πότνια

Ancient Greek

Etymology

From Proto-Hellenic *pótnia, from Proto-Indo-European *pótnih₂. Cognate with Mycenaean Greek 𐀡𐀴𐀛𐀊 (po-ti-ni-ja), Sanskrit पत्नी (patnī, “mistress, wife”), Lithuanian pati (“wife”).

Pronunciation

(5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /pó.tni.a/
(1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ˈpo.tni.a/
(4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ˈpo.tni.a/
(10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ˈpo.tni.a/
(15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ˈpo.tni.a/

Noun

πότνιᾰ • (pótnia) f (genitive ποτνίᾱς); first declension

mistress, lady
Πότνια θηρῶν ― Pótnia thērôn ― Lady of the animals

Inflection

First declension of ἡ πότνιᾰ; τῆς ποτνίᾱς (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ἡ πότνιᾰ hē pótnia	τὼ ποτνίᾱ tṑ potníā	αἱ πότνιαι hai pótniai
Genitive	τῆς ποτνίᾱς tês potníās	τοῖν ποτνίαιν toîn potníain	τῶν ποτνιῶν tôn potniôn
Dative	τῇ ποτνίᾳ têi potníāi	τοῖν ποτνίαιν toîn potníain	ταῖς ποτνίαις taîs potníais
Accusative	τὴν πότνιᾰν tḕn pótnian	τὼ ποτνίᾱ tṑ potníā	τᾱ̀ς ποτνίᾱς tā̀s potníās
Vocative	πότνιᾰ pótnia	ποτνίᾱ potníā	πότνιαι pótniai
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

An alternative vocative form is πότνα (pótna).

Related terms

δεσπότης (despótēs)
δέσποινᾰ (déspoina)
πόσις (pósis)

References

“πότνια”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
πότνια - ΛΟΓΕΙΟΝ (since 2011) Dictionaries for Ancient Greek and Latin (in English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch) University of Chicago.