Potnia Theron (Ἡ Πότνια Θηρῶν, "Mistress of the Animals") is a term first used (once) by Homer (Iliad 21. 470) and often used to describe female divinities associated with animals. The word Potnia, meaning mistress or lady, was a Mycenaean word inherited by Classical Greek, with the same meaning, which has an exact parallel in Sanskrit patnī.
Homer's mention of potnia theron is thought to refer to Artemis and Walter Burkert describes this mention as "a well established formula". An Artemis type deity, a 'Mistress of the Animals', is often assumed to have existed in prehistorical religion and often referred to as Potnia Theron, with some scholars positing a relationship between Artemis and goddesses depicted in Minoan art and "Potnia Theron has become a generic term for any female associated with animals."
Famous quotes containing the word theron:
“His berd as any sowe or fox was reed,
And therto brood, as though it were a spade.
Upon the cop right of his nose he hade
A werte, and theron stood a toft of herys
Reed as the brustles of a sowes erys.
His nosethirles blake were and wyde.”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)