Wanax ( wa-na-ka) was her male companion in the Mycenean cult, and this title was usually applied to the god Poseidon ( po-se-da-o) as king of the underworld. It seems that she had an important shrine at the site Pakijanes near Pylos. Chadwick suggests that she was the mother-goddess of the Mycenaeans. On a number of tablets from Pylos, we find po-ti-ni-ja ( potnia) without any accompanying word. The earliest references to the title are inscriptions in Linear B ( Mycenean Greek) syllabic script found at Pylos and at Knossos, Crete, dated 1450-1300 BC. In the Mycenean cult she was known by the title Potnia. The figure of a goddess of nature, of birth and death was dominant during the Bronze Age, in both Minoan and Mycenean cults. Potnia is possibly also etymologically related to Ptgyh, an attested Philistine goddess. An alternative etymology of the goddess Demeter comes through Potnia and Despoina ('Dems-meter', from PIE *dems-méh₂tēr, meaning 'mother of the house'). A related Greek word is despoina ('Des-potnia' from PIE *dems-potnia meaning 'mistress of the house'). The word was inherited in classical Greek with the same meaning. Potnia is attested in the Linear B script in Mycenean Greek: 𐀡𐀴𐀛𐀊 po-ti-ni-ja. Latin ho spēs, 'host', Sanskrit páti-, 'master', 'husband', fem.

Its hypothetical Proto-Indo-European (PIE) form * pot-nih a-, 'mistress', 'lady', 'wife', is the feminine counterpart to *pótis, 'husband' cf. Potnia ( Greek: πότνια, 'mistress') is a poetic title of honour, used chiefly in addressing females, whether goddesses or women its masculine analogue is posis ( πόσις). Karl Kerenyi identifies Kore with the nameless 'Mistress of the labyrinth', who probably presided over the palace of Knossos in Minoan Crete.

She was later conflated with Kore ( Persephone), 'the maiden', the goddess of the Eleusinian Mysteries, in a life-death rebirth cycle which leads the neophyte from death into life and immortality.

A similar word is the title Despoina, 'the mistress', which was given to the nameless chthonic goddess of the mysteries of Arcadian cult. The word was inherited by Classical Greek from Mycenean Greek with the same meaning and it was applied to several goddesses. Potnia is an Ancient Greek word for 'Mistress, Lady' and a title of a goddess. Artemis Orthia in the stance of Potnia Theron on an archaic ivory ( National Archaeological Museum of Athens)

Ponia Delovėj by Virginia Woolf