, the city of Athens threw a lavish funeral in her honor.Īfter she died, she traveled to the Underworld. Makaria offered herself to save the lives of other girls and protect the city. That Makaria was in Athens when it was threatened, and an oracle claimed that they would only win if offered herself as a sacrifice to Persephone. Makaria may be related or conflated with a daughter of Heracles, Hades’s nephew and a great Greek hero. Those who did not receive a blessed death were likely to face fear or damnation.
Makaria would grant them the peace of the next life. Those who died courageously in battle, childbirth, or other brave circumstances were considered blessed. She was the goddess who presided over peaceful or blessed deaths. Makaria worked closely with her father and with the god of the dead Thanatos. Her mother may have been Persephone, one of the residents of the Underworld, or she may have had no mother. Makaria, whose name means ‘blessed’, was the daughter of Hades. A lot of what modern historians and ethnologists know of Zagreus comes from conjecture based on fragments of mosaics, poems, and other such artworks. As he is one of the oldest gods and may in fact outdate the god who is most commonly known as his father, all information is fragmented and poetic. Information on Zagreus in traditional myth is limited compared to the Orphic version. In Orphic myth, this is how Zagreus-Dionysus was reincarnated.
In some accounts, the parts of his body were mixed in a potion and given to Semele, the mother of Dionysus. Later, either Zagreus’s grandmother Rhea or his aunt and grandmother Demeter reassembled and brought him back to life. Apollo buried the pieces of his cousin still in the cauldron at a safe place in Delphi. In Orphic myth, Zagreus-Dionysus was dismembered and eaten by the Titans, who drank his blood, boiled his bones, and roasted him on a spit. In the more standard Greek mythology, Zagreus was considered the highest of the Underworld gods, and also a close companion or even consort of Gaia, the personification of Earth. In this version of the myth, he was known as the second Dionysus, son of the dual-god Zeus-Hades.
Zagreus was the son of Hades and Persephone who was heavily identified with Orphic myth.
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