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[491] ἐπαινῆς. This epithet of Persephone is used five times in Homer, e. g. Il.9. 457“Ζεύς τε καταχθόνιος καὶ ἐπαινὴ Περσεφόνεια”, ib. 569 “Ἀίδην καὶ ἐπαινὴν Π.”, in the present passage, inf. 534, and Od.11. 47.In every instance the epithet belongs to Persephone as the companion of Hades. Some regard the word as meaning ‘praiseworthy’ (like “ἀγαυή” or “ἁγνή”, which are other epithets of Persephone), supposing that it may be another form of “ἐπαινετή”, or a direct verbal adjective from “ἔπαινος” with change of accent. Thus we have the substantive “ἀσφόδελος”, and the adjective “ἀσφοδελός” ( Od.11. 539), “φόνος” and “φονός, κέρας” and “κεραός”, and so, possibly, “ἔπαινος” and “ἐπαινός”. But in this inseparable connection with Hades, Persephone is likely to have a more terrible title than this, and thus it is preferable to take “ἐπαινή” from an adjective compounded of “ἐπί” and “αἰνός” (fearful); or with Buttm. to write “καὶ ἐπ᾽ αἰνή”, ‘and besides,’ ‘and along with him’ (sc. Hades), ‘awful’ Persephone. In later Greek, e. g. Tryphiodor. 2 the epithet is used wrongly in the sense of ‘laudabilis,’ and applied to Deidameia. The name “Περσεφόνη” (“εια”) was also written “Φερσεφόνη”, and, according to the double view which regarded the goddess as dispenser of wealth or of death, it was variously derived from “φέρειν . . ἄφενος”, and “φέρειν . . ὄνησιν” (Hesych.), or from “φέρειν . . . φόνον” (Eustath.). Cp. Orph. H.29. 16“Φερσεφόνεια, φέρεις γὰρ ἀεὶ καὶ πάντα φονεύεις”. According to Plato, Cratyl. 404, this name was avoided as too awful, and the title “Περσέφασσα” or “Φερσέφασσα” preferred, which was thought to have an allusion to some sort of sacred dove. Porphyr. de abstin. 4. 16 “τῆς δὲ Φερρεφάττης παρὰ τὸ φέρβειν τὴν φάτταν φασὶν οἱ πολλοὶ τοὔνομα τῶν θεολόγων: ἱερὸν γὰρ αὐτῆς ἡ φάττα”. See Preller, Gk. Myth. § 628. But “Περσέφασσα” is probably “Περσε-φατία” from root “φεν, φον”, in the weak form “φα”.

Homer's Odyssey. W. Walter Merry. James Riddell. D. B. Monro. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1886-1901.

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