Ilithyie

In the Greek Mythology, Ilithyie (in Greek old Εἰλείθυια / Eileíthuia ), origin probably pre-Hellenic) is the goddess of the Childbirth. She corresponds to Lucine in the Roman Mythologie.

Myth

Perhaps in the beginning was a Minoan Goddess-Mother ; its sanctuary in a cave crétoise with Amnisos, mentioned by Homère and whose name appears on the shelves written in Linéaire B of Cnossos, was excavated and shows the continuity of a worship, Neolithic with the traditional time.

Homère recognizes as for him two sisters, Ilithyies. Far from facilitating the childbirth, they seem to be responsible for the pains of the childbirth:

“As a woman in full work suffers from the feature cruel
That strip to him very with turn dark Ilithyies,
These two girls of Héra who do the so bitter work… ”
( Iliade , XI, 170; transl. Frederic Mugler)

Hésiode makes of it the girl of Zeus and Héra, itself the goddess of the Birth and which thus receives sometimes this title. An anthem of Olen in fact however a Hyperborean , mother of Eros. She is initially a goddess of fruitfulness before specializing in the human childbirth. Pindare brings Ilithyie closer to the Moires.

No myth relates to it in particular but it appears in various accounts of births, often associated with Artémis or Héra; for example, in the legend of Léto, Héra retains Ilithyie captive, for fear this one does not help the delivery of Léto, about to be confined of Apollon and Artémis.

Ilithyie is particularly venerated in Crete, Laconie and with Délos.

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