MINTHE

oil on canvas (40 x 80 cm.)

€ 650,00

MINTHE (or Mintha) was a Naiad Nymph of Mount Minthe in Elis (southern Greece) who was loved by the god Haides. When she claimed to be superior to Persephone, the goddess transformed into a mint plant.

"Near Pylos, towards the east, is a mountain named after Minthe, who, according to myth, became the concubine of Haides, was trampled under foot by Kore (Core) [Persephone], and was transformed into garden-mint, the plant which some call hedyosmos. Furthermore, near the mountain is a precinct sacred to Haides."   Strabo, Geography 8. 3. 14 (trans. Jones) (Greek geographer C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.)

"Mint (Mintha), men say, was once a maid beneath the earth, a Nymphe of Kokytos (Cocytus), and she lay in the bed of Aidoneus [Hades]; but when he raped the maid Persephone from the Aitnaian hill [Mount Etna in Sicily], then she complained loudly with overweening words and raved foolishly for jealousy, and Demeter in anger trampled upon 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 spray the weak herb that bears her name."   Oppian, Halieutica 3. 485 ff (trans. Mair) (Greek poet C3rd A.D.)

"Persephone of old was given grace to change a woman's [Mintha's] form to fragrant mint."   Ovid, Metamorphoses 10. 728 ff (trans. Melville) (Roman epic C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.)

source: http://www.theoi.com