Minthe

Template:Short description Template:About Template:Infobox deity

In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, Minthe (also spelled Menthe, Mintha or Mentha; Template:Langx or {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} or {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) is an underworld naiad associated with the river Cocytus. She was beloved by and mistress to Hades, the king of the underworld, but she was transformed into a mint plant by either his wife Persephone or her mother Demeter.Template:Sfn<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The plant was also called by some as hedyosmos (Template:Langx), which means "sweet-smelling".<ref>Strabo, Geographica 8.3</ref>

EtymologyEdit

The ancient Greek noun {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} or {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} translates to 'mint'.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn According to Robert Beekes, it is of undoubtedly pre-Greek origin due to the variant ending in "-ᾰ".Template:Sfn The -nth-/-nthos- element in menthe has been described as a characteristic of a class of words borrowed from a Pre-Greek language: compare akanthos, Zakynthos, labyrinthos, Korinthos, and hyakinthos.Template:Sfn The word has been also found in a Bronze Age tablet, spelled in Linear B as {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (mi-ta).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

MythologyEdit

Template:Greek myth (nymph)

The naiad Minthe, daughter of the infernal river-god Cocytus, became concubine to Hades, the lord of the underworld and god of the dead.Template:Sfn<ref>Patriarch Photius, Lexicon μίνθα</ref> In jealousy, his wife Persephone intervened and metamorphosed Minthe, in the words of Strabo's account, "into the garden mint, which some call hedyosmos (lit. 'sweet-smelling')". A mountain near Pylos was named after Minthe, where one of the few temples of Hades in Greece was situated:

Near Pylus, towards the east, is a mountain named after Minthe, who, according to myth, became the concubine of Hades, was trampled under foot by Core, and was transformed into garden-mint, the plant which some call Hedyosmos. Furthermore, near the mountain is a precinct sacred to Hades<ref>Strabo, Geographica 8.3.14.</ref>

Similarly to that, a scholiast on Nicander wrote that Minthe became Hades' mistress; for this Persephone tore her into pieces, but Hades turned his dead lover into the fragrant plant that bore her name in her memory.<ref>Scholia ad Nicandri Alexipharmaca 375</ref>Template:Sfn Ovid also briefly mentions Minthe and her transformation at the hands of Persephone in his Metamorphoses, but neglects to mention the story behind it.<ref>Ovid, Metamorphoses 10.728.</ref> According to Oppian, Minthe had been Hades' mistress before he abducted and married Persephone, but he set her aside once he carried off and married his queen. Afterwards, she would boast that she surpassed Persephone in beauty and that Hades would soon return to her; in anger over the nymph's insolence, Persephone's mother Demeter trampled her, and thus from the earth sprang the mint herb:

Mint, men say, was once a maid beneath the earth, a Nymph of Cocytus, and she lay in the bed of Aidoneus; but when he raped the maid Persephone from the Aetnaean hill, then she complained loudly with overweening words and raved foolishly for jealousy, and Demeter in anger trampled her with her feet and destroyed her. For she had said that she was nobler of form and more excellent in beauty than dark-eyed Persephone and she boasted that Aidoneus would return to her and banish the other from his halls: such infatuation leapt upon her tongue. And from the earth sprang the weak herb that bears her name.<ref name="Oppian">Oppian, Halieutica 3.485 ff</ref>

Bell notes that Demeter went through too much pain following Persephone's abduction and partial return to tolerate any adulterous behaviour against her daughter.Template:Sfn Oppian writing that she was trampled to death is perhaps an allusion to the verb {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, minytho, meaning "to reduce".Template:Sfn Orpheus wrote that Demeter, seeing the mint sad, hated it, and made it barren.<ref>Etymologicum Graecae Linguae Gudianum, Μίνθη. A small collection of versions of Minthe's story can be found in Greek in here.</ref>Template:Sfn

According to Julius Pollux's Onomasticon, Minthe was mentioned by the poet Cratinus, an Athenian playwright of the Old Comedy, in his lost play Nomoi ("Laws").Template:Sfn

CultureEdit

The word used in ancient Greek texts to describe Minthe in relation to her affair with Hades is {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (pallakḗ), translating to 'concubine' or 'young girl'.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn In ancient Greek culture, a pallake referred to a man's unmarried consort; she was of lower status than a legally married wife, but stood higher than a common prostitute or a hetaira.Template:Sfn

In ancient Greece, mint was used in funerary rites, together with rosemary and myrtle, and not simply to offset the smell of decay;Template:Sfn mint was an element in the fermented barley drink called the kykeon that was an essential preparatory entheogen for participants in the Eleusinian Mysteries, which offered hope in the afterlife for initiates.Template:Sfn Minthe might have originated from Demeter's mystery cults, alongside figures like Baubo and the daughters of Celeus.Template:Sfn On the other hand, it has been argued that the myth is of Hellenistic (323 BC to 31 BC) origin instead.<ref name=":brill" /> It is probable that it emerged as a local story at Hades's shrine near Mount Minthe due to some special connection between the plant and the god.Template:Sfn

The mint was highly valued due to its aromatic properties and its capacity as a condiment that brings out the flavour of many foods. Mint was used as an appetising spice, for perfume-making, woven in wreaths, and it would be hung up in rooms in order to improve and fresh up the air.<ref name=":brill">Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> It also was regarded as a powerful aphrodisiac, hence Minthe's role in becoming the lover of Hades; at the same time it was used as a contraceptive method,Template:Sfn as it was believed that consuming it before the act would prevent a pregnancy.Template:Sfn Thus the mint, a plant of sterility, was seen as the opponent of Demeter, the goddess of fertility, argues Detienne.Template:Sfn

Forbes Irving meanwhile disagrees with this interpretation, as Minthe's connection to Demeter is already established via the kykeon, and while it is true that Hades and Minthe's relationship is a barren one, since no children are produced from the couple, the same is true for Hades and Persephone's.Template:Sfn The pomegranate fruit, central to the myth of Hades and Persephone's marriage, was also both a fertility symbol and a birth control method just like the mint.Template:Sfn