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Eileithyia

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Eileithyia or Ilithyiae or Ilithyia (/ɪlɪˈθaɪ.ə/;[1] Greek: Εἰλείθυια; Ἐλεύθυια (Eleuthyia) in Crete, also Ἐλευθία (Eleuthia) or Ἐλυσία (Elysia) in Laconia and Messene, and Ἐλευθώ (Eleuthō) in literature)[2] was the Greek goddess of childbirth and midwifery[3], and the daughter of Zeus and Hera. In the cave of Amnisos (Crete) she was related with the annual birth of the divine child, and her cult is connected with Enesidaon (the earth shaker), who was the chthonic aspect of the god Poseidon. It is possible that her cult is related with the cult of Eleusis.[4] In his Seventh Nemean Ode, Pindar refers to her as the maid to or seated beside the Moirai (Fates) and responsible for the creation of offspring. Her son was Sosipolis, who was worshiped at Elis.[5]

Etymology

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The earliest form of the name is the Mycenaean Greek 𐀁𐀩𐀄𐀴𐀊, e-re-u-ti-ja, written in the Linear B syllabic script.[6] Ilithyia is the latinisation of Εἰλείθυια.

The etymology of the name is uncertain, but debated among scholars. R. S. P. Beekes suggests a not Indo-European etymology,[7] and Nilsson believes that the name is Pre-Greek.[8] 19th-century scholars suggested that the name is Greek, derived from the verb eleutho (ἐλεύθω), "to bring", the goddess thus meaning The Bringer.[9] Walter Burkert believes that Eileithyia is the Greek goddess of birth and that her name is pure Greek.[10] However, the relation with the Greek prefix ἐλεύθ is uncertain, because the prefix appears in some pre-Greek toponyms like Ἐλευθέρνα (Eleutherna); therefore it is possible that the name is pre-Greek.[11] Her name Ἐλυσία (Elysia) in Laconia and Messene, probably relates her with the month Eleusinios and Eleusis.[12][13] Nilsson also believes that the name "Eleusis" is pre-Greek.[14]

Origins

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According to F. Willets, "The links between Eileithyia, an earlier Minoan goddess, and a still earlier Neolithic prototype are, relatively, firm. The continuity of her cult depends upon the unchanging concept of her function. Eileithyia was the goddess of childbirth; and the divine helper of women in labor has an obvious origin in the human midwife." To Homer, she is "the goddess of childbirth".[15] The Iliad pictures Eileithyia alone, or sometimes multiplied, as the Eileithyiai:

And even as when the sharp dart striketh a woman in travail, [270] the piercing dart that the Eilithyiae, the goddesses of childbirth, send—even the daughters of Hera that have in their keeping bitter pangs;[16]

— Iliad 11.269–272

Hesiod (c. 700 BC) described Eileithyia as a daughter of Hera by Zeus (Theogony 921)[17]—and the Bibliotheca (Roman-era) and Diodorus Siculus (c. 90–27 BC) (5.72.5) agreed. Also, a poem at the Greek Anthology Book 6, mention Eileithyia as Hera's daughter.[18] But Pausanias, writing in the 2nd century AD, 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 Cronus."[19] Being the youngest born to Gaia, Cronus was a Titan of the first generation and he was identified as the father of Zeus. Likewise, the meticulously accurate mythographer Pindar (522–443 BC) also makes no mention of Zeus:

Eleithuia, seated beside the deep-thinking Fates, hear me, creator of offspring, child of Hera great in strength.

— Seventh Nemean Ode, Line 1, Translated by Diane Arnson Svarlien, 1990

Later, 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).

The Beauty of Durrës, a large 4th-century B.C.E. mosaic showing the head figure of a woman, probably portrays the goddess Eileithyia.[20]

Vase-painters, when illustrating the birth of Athena from Zeus' head, may show two assisting Eileithyiai, with their hands raised in the epiphany gesture.

References

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  • Baur, Paul Victor Christopher, 1872. (1902). Eileithyia. University of Missouri, 1902.
  • Beekes, R. S. P., Etymological Dictionary of Greek, Brill, 2009.
  • Burkert, Walter, Greek Religion, 1985.
  • Gantz, Timothy, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, Two volumes: ISBN 978-0-8018-5360-9 (Vol. 1), ISBN 978-0-8018-5362-3 (Vol. 2).
  • Graves, Robert, The Greek Myths, 1955.
  • Herodotus, The Histories with an English translation by A. D. Godley. Cambridge. Harvard University Press. 1920. Online Version at the Perseus Digital Library
  • Hesiod, Theogony, in The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, Massachusetts., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
  • Homer, Homeric Hymn to Apollo, in The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White. Homeric Hymns. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
  • Homer, The Iliad with an English Translation by A. T. Murray, Ph.D., in two volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
  • Homer; The Odyssey with an English Translation by A. T. Murray, Ph.D., in two volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1919. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
  • Kerenyi, Karl, Dionysus: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life, English translation 1976.
  • Nilsson, Martin P. (1927) 1950. The Minoan-Mycenaean Religion and Its Survival in Greek Religion 2nd ed. (Lund"Gleerup).
  • Pausanias, Pausanias Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H. A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
  • Pindar, Odes, Nemean 7 for Sogenes of Aegina Boys' Pentathlon with an English Translation by Diane Arnson Svarlien. 1990. Online Version at the Perseus Digital Library
  • Willetts, R. F. "Cretan Eileithyia" The Classical Quarterly New Series, 8.3/4 (November 1958), pp. 221–223
  1. ^ Joseph Emerson Worcester, A comprehensive dictionary of the English language, Boston, 1871, p. 480, rule 3, where he notes the word has four syllables as in Greek and Latin, "not I-lith-y-i'-a as in Walker" (e.g. Walker and Trollope, A key to the classical pronunciation etc., London, 1830, p. 123).
  2. ^ Nilsson Vol I, p. 313
  3. ^ Gantz, pp. 82–83.
  4. ^ F.Schachermeyer(1967).Die Minoische Kultur des alten Kreta. Kohlhammer Verlag Stuttgart. pp. 141–142
  5. ^ Pausanias, Description of Greece, 6.20
  6. ^ "The Linear B word e-re-u-ti-ja". Palaeolexicon. Word study tool of Ancient languages. Raymoure, K.A. "e-re-u-ti-ja". Minoan Linear A & Mycenaean Linear B. Deaditerranean.
  7. ^ R. S. P. Beekes, Etymological Dictionary of Greek, Brill, 2009, p. 383.
  8. ^ Nilsson Vol I, p. 313
  9. ^ Max Müller, Contributions to the Science of Mythology, Vol. 2, Kessinger Publishing, 2003 [1897], p. 697
  10. ^ Walter Burkert (1985) Greek Religion. Harvard University Press p.26
  11. ^ Nilsson, Vol I, p. 312
  12. ^ "Cretan dialect 'Eleuthia' would connect Eileithyia (or perhaps the goddess "Eleutheria") to Eleusis". Willets, p. 222.
  13. ^ F.Schachermeyer (1967) Die Minoische Kultur des alten Kreta W.Kohlhammer Stuttgart, p. 141
  14. ^ Nilsson Vol I, p. 312
  15. ^ Homer, Iliad 16.187, 19.103.
  16. ^ Homer, Iliad 11.270, The plural is also used at Iliad 19.119.
  17. ^ Theogony 912–923.
  18. ^ Greek Anthology Book 6, 6.244
  19. ^ Pausanias, 8.21.3.
  20. ^ Bank of Albania – Coin with "The Beauty of Durrës" Archived 2012-03-05 at the Wayback Machine
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