Potnia is an Ancient Greek word for "Mistress, Lady" and a title of a goddess. The word was inherited by Classical Greek from Mycenean Greek with the same meaning and it was applied to several goddesses. A similar word is the title Despoina, "the mistress", which was given to the nameless chthonic goddess of the mysteries of Arcadian cult. She was later conflated with Kore (Persephone), "the maiden", the goddess of the Eleusinian Mysteries, in a life-death rebirth cycle which leads the neophyte from death into life and immortality. Karl Kerenyi identifies Kore with the nameless "Mistress of the labyrinth", who probably presided over the palace of Knossos in Minoan Crete. Etymology Potnia (Greek: , "mistress") is a poetic title of honour, used chiefly in addressing females, whether goddesses or women; its masculine analogue is posis (). Its hypothetical Proto-Indo-European (PIE) form *, "mistress", "lady", "wife", is the feminine counterpart to *pótis, "husband"; cf. Latin ho, "host", Sanskrit , "master", "husband", fem. , "lady", "wife". Potnia is attested in the Linear B script in Mycenean Greek: po-ti-ni-ja. The word was inherited in classical Greek with the same meaning. A related Greek word is despoina ("Des-potnia" from PIE *dems-potnia meaning "mistress of the house"). An alternative etymology of the goddess Demeter comes through Potnia and Despoina ("Dems-meter", from PIE *dems-méh₂tēr, meaning "mother of the house"). Potnia is possibly also etymologically related to Ptgyh, an attested Philistine goddess. Origins The figure of a goddess of nature, of birth and death was dominant during the Bronze Age, in both Minoan and Mycenean cults. In the Mycenean cult she was known by the title Potnia. The earliest references to the title are inscriptions in Linear B (Mycenean Greek) syllabic script found at Pylos and at Knossos, Crete, dated 1450-1300 BC. On a number of tablets from Pylos, we find po-ti-ni-ja (potnia) without any accompanying word. Chadwick suggests that she was the mother-goddess of the Mycenaeans. It seems that she had an important shrine at the site Pakijanes near Pylos. Wanax (wa-na-ka) was her male companion in the Mycenean cult, and this title was usually applied to the god Poseidon (po-se-da-o) as king of the underworld. Another epithet of Poseidon was e-ne-si-da-o-ne ("earth-shaker") and in the cave of Amnisos (Crete) Enesidaon is related to the cult of Eileithyia. She was a goddess of nature concerned with the annual birth of the divine child. Potnia and