Ilithyia—the Latin spelling—or more usually Eileithyia, was the Cretan goddess whom Greek mythology adapted as the goddess of childbirth and midwiving, and whom the relentlessly patrilineal Hesiod even described as a daughter of Zeus and Hera (Theogony 921)—and Apollodorus and Diodorus Siculus (5.72.5) agreed. But Pausanias reported another early source (now lost): "The Lycian Olen, an earlier poet, who composed for the Delians, among other hymns, one to Eileithyia, styles her 'the clever spinner', clearly identifying her with fate, and makes her older than Cronos.” (Description of Greece 8.21.3). Pindar, a meticulously accurate mythographer, likewise makes no mention of Zeus: Map of Minoan Crete The Minoans were a pre-Hellenic Bronze Age civilization in Crete in the Aegean Sea, prior to Helladic or Mycenaean culture (i. ... Greek mythology comprises the collected legends of Greek gods, goddesses, heroes, and heroines, originally created and spread within an oral-poetic tradition. ... Hesiod (Hesiodos) was an early Greek poet and rhapsode, believed to have lived around the year 700 BCE. From the 5th century BCE, literary historians have debated the priority of Hesiod or of Homer. ... Statue of Zeus The Greek sculptor Phidias created the 12-m (40-ft) tall Statue of Zeus in about 435 bc. ... In the Olympian pantheon of classical Greek Mythology, Hêra (Greek or ) was the wife and sister of Zeus. ... Apollodorus was a popular name in the ancient world. ... Diodorus Siculus was a Greek historian, born at Agyrium in Sicily (now called Agira, in the Province of Enna). ... Pausanias was Greek traveller and geographer of the 2nd century A.D., who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. ... Lycia is a region on the southern coast of Turkey. ... Olen was a legendary early poet from Lycia who went to Delos, where his hymns celebrating the first handmaidens of Apollo in the island of the gods birth and other ancient hymns were still part of cult at Delos in the time of Herodotus: —Persian Wars iv. ... The island of Delos (Greek: Δήλος, Dhilos), isolated in the centre of the roughly circular ring of islands called the Cyclades, near Mykonos, had a position as a holy sanctuary for a millennium before Olympian Greek mythology made it the birthplace of Apollo and Artemis. ... In Greek mythology, the white-robed Moirae or Moerae (Greek Μοίραι — the Apportioners, often called the Fates) were the personifications of destiny (Roman equivalent: Parcae, sparing ones, or Fatae; also equivalent to the Germanic Norns). ... Rhea tricking Cronus with a wrapped stone. ... Pindar (or Pindarus) (522 BC – 443 BC), the greatest lyric poet of ancient Greece, was born at Cynoscephalae, a village in Thebes. ...

Goddess of childbirth, Eileithyia, maid to the throne of the deep-thinking Moirai, child of all-powerful Hera, hear my song. —Seventh Nemean Ode.

For the Classical Greeks, "She is closely associated with Artemis and Hera," Burkert asserts (1985, p 1761) "but develops no character of her own." In the Orphic Hymn to Prothyraia, the association of a goddess of childbirth as an epithet of virginal Artemis, making the death-dealing huntress also "she who comes to the aid of women in childbirth," (Graves 1955 15.a.1), would be inexplicable in purely Olympian terms: This article is about the Greek goddess. ... In the Olympian pantheon of classical Greek Mythology, Hêra (Greek or ) was the wife and sister of Zeus. ...

When racked with labour pangs, and sore distressed

the sex invoke thee, as the soul’s sure rest;

for thou Eileithyia alone canst give relief to pain,

which art attempts to ease, but tries in vain.

Artemis Eileithyia, venerable power,

who bringest relief in labour’s dreadful hour.” —Orphic Hymn 2, to Prothyraia

Thus Aelian in the 3rd century AD could refer to "Artemis of the child-bed" (On Animals 7.15) Claudius Aelianus (c. ...

Homer Iliad pictures Eileithyia alone, or sometimes multiplied, as the Eileithyiai: The Iliad (Greek Ἰλιάς, Ilias) tells part of the story of the siege of the city of Ilium, i. ...

"The sharp sorrow of pain descends on a woman in labour, the bitterness that the hard Eileithyiai bring on, Hera’s daughters, who hold the power of the bitter birthpangs.” —Iliad XI.270.

Vase-painters illustrating the birth of Athena from Zeus' head may show two assisting Eileithyiai, with their hands raised in the epiphany gesture. Athena from the east pediment of the Afea temple in Aegina After a sculpture of Athena at the Louvre. ... Epiphany (Greek: επιφάνεια, the appearance; miraculous phenomenon) is a Christian feast intended to celebrate the shining forth or revelation of God to mankind in human form, in the person of Jesus. ...

The cave of Eileithyia near Amnisos, the harbor of Knossos, which the Odyssey (xix.198) mentions in connection with her cult, was accounted the birthplace of Eileithyia. It has stalactites suggestive of the goddess' double form (Kerenyi 1976 fig. 6), of bringing labor on and of delaying it, and votive offerings to her have been found. Here she was probably being worshipped before Zeus arrived in the Aegean, but certainly in Minoan-Mycenaean times (Burkert 1985 p 171). The goddess is mentioned as Eleuthia in a Linear B fragment from Knossos [1]. In Classical times there were shrines to Eileithyia in the Cretan cities of Lato and Eleutherna and a sacred cave at Inatos. On the Greek mainland, at Olympia, an archaic shrine with an inner cella sacred to the serpent-savior of the city (Sosipolis) and to Eileithyia was seen by the traveller Pausanias in the 2nd century AD (Greece vi.20.1-3); in it a virgin-priestess cared for a serpent that was fed on honeyed barley-cakes and water. The shrine memorialized the appearance of a crone with a babe in arms, at a crucial moment when Elians were threatened by forces from Arcadia. The child, placed on the ground between the contending forces, changed into a serpent, driving the Arcadians away in flight, before it disappeared into the hill. There were ancient icons of Eileithyia at Athens, one said to have been brought from Crete, according to Pausanias, who mentioned shrines to Ilithyia in Tenea and Argos, with an extremely important shrine in Aigion. Ilithyia, along with Artemis and Persephone, is often shown carrying torches to bring children out of darkness and into light: in Roman mythology her counterpart in easing labor is 'Lucina ("of the light"). Knossos Knossos (35°18′ N 25°10′ E; alternative spellings Knossus, Cnossus, Gnossus, Greek Κνωσσός) is the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete, probably the ceremonial and political center of the Minoan culture. ... The Odyssey (Greek Ὀδυσσεία) is the second of the two great Greek epic poems ascribed to Homer, the first of which is the Iliad. ... Linear B script sample Linear B is the script that was used for writing Mycenaean, an early form of the Greek language. ... Olympia (Greek: Ολυμπία Olympía or Ολύμπια Olýmpia, older transliterations, Olimpia, Olimbia), a city of ancient Greece in Elis, is known for having been the site of the Olympic Games in classical times, comparable in importance to the Pythian Games held in Delphi. ... Pausanias was Greek traveller and geographer of the 2nd century A.D., who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. ... Serpent is a word of Latin origin (serpens, serpentis) that is normally substituted for snake in a specifically mythic or religious context, in order to distinguish such creatures from the field of biology. ... Tenea (Τενέα) was established approximately 15 kilometers west of Corinth and 25 kilometers NW of Mycenae shortly after the Trojan war by Trojans living in the island of Tenedos, offshore Troy, hence the name. ... Argos (Greek: Άργος, Árgos) is a city in Greece in the Peloponnesus near Nafplio, which was its historic harbor, named for Nauplius. ... Aigion or Aigio (Greek: Modern: Αίγιο, Ancient/Katharevousa: -on, Latin: Aegium) also, Egio or Egionis a town in northeast Achaea that has a population of around 12,000, with a square, a bus terminal and a fountain in downtown. ... Bust of Persephone In Greek mythology, Persephone (Greek Περσεφόνη, Classical Greek PersephónÄ“, Modern Greek Persefóni) was the queen of the Underworld, the Kore or young maiden, and the daughter of Demeter. ... Roman mythology can be considered as two parts. ... In Roman mythology, Lucina was the goddess of childbirth. ...

In Greek shrines, small, terracotta votive figures (kourotrophos) depicted an immortal nurse who took care of divine infants, who may be connected with Eileithyia. For the Greek goddess, see Artemis. ...

According to the Homeric Hymn III to Delian Apollo, Hera detained Eileithyia, who was coming from the Hyperboreans in the far north, to prevent Leto from going into labor with Artemis and Apollo, because the father was Zeus. The other goddesses present at the birthing on Delos sent Iris to bring her. As she stepped upon the island, the birth began. The anonymous Homeric Hymns are a collection of ancient Greek hymns. ... In Greek mythology, according to tradition, the Hyperboreans were a mythical people who lived to the far north of Greece. ... For a place in the Oio Region in Guinea-Bissau, see Leto, Guinea-Bissau In Greek mythology Lētō (Greek: Λητώ, Lato in Dorian Greek, the hidden one) is known to be a daughter of the Titans Coeus and Phoebe, and in the Olympian scheme of things, Zeus is the father... Iris has three main meanings, unrelated except for their derivation from the Greek word for rainbow: Iris (mythology), a messenger of the gods in Greek mythology, identified with the rainbow Iris (anatomy), the sphincter around the pupil of the eye, named for the color in human and animal eyes Iris...

She was especially worshipped in Crete, in the cities Lato and Eleuthernia. Caves were believed to be sacred to her (perhaps a reference to the birth canal). In Amnisos, a stalagmite in one cave was probably an icon of Ilithyia.

Alternative: Eilithia, Eilythia, Ilithia, Eileithyia, Eileithyiai, Eleuthia (Cretan dialect)

External link

• Theoi.com "Eileithyia" collects many classical references that have been used in this article.

References

• Burkert, Walter, Greek Religion 1985.
• Graves, Robert, The Greek Myths 1955
• Kerenyi, Karl, Dionysus: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life, English translation 1976.