There is one goddess of the ancient Greek pantheon which is more mysterious than all others, that goddess is Despoina. Despoina can be described at best as one of the more minor of Greek goddess, and yet the mystery remains as no one knows what her name is. Despoina means queen, lady or damsel, and so is a title rather than a name.

Despoina is the daughter of the goddess Demeter. Demeter was travelling to all of the corners of the world in search of her lost daughter Persephone, Persephone having been kidnapped by Hades. During this journey, the sea god, Poseidon, took a strong desire to make Demeter his.

Demeter though was herself one of the major Olympian goddesses, and so did everything in her power to avoid the lustful attentions of Poseidon. In the end Demeter decided to disguise herself and so transformed herself into a mare, and hid herself amongst the herds of Arcadia. Poseidon was not to be fooled, and so transformed himself into a stallion to continue the pursuit. Coming across her hidden amongst the other mares, Poseidon had his way with Demeter, and from the union Despoina was born. From the same coupling the mythical speaking and immortal horse Arion was also born.

After her birth there is little mention of Despoina in any surviving text, and the limited knowledge that has survived is only in passing mention. These mentions see small fragments of information emerge, like the fact that Despoina in childhood was tutored by Anytus, although whether this was the Titan of that name, or the Arcadian spirit is not clear.

The true name of Despoina is said to have been only known to those initiated into her worship at the temple dedicated to her at Lycosura in Arcadia, and none of the initiates were allowed to pass on that knowledge and so the name has now been lost for all time.

The worship at Lycosura seemed to focus on Despoina as being primarily a goddess of fertility, although she is also closely linked with domain of Hades. Indeed later Roman mythology often places her as a queen of the underworld, although it is not a role given to her within Greek mythology.

The goddess known as Despoina though should not be confused with the other Greek goddesses who used it as a title themselves. Hera, Artemis and most of the other Olympian goddesses used the title of Despoina as a suffix at one point or other.

It is amazing to consider just how much of Greek mythology has been lost to the modern world, and although there are many hundreds of stories, the earliest tales were passed down in the oral tradition. Thus stories have been lost and even the names of goddesses are now unknown, just like the true name of Despoina.