Opora (mythology)

{{About|the Greek fertility goddess|other uses|Opora (disambiguation){{!}}Opora}}

{{Infobox deity

| type = Greek

| name = Opora

| other_names = Opore

| script_name = Greek

| script = {{lang|grc|Ὀπώρα}}

| god_of = Goddess of harvest, fruit and autumn

| consort = Sirius, Trygaeus

| abode = Earth

| texts = Peace

}}

In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Opora ({{langx|grc|Ὀπώρα|Opṓra|autumn, fruit}}) is a minor goddess connected to fruit, the harvest, especially wine harvest, and the season of autumn. She is a fairly obscure goddess, although she features in a little-known myth centered around her romance with the stellar god Sirius, the Dog Star.{{cite encyclopedia | doi = 10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e832290 | last = Käppel | first = Lutz | location = Kiel | date = 2006 | url = https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/brill-s-new-pauly/opora-e832290 | title = Opora | encyclopedia = Brill's New Pauly | publisher = Brill Reference Online | editor-first1 = Hubert | editor-last1 = Cancik | editor-first2 = Helmuth | editor-last2 = Schneider | translator = Christine F. Salazar | access-date = June 20, 2023}}

A close equivalent in Roman mythology is found in the fertility goddess Pomona.{{cite web | title = Μορφές και Θέματα της Αρχαίας Ελληνικής Μυθολογίας: Αναξαρέτη | trans-title = Figures and Themes of Greek Mythology: Anaxarete | url = https://www.greek-language.gr/digitalResources/ancient_greek/mythology/lexicon/metamorfoseis/page_032.html | first = Demetra | last = Metta | language = Greek | website = www.greek-language.gr | access-date = November 21, 2023}}

Etymology

The ancient Greek noun Opora referred to the part of the year between the rising of the stars Sirius and Arcturus, that is the end of July, all August and part of September at the end of summer; later it was used for late summer{{sfn|Slater|1969|loc=s.v. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0072:entry=o)pw/ra ὀπώρα]}} and autumn.{{sfn|Liddell|Scott|1940|loc=s.v. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry=o)pw/ra ὀπώρα]}} In extension of its use for fruit-time it could refer to fruit itself, and figuratively to summer-bloom.{{sfn|Liddell|Scott|1940|loc=s.v. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry=o)pw/ra ὀπώρα]}}

The word apparently derives from the base of {{lang|grc|ὀψέ}} meaning "late, after" and {{lang|grc|ὥρα}} meaning "hour, time".{{cite encyclopedia | title = G3703 | last = Strong | first = James | date = 1979 | encyclopedia = Strong's Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible | author-link = James Strong (theologian) | access-date = June 20, 2023 | url = https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g3703/kjv/tr/0-1/}} Robert Beekes suggests the Proto-Indo-European roots *h₁opi meaning 'at, on' and *h₁os-r/n- meaning 'harvest-time, summer'.{{sfn|Beekes|2010|loc=s.v. [https://archive.org/details/etymological-dictionary-of-greek/page/1094/mode/2up?view=theater ὀπώρα]}} It seems to be a contraction of an original form *ὀποσάρα (*op-osára) or *op-ohara, ultimately from a Proto-Indo-European root *(s)h₁ósr̥ or *h₁ósh₂r, meaning the harvest season.{{sfn|Schaffner|2001|pages=451-452}}{{sfn|Pooth|2018|page=1}}

The later Greek word for autumn, {{lang|grc|φθινόπωρον}} (phthinópōron), covering September through November, is derived from her name and literally translates to 'end of the opora'.{{sfn|Beekes|2010|loc=s.v. [https://archive.org/details/etymological-dictionary-of-greek/page/1094/mode/2up?view=theater ὀπώρα]}}

Mythology

Her parentage is not specified in any surviving text.

Opora accompanies Irene, the goddess of peace and plenty, along with Theoria (who represents festive delegation) in Athenian comedian Aristophanes's comedy Peace; the god of commerce Hermes suggests to the character of Trygaeus, a middle-aged Athenian man who brought about a peaceful end to the Peloponnesian War, to marry Opora, whom he liberated from a celestial prison.Aristophanes, Peace [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0038%3Acard%3D520 523]-[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0038%3Acard%3D700 706 ff]. Trygaeus's name ({{langx|grc|Τρυγαῖος|Trugaîos}}) seems to derive from the Ancient Greek noun {{lang|grc|τρύγη}} (trúgē) which means grain crop, and in particular grape crop, denoting Opora's connection to the wine harvest and viticulture.{{sfn|Liddell|Scott|1940|loc=s.v. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aalphabetic+letter%3D*t%3Aentry+group%3D71%3Aentry%3Dtru%2Fgh τρύγη]}}

Opora has only one myth in whose plot she is central. While on a mission on the earth back when stars still made visits, the dog star Sirius sees Opora and falls madly in love with her. When he is unable to be with her, he starts burning with even greater heat due to his unrequited love.Schol. latinus Arati p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=SJQCAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA655 78] The humans, suffering, appeal to the gods for help. Boreas then, the god of the north wind, sends his sons to hand Opora over to Sirius while he cools down the heat with blasts of cold wind.{{cite journal | last = Arnott | first = William Geoffrey | title = A Note on Alexis' Opora | author-link = W. Geoffrey Arnott | journal = Rheinisches Museum für Philologie | volume = 98 | number = 4 | date = 1955 | pages = 312–15 | url = http://www.jstor.org/stable/41243800 | jstor = 41243800 | access-date = 20 June 2023}} It thus has parallels to the myth of Phaethon and the fiery chariot of his father. Sirius then goes on to glow every summer during harvest time in commemoration of this event and his great love, explaining the heat of the so-called dog days of summer, which was attributed to the star in antiquity.{{cite web | first = M. Rosemary | last = Wright | title = A Dictionary of Classical Mythology: III The Constellations of the Southern Sky | website = mythandreligion.upatras.gr | date = September 2012 | url = http://mythandreligion.upatras.gr/english/m-r-wright-a-dictionary-of-classical-mythology/ | access-date = January 3, 2023 | publisher = University of Patras}}

Culture

The story is generally believed to have originated from the lost play entitled Opora, by the Athenian playwright of Middle Comedy Amphis, and a work of the same name by Amphis's contemporary Alexis. The myth has been transmitted mostly though scholia written after their time, with the surviving manuscripts containing numerous corruptions, errors and transliteration mistakes; it is highly likely that these scholia also drew upon a lost work of Eratosthenes, which probably quoted the play by Alexis.

In ancient Greece the opora and the heat that came with it was traditionally associated with the star Sirius; Homer calls Sirius the star of the opora, although Sirius' rising does not coincide perfectly with the season.{{sfn|Kerenyi|1996|pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=u2XcDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA73 73–75]}}

Iconography

A number of pictorial representations of the goddess Opora have passed down to our times. An ancient floor mosaic discovered in ancient Daphne in modern-day Turkey and now housed in the Baltimore Museum of Art depicts Opora in the company of two more divinities, Agros ("field") and Oinos ("wine") at dinner.{{cite object | author = Unknown | id = Object number: 1937.127 | title = Fragment of floor mosaic depicting a Opora, Agros, and Oinos at dinner | orig-date = 3rd century | medium = Stone, glass, and lime mortar | dimensions = 240 x 316.2 x 6.4 cm | date = | museum = Baltimore Museum of Art | location = Baltimore, United States | url = https://collection.artbma.org/objects/24815/fragment-of-floor-mosaic-depicting-a-opora-agros-and-oinos | access-date = June 21, 2023}}{{sfn|Tuck|2015|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=kaObBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA330 330, figure 11.33]}} Moreover, on two ancient Athenian vases, Opora appears carrying fruit and accompanying Dionysus, Dionysus's retinue, and Irene.{{sfn|Arnott|1996|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=8JKsYD9nWGYC&pg=PA497 497 note 1]}}{{sfn|Smith|2011|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=DZj9YGF12N8C&pg=PA80 80]}} She is also possibly represented on the reliefs of the temple of Serapis and Isis discovered on the site of the present church of Saint Eleutherios in Athens.{{cite book | first = Emmy | last = Patsi-Garin | language = Greek | title = Επίτομο λεξικό Ελληνικής Μυθολογίας | publisher = Χάρη Πάτση publications | location = Athens, Greece | year = 1969 | trans-title = Epitomic Dictionary of Greek Mythology}}

References

Bibliography

Aristophanes, Peace, in The Complete Greek Drama, volume 2. translated by Eugene O'Neill Jr. New York. Random House. 1938. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0038%3Acard%3D1 Online text and translation at the Perseus.tufts project.]
{{cite book | title = Alexis: The Fragments: A Commentary | publisher = Cambridge University Press | date = 12 September 1996 | last = Arnott | first = William Geoffrey | author-link = W. Geoffrey Arnott | location = New York, US | isbn = 0-521-55180-3 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=8JKsYD9nWGYC}}
{{cite book | url = https://archive.org/details/etymological-dictionary-of-greek/mode/ | author-link = Robert S. P. Beekes | last = Beekes | first = Robert S. P. | title = Etymological Dictionary of Greek | location = Leiden, the Netherlands | publisher = Brill Publications | date = 2010 | volume = ΙΙ | isbn = 978-90-04-17419-1 | series = Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series | editor = Lucien van Beek}}
{{cite book | author = Greek Comedians | title = Fragmenta comicorum Græcorum | location = Berlin | editor = Augustus Meineke | volume = 5 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=SJQCAAAAQAAJ | date = 1847}}
{{cite book | title = Dionysos: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life | first = Karl | last = Kerenyi | author-link = Károly Kerényi | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=u2XcDwAAQBAJ | isbn = 978-0-691-02915-3 | date = 1996 | location = Princeton, New Jersey | translator = Ralph Manheim | publisher = Princeton University Press}}
{{cite book | first1 = Henry George | last1 = Liddell | first2 = Robert | last2 = Scott | title = A Greek-English Lexicon, revised and augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones with the assistance of Roderick McKenzie | location = Oxford | publisher = Clarendon Press | date = 1940 | author1-link = Henry Liddell | author2-link = Robert Scott (philologist)}} [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057 Online version at Perseus.tufts project.]
{{cite book | title = There will be 'blood': The etymology of Greek ὀπώρα and Proto-Germanic *asani- and the function of the o-grade in Proto-Indo-European | first = Roland | last = Pooth | url = https://www.academia.edu/37804863 | publisher = Ghent University | date = 2018 | location = France, Germany, Belgium}}
{{cite book | last = Schaffner | first = Stefan | date = 2001 | title = Das Vernersche Gesetz und der innerparadigmatische grammatische Wechsel des Urgermanischen im Nominalbereich | url = https://www.academia.edu/45530051 | publisher = Verlag d. Inst. f. Sprachwiss. d. Uni. Innsbruck | isbn = 978-3851246834 | language = German | location = Innsbruck}}
{{cite book | last = Slater | first = William J | date = 1969 | title = Lexicon to Pindar | location = Berlin, Germany | publisher = Walter de Gruyter | url = https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0072%3Aalphabetic+letter%3Da}}
{{cite book | last = Smith | first = Amy C. | title = Polis and Personification in Classical Athenian Art | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=DZj9YGF12N8C | publisher = Brill Publications | date = June 22, 2011 | isbn = 978-90-04-19417-5 | location = Leiden, NED}}
{{cite book | last = Tuck | first = Steven L. | title = A History of Roman Art | date = 2015 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=kaObBgAAQBAJ | publisher = John Wiley & Sons | isbn = 1444330268 }}