Eileithyīa(e)

Eileithyīa (e), the Greek goddess of childbirth, sometimes referred to in the plural (compare PAN and SILENUS); she was a lesser deity, not one of the twelve Olympian gods (see GODS 1). Her name may mean the ‘coming’, i.e. of the child. Hesiod makes her the daughter of Zeus and Hera, who was herself a goddess of birth and therefore is sometimes given this title. Perhaps a Minoan mother-goddess in origin, her cavern-sanctuary in Crete at Amnisos, mentioned by Homer and appearing on the Linear B tablets from Cnossus, has been excavated and shows continuous cult from neolithic to classical times. She has no myth of her own but appears in various stories of birth, often in association with Artemis and Hera. The Romans identified her with Lucina (see JUNO).