Eileithyia

Eileithyia goddess

Eileithyia (/ɪlɪˈθaɪ.ə/; Greek: Εἰλείθυια) Eileithyia, who was also called Ilithyia, was the goddess of birth in Greek stories about the gods. She had the power to help a baby be born or to stop the baby from being born. She is most famous for being part of the stories about the birth of Hercules and the birth of Apollo. Eileithyia was the daughter of Zeus and Hera. She often helped her mother Hera, who was jealous of Zeus’ other lovers, and she made the birth of Zeus’ other children harder. In old stories, people sometimes spoke about her as many goddesses called the Eileithyiai, and they were called the daughters of Hera. Later, people began to see them as one single goddess named Eileithyia. People in many places in the Greek world worshipped her for many hundreds of years. In Roman stories, the goddess who was like her was named Lucina.

A poet named Hesiod, who lived around 700 BCE, wrote in his book called Theogony that Eileithyia was the daughter of Zeus and Hera. She was the sister of Ares, who was the god of war, and Hebe, who was the goddess of forever young life. In the poem, Hesiod said that Zeus married Hera, and she gave him three children: Hebe, Ares, and the goddess Eileithyia. As the goddess of birth, Eileithyia watched over the birth of both people and gods. A poet named Homer, who lived around 750 BCE, wrote that she could bring the strong and sharp pain that women feel when they are having a baby. A writer named Herodotus, who lived from about 484 BCE to about 425 or 413 BCE, told a story about two girls from a far away land called the Hyperboreans. Their names were Hyperoche and Laodice. They went to the island of Delos to bring gifts to Eileithyia so that women could have an easy birth. People believed that Eileithyia had to be there in person for a baby to be born.

In many Greek stories, Eileithyia often played a bad role. She usually helped her mother Hera. Hera was very jealous of Zeus’ many lovers, so Eileithyia helped her mother take revenge. She made the births of those women very hard and tried to stop Zeus’ other children from coming into the world.

Helping or slowing births

One famous story about her is about the birth of Hercules. When a woman named Alcmene was ready to give birth to Zeus’ son Hercules, Zeus told the gods that a child from the family of Perseus would be born that day and that child would one day become the king of Mycenae. Hera was jealous and did not want her husband’s son to have such a high place. So she told Eileithyia to sit outside the room where Alcmene was having the baby. Eileithyia crossed her legs, arms, and hands so that the baby could not be born. Because of this, the birth was stopped for nine days. Hera also made sure that another baby boy named Eurystheus was born early. He was also from the family of Perseus and he was a cousin of Hercules. Because Hercules’ birth was delayed, Eurystheus was born first and became the ruler of Mycenae instead of Hercules. At last Hercules was born after Alcmene sent a servant girl named Galanthis to trick Eileithyia. The girl told Eileithyia that the baby had already been born. When Eileithyia heard this, she jumped up in shock and uncrossed her legs and arms. As soon as she did this, Hercules was born. Later, when the trick was found out, the servant girl was punished and turned into a weasel. After Hera bragged that she had kept Eileithyia away from Alcmene during the birth, Zeus became very angry. He punished his oldest daughter named Ate because she had hidden Hera’s trick from him. Then Zeus made Hera promise that Hercules could become a god if he could finish twelve very hard tasks. These tasks were given to him by his cousin Eurystheus. Eileithyia also played a part in the birth of Apollo. In a group of old poems called the Homeric Hymns, Hera again used Eileithyia to stop the birth of another son of Zeus. This son was Apollo, and his mother was the goddess Leto. Leto went to the island of Delos to have her baby and many goddesses came to help her. But Eileithyia was not there. Hera kept her busy on Mount Olympus while Leto suffered birth pain for nine days and nine nights. Hera knew that Leto would give birth to another strong son of Zeus, so she tried to stop the birth for as long as she could. At last the goddesses sent Iris, the messenger of the gods, to bring Eileithyia to Delos. They promised her a very beautiful gold necklace if she would leave Hera and come help Leto. When Eileithyia finally came, Leto was able to give birth.

Worship

Because Eileithyia was the goddess of birth, many places in the Greek world had temples and holy places for her. A writer named Pausanias wrote about Greece and said that there was a holy place for Eileithyia in a land called Attica. The people of Delos gave animal gifts to her and sang a song about her that was written by a poet named Olen. In the city of Corinth, near a place called the Tenean Gate, there was another holy place for her. In the land of Achaea there was also a holy place for Eileithyia, along with holy places for other gods like Demeter, Aphrodite, and Dionysos. Another holy place for Eileithyia in Corinth was said to have been started by Helen of Sparta, who is also known as Helen of Troy. She built it after she became pregnant and had a baby in the city of Argos. The baby was given to her sister Clytemnestra and to King Agamemnon of Mycenae to raise. After that, Helen married King Menelaus of Sparta. In the land of Messenia there was a holy place for Eileithyia with a stone statue of her near a building called the Hall of the Kouretai. In that place people gave animal gifts to the gods. In the city of Kleitor in Arcadia there were many holy places for different gods, and one of the most important ones was for Eileithyia. In the land of Eleia, also called Elis, there was a holy place for Eileithyia where another god called Sosipolis, the City Saviour, was also worshipped. The people there believed that Eileithyia was one of the Olympian gods and they chose a priestess for her every year. Her altar stood at the front part of the holy place. Young girls and older women went there to sing holy songs and burn sweet incense for both the City Saviour and Eileithyia. However, the people who came to worship were only allowed to go into the part for Eileithyia and not into the part for the City Saviour.