Eileithyia was the goddess of birth in Ancient Greek mythology. Daughter of Zeus and Hera, she was considered to be a pre-Hellenic goddess as her name was mentioned in several Linear B tablets from ancient Crete. Eileithyia was initially considered to have two functions, either to further childbirth or to protract and delay the labour. Sanctuaries dedicated to her divinity were found in different places of Greece, proving the importance of her cult in Ancient Greece.
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| http://dx.doi.org/10.26574/maedica.2022.17.1.237 | DOI Listing |
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Eileithyia: The Goddess of Labour.
Maedica (Bucur)
March 2022
Department of Colorectal Surgery, Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust, Exeter, UK.
Eileithyia was the goddess of birth in Ancient Greek mythology. Daughter of Zeus and Hera, she was considered to be a pre-Hellenic goddess as her name was mentioned in several Linear B tablets from ancient Crete. Eileithyia was initially considered to have two functions, either to further childbirth or to protract and delay the labour.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe aim of this study is to prove that at the beginning of the 1st millennium BC at the latest an independent gynaecological tradition was formed within the Greek art of healing, from which the later Classical Graeco-Roman medicine drew inspiration. In this paper, the archaeological (especially the terracotta figurines and models and scenes painted on vases) and literary (the economic records and poetry excerpts) sources for the development of gynaecology from the advanced phases of the 2nd millennium until 500 BC are presented. The preserved sources clearly indicate that the Greek medicine reached some positive achievements already before 500 BC.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPreterm birth in ancient Greece: a synopsis.
J Matern Fetal Neonatal Med
January 2017
a Department of Neonatology , National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens , Greece.
This report refers to preterm birth in Ancient Greece based on mythological, historical and archeological data. The two antique goddesses, patronesses of labor and birth, Artemis and Eileithyia, cared for full-term, as well as preterm infants, among them for the mythological preterms Dionysos and Eurystheus. The former was rapidly transported by Hermes and received special care by the nymphs Hyades in a mountain cave with "incubator" properties.
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