πο ́ σι, and in the Maha ̄bha ̄rata we find titles such as Uma ̄pati ‘husband of
Uma ̄’= Rudra (5. 49. 24), S ́acı ̄pati ‘husband of S ́acı ̄’= Indra (5. 158. 13).
These recall the Homeric designation of Zeus as $ργδουπο πο ́ σι
= Ηρη, ‘the loud-thundering husband of Hera’. Poseidon (in dialects
Poteidaon, Potidas, etc.) has often been explained as ‘Husband of Earth’; this
is linguistically problematic (apart from the fact that he was not the husband
of Earth) but it is plausible enough that the name should contain the
*poti- element and that its original meaning was ‘Master of (something)’. On
a Linear B tablet from Pylos (PY Tn 316) that lists various deities receiving
offerings, there is one spelled do-po-ta, perhaps to be read as Dospota ̄s,
‘Master of the House’, like the classical δεσπο ́ τη but with a more specific
reference.
The Vedic Dawn goddess is bhúvanasya pátnı ̄, ‘mistress of creation’ (RV 7.
- 4), and the same phrase is used of the Waters (10. 30. 10). The plural
pátnı ̄h
̇
is used as a collective name for the gods’ wives (1. 103. 7; 5. 41. 6, 50.
3). The corresponding Greek word, πο ́ τνια, is commonly used of goddesses,
sometimes with a defining qualification, as in the Mycenaean Potnia
Daburinthoio ‘Mistress of the Labyrinth’, Potnia Ikkeia ̄ ‘Mistress of Horses’,
etc., and the Homeric πο ́ τνια θηρ;ν, ‘Mistress of Animals’. Potnia by itself
serves as a goddess’s name at Pylos, and plural Potniai were worshipped in
several places.
The ancient pattern remained productive in Baltic. A series of Lithuanian
gods’ names are compounds formed with -patis: Dimstipatis ‘Master of the
House’, Lau ̃ kpatis ‘Master of the Fields’, Raugupatis ‘Master of the Sour
Dough’, Ve ̇jopatis ‘Master of the Wind’, Zˇeme ̇patis, fem. Zˇempati, ‘Master/
Mistress of the Earth’.^63 Apart from such names, the patis element survives in
Lithuanian only in the very old compound vie ̃sˇpatis mentioned above: an
indication of their archaic character.
FEMALE DEITIESAs far back as we can see, Indo-European gods are conceived anthropo-
morphically. So even at the stage when the language did not make formal
distinctions between masculine and feminine, it is likely that each deity was
thought of as male or female. In the Greek or the Norse pantheon we take it
for granted that some are males and others females, as if by the random play
(^63) Usener (1896), 89, 94, 100, 104 f., 110 f. 115; cf. Clemen (1936), 109, 110; V. Blazˇek, JIES 29
(2001), 352.
138 3. Gods and Goddesses