In Greek mythology, Peitho (Ancient Greek: Πειθώ, romanized: Peithō, lit. 'Persuasion' or 'winning eloquence') is the personification of persuasion. She is a goddess of charming speech. She is typically presented as an important companion of Aphrodite. Her opposite is Bia, the personification of force. As a personification, she was sometimes imagined as a goddess and sometimes an abstract power with her name used both as a common and proper noun. There is evidence that Peitho was referred to as a goddess before she was referred to as an abstract concept, which is rare for a personification. Peitho represents both sexual and political persuasion. She is associated with the art of rhetoric.
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👉 Peitho in the context of List of Oceanids
In Greek mythology, the nymph daughters of the Titan Oceanus (Ocean), were known collectively as the Oceanids. Four ancient sources give lists of names of Oceanids. The oldest, and longest such list, given by the late 8th–early 7th century BC Greek poet Hesiod, names 41 Oceanids. Hesiod goes on to say that these "are the eldest ... but there are many besides" and that there were "three thousand" Oceanids, a number interpreted as meaning "innumerable". While some of these names, such as Peitho, Metis and Tyche, certainly reflected existing traditions, many were probably mere poetic inventions. The probably nearly as old Homeric Hymn to Demeter lists twenty-one names, sixteen of which match those given by Hesiod, and were probably taken directly from there.
The roughly contemporary (? c. 1st century AD) Greek mythographer Apollodorus and the Latin mythographer Hyginus also give lists of Oceanids. Apollodorus gives a list containing seven names, as well as mentioning five other Oceanids elsewhere. Of these twelve names, eight match Hesiod. Hyginus, at the beginning of his Fabulae, lists sixteen names, while elsewhere he gives the names of ten others. Of these 26 names, only nine are found in Hesiod, the Homeric Hymn, or Apollodorus. Many other names are given in other ancient sources.
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Peitho in the context of Aphrodite Pandemos
Aphrodite Pandemos (Ancient Greek: Πάνδημος, romanized: Pándēmos; "common to all the people") occurs as an epithet of the Greek goddess Aphrodite. This epithet can be interpreted in different ways. In Plato's Symposium, Pausanias of Athens describes Aphrodite Pandemos as the goddess of sensual pleasures, in opposition to Aphrodite Urania, or "the heavenly Aphrodite". At Elis, she was represented as riding on a ram by Scopas. Another interpretation is that of Aphrodite uniting all the inhabitants of a country into one social or political body. In this respect she was worshipped at Athens along with Peitho (persuasion), and her worship was said to have been instituted by Theseus at the time when he united the scattered townships into one great body of citizens. According to some authorities, it was Solon who erected the sanctuary of Aphrodite Pandemos, either because her image stood in the agora, or because the hetairai had to pay the costs of its erection. The worship of Aphrodite Pandemos also occurs at Megalopolis in Arcadia, and at Thebes. A festival in honour of her is mentioned by Athenaeus. The sacrifices offered to her consisted of white goats. Pandemos occurs also as a surname of Eros. According to Harpocration, who quotes Apollodorus, Aphrodite Pandemos has very old origins, "the title Pandemos was given to the goddess established in the neighborhood of the Old Agora because all the Demos (people) gathered there of old in their assemblies which they called agorai." To honour Aphrodite's and Peitho's role in the unification of Attica, the Aphrodisia festival was organized annually on the fourth of the month of Hekatombaion (the fourth day of each month was the sacred day of Aphrodite). The Synoikia that honoured Athena, the protectress of Theseus and main patron of Athens, also took place in the month of Hekatombaion.
Christine Downing comments that, "Pausanias's description of the love associated with Aphrodite Pandemos as dedicated only to sensual pleasure and therefore directed indifferently to women and men, and that associated with the Ouranian Aphrodite as "altogether male" and dedicated to the education of the soul of the beloved is actually an innovation—for Aphrodite Ourania was served in Corinth by prostitutes and Aphrodite Pandemos was the goddess as worshipped by the whole community."
Peitho in the context of Ecbasus
In Greek mythology, Ecbasus (Greek: Έκβασος) was the son of Argus, the king and eponym of Argos (and son of Zeus and Niobe). According to the mythographer Apollodorus, his mother was Evadne, the daughter of the river god Strymon, and he was the sibling of Criasus, Epidaurus, and Piras. According to a scholion on Euripides, however, his mother was the Oceanid Peitho.
Ecbasus was the father of Agenor, himself the father of Argus Panoptes (the giant who guarded Io). According to the historian Charax, Ecbasus fathered Arestor, whose son, Pelasgus, settled in the region of Arcadia (which was originally known as Pelasgia).