Information About ™Eileithyia |
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Ilithyia —the Latin spelling—or more usually Eileithyia, was the n 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: Goddess of childbirth, Eileithyia, maid to the throne of the deep-thinking Moirai, child of all-powerful Hera, hear my song. 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 Prothyraeia, 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: :''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 Prothyraeia, as translated by Thomas Taylor , 1792. Thus Aelian in the 3rd century AD could refer to "Artemis of the child-bed" (''On Animals'' 7.15). Ilithyia- Juno Lucina Iris- "rainbow" Iris is the messenger of the gods. Her duty was to cut the thread of life of those expiring. She is signified by a beautiful woman with iridescent wings. She is an attendant to Juno Homer '' Iliad '' pictures Eileithyia alone, or sometimes multiplied, as the Eileithyiai: "The sharp sorrow of pain descends on a woman in labour, the bitterness that the hard Vase-painters, when illustrating the birth of Athena from Zeus' head, may show two assisting Eileithyiai, with their hands raised in the Epiphany gesture. The cave of Eileithyia near . 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—an offering suited to the Goddess and later to Demeter. 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 her counterpart in easing labor is Lucina ("of the light"). In Greek shrines, small terracotta votive figures ('' Kourotrophos '') depicted an immortal nurse who took care of divine infants, who may be connected with Eileithyia. According to the Homeric Hymn III to Delian Apollo, Hera detained Eileithyia, who was coming from the Hyperborea ns 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. She was especially worshipped in Crete, in the cities Lato and Eleuthernia . Caves were 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
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