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51-515: The earliest form of the name is the Mycenaean Greek 𐀁𐀩𐀄𐀴𐀊 , e-re-u-ti-ja , written in the Linear B syllabic script. Ilithyia is the latinisation of Εἰλείθυια . The etymology of the name is uncertain, but debated among scholars. R. S. P. Beekes suggests a non- Indo-European etymology, and Nilsson believed that the name is Pre-Greek . 19th-century scholars suggested that

102-623: A daughter of Hera by Zeus ( Theogony 921)—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. 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 as '

153-677: A hymn of Olen. But the Kretans suppose that Eileithyia was born at Amnisos in the Knossian territory [in Krete], and that Hera was her mother. Only among the Athenians are the wooden figures of Eileithyia draped to the feet. The women told me that two are Kretan, being offerings of Phaidra [daughter of the mythical King Minos of Krete], and that the third, which is the oldest, Erysikhthon [an early king of Athens] brought from Delos. Pausanias noted

204-461: A sanctuary dedicated to Eileithyia at Eretria . The sanctuary had been placed in the northwestern section of a gymnasium . Pausanias noted that "The Messenians have a temple erected to Eileithyia [at Messene, Messenia] with a stone statue." On the Greek mainland, at Olympia , an archaic shrine with an inner cella sacred to the serpent-savior of the city ( Sosipolis ) and to Eileithyia was seen by

255-732: A sanctuary in Corinth: "When you have turned from the Akrokorinthos [at Korinthos] into the mountain road you see the Teneatic gate and a sanctuary of Eileithyia." The Cave of Eileithyia near Amnisos , the harbor of Knossos , mentioned in the Odyssey (xix.189) in connection with her cult, was accounted the birthplace of Eileithyia. In the river nearby also named Amnisos, lived nymphs that were sacred to Eileithyia named Amnisades and Amnisabes. The Cretan cave has stalactites suggestive of

306-735: A serpent, driving the Arcadians away in flight, before it disappeared into the hill. Eileithyia had a cult south of the Mount Kounados on the Cycladic Island of Paros , where a cave with a natural spring functioned as an informal sanctuary. Numerous artifacts have been found, such as pottery, bronze pieces, and marble plaques, which indicate use of the site from the Geometric period to the Roman period . It has been theorized that

357-753: Is almost entirely absent from Mycenaean Greek with only one known exception, 𐀀𐀟𐀈𐀐 , a-pe-do-ke ( PY Fr 1184), but even that appears elsewhere without the augment, as 𐀀𐀢𐀈𐀐 , a-pu-do-ke ( KN Od 681). The augment is sometimes omitted in Homer . Mycenaean had already undergone the following sound changes particular to the Greek language and so is considered to be Greek: The corpus of Mycenaean-era Greek writing consists of some 6,000 tablets and potsherds in Linear B, from LMII to LHIIIB . No Linear B monuments or non-Linear B transliterations have yet been found. The so-called Kafkania pebble has been claimed as

408-431: Is named after Mycenae, one of the major centres of Mycenaean Greece. The tablets long remained undeciphered, and many languages were suggested for them, until Michael Ventris , building on the extensive work of Alice Kober , deciphered the script in 1952. The texts on the tablets are mostly lists and inventories. No prose narrative survives, much less myth or poetry. Still, much may be gleaned from these records about

459-1058: Is not observed in the Linear B corpus. While the use of Mycenaean Greek may have ceased with the fall of the Mycenaean civilization, some traces of it are found in the later Greek dialects. In particular, Arcadocypriot Greek is believed to be rather close to Mycenaean Greek; it was an ancient Greek dialect spoken in Arcadia (central Peloponnese ) and in Cyprus . Ancient Pamphylian also shows some similarity to Arcadocypriot and to Mycenaean Greek. Proto-Greek Mycenaean Ancient Koine Medieval Modern Alexiares and Anicetus Anicetus ( Ancient Greek : Ἀνίκητος , romanized :  Aníkētos , meaning "Unconquerable") and Alexiares ( Ancient Greek : Ἀλεξιάρης , romanized :  Alexiárēs , meaning "Warding-Off-War") are minor deities in Greek mythology . They are

510-554: Is often shown carrying torches to bring children out of darkness and into light: in Roman mythology her counterpart in easing labor is Lucina ("of the light"). Pausanias noted: [Near the Prytaneion or Town Hall of Athens] is a temple of Eileithyia, who they say came from the Hyperboreans to Delos and helped Leto in her labour; and from Delos the name spread to other peoples. The Delians sacrifice to Eileithyia and sing

561-524: Is stated that her temple is given an amphora of honey. In the cave of Amnisos (Crete) the god Enesidaon (the "earth shaker", who is the chthonic Poseidon ) is related to the cult of Eileithyia. She was related with the annual birth of the divine child. The goddess of nature and her companion survived in the Eleusinian cult , where the following words were uttered: "Mighty Potnia bore a strong son." In classical times, there were shrines to Eileithyia in

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612-561: The epiphany gesture. The Beauty of Durrës , a large 4th-century B.C.E. mosaic shows the head figure of a woman, probably portrays the goddess Eileithyia. A fragment by Callimachus has Eileithyia assist her full-sister Hebe in her labour, presumably when she gave birth to Alexiares and Anicetus , her sons by Heracles . As the primary goddess of childbirth along with Artemis , Eileithyia had numerous shrines in many locations in Greece dating from Neolithic to Roman times, indicating that she

663-418: The "Special Mycenaean" represented some local vernacular dialect (or dialects) of the particular scribes producing the tablets. Thus, "a particular scribe, distinguished by his handwriting, reverted to the dialect of his everyday speech" and used the variant forms, such as the examples above. It follows that after the collapse of Mycenaean Greece, while the standardized Mycenaean language was no longer used,

714-534: The Classical Greeks, "She is closely associated with Artemis and Hera ," Burkert asserts, "but develops no character of her own". In the Orphic Hymn to Prothyraeia, virginal Artemis is given an epithet relating to the goddess of childbirth, making the divine huntress also "she who comes to the aid of women in childbirth": When racked with labour pangs, and sore distressed the sex invoke thee, as

765-682: The Cretan cities of Lato and Eleutherna and a sacred cave at Inatos . At a sanctuary in Tsoutsouros Inatos , two small terracotta figures, one breastfeeding and the other pregnant, have been dated to the 7th century. According to the Homeric Hymn III to Delian Apollo, Hera detained Eileithyia, who was coming from the Hyperboreans in the far north, to prevent Leto from going into labor with Artemis and Apollo, since

816-759: The Dioskouroi and Helen was being brought to Lakedaimon. For it is said that she was with child, was delivered in Argos, and founded the sanctuary of Eilethyia, giving the daughter she bore to Klytaimnestra, who was already wedded to Agamemnon." Pausanias noted a shrine to her in Mycenae, and an important shrine in Mases in Argolis: "[At Mases, Argos] there is a sanctuary of Eileithyia within the wall. Every day, both with sacrifices and with incense, they magnificently propitiate

867-487: The Greek alphabet. There were at least five vowels /a e i o u/ , which could be both short and long. As noted below, the syllabic Linear B script used to record Mycenaean is extremely defective and distinguishes only the semivowels ⟨j w⟩ ; the sonorants ⟨m n r⟩ ; the sibilant ⟨s⟩ ; the stops ⟨p t d k q z⟩ ; and (marginally) ⟨h⟩ . Voiced, voiceless and aspirate occlusives are all written with

918-415: The Linear B script only fully represents open syllables (those ending in vowel sounds), where Mycenaean Greek frequently used closed syllables (those ending in consonants). Orthographic simplifications therefore had to be made: Certain characters can be used alternately: for example, 𐀀 , a , can always be written wherever 𐁀 , a 2 , can. However, these are not true homophones (characters with

969-625: The Syrian Goddess said that there was a statue of Eilithyia in the temple of Hierapolis Bambyce , at Manbij , in Syria Mycenaean Greek Mycenaean Greek is the most ancient attested form of the Greek language , on the Greek mainland and Crete in Mycenaean Greece (16th to 12th centuries BC), before the hypothesised Dorian invasion , often cited as the terminus ad quem for

1020-502: The birth of the twins. On Delos, a shrine was dedicated to Eileithyia, and was worshipped in a mid-winter festival the named Eileithyaea . It was said by Callimachus that the hymn sung during festival was the same as that sung by nymphs at Apollo's birth. This cult likely goes back to the Archaic period, and the cult was associated with other local Delian childbirth deities associated with Artemis, Opis and Arge. Archaeologists uncovered

1071-509: The clever spinner ', clearly identifying her with the Fates , thus making her older than Cronus ." 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. Later, for

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1122-510: The cult associated with it: "At Aigion [in Akhaia] is an ancient sanctuary of Eileithyia, and her image is covered from head to foot with finely-woven drapery; it is of wood except the face, hands and feet, which are made of Pentelic marble. One hand is stretched out straight; the other holds up a torch. One might conjecture that torches are an attribute of Eileithyia because the pangs of women are just like fire. The torches might also be explained by

1173-449: The diagnostic criteria to reconstruct two dialects within Mycenaean. In particular, more recent paleographical study, not available to Risch, shows that no individual scribe consistently writes "Special Mycenaean" forms. This inconsistency makes the variation between "Normal Mycenaean" and "Special Mycenaean" unlikely to represent dialectical or sociolectical differences, as these would be expected to concentrate in individual speakers, which

1224-628: The fact that it is Eileithyia who brings children to the light." Aside from the sanctuary in the city of Aigion, Pausanias also noted that there were temples to the goddess in the towns of Boura and Pellene in Achaea. Pausanias described two sanctuaries to the goddess in Arcadia, one in the town of Kleitor and the other one in Tegea. In Kleitor, she was worshipped as one of the most important deities, along with Demeter and Asklepios, and her sanctuary

1275-460: The fall of the palaces because the script was no longer used, the underlying dialects would have continued to develop in their own ways. That view was formulated by Antonin Bartonek. Other linguists like Leonard Robert Palmer and Yves Duhoux  [ de ] also support this view of the 'Mycenaean linguistic koine'. (The term 'Mycenaean koine' is also used by archaeologists to refer to

1326-446: The father was her husband Zeus. Hera was jealous of Zeus's affairs and tended to enact revenge upon the women. The other goddesses present at the birthing on Delos had sent Iris to bring Eileithyia forth. As she stepped upon the island, the birth began. This hymn is contradicted by Hesiod 's Theogony , where Apollo and Artemis are born before Hera's marriage to Zeus, and therefore neither Hera or Eileithyia are mentioned interfering with

1377-528: The first midwife. To Homer , she is "the goddess of childbirth". 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; Hesiod (c. 700 BC) described Eileithyia as

1428-604: The goddess' double form (Kerenyi 1976 fig. 6), of bringing labor on and of delaying it, and votive offerings to her have been found establishing the continuity of her cult from Neolithic times, with a revival as late as the Roman period. Here she was probably being worshipped before Zeus arrived in the Aegean, but certainly in Minoan–Mycenaean times. The goddess is mentioned as Eleuthia in a Linear B fragment from Knossos, where it

1479-534: The goddess, and, moreover, there is a vast number of votive gifts offered to Eileithyia. But the image no one may see, except, perhaps, the priestesses." There were ancient icons of Eileithyia at Athens, one said to have been brought from Crete, according to Pausanias , who mentioned shrines to Eileithyia in Tegea and Argos , with an extremely important shrine in Aigion . Eileithyia, along with Artemis and Persephone ,

1530-421: The hymn: Even so again, Eileithyia, come thou when Kykainis calls, to bless her pains with easy birth; so may thy fragrant shrine have, as now this offering for a girl, some other offering hereafter for a boy. She was strongly connected with the goddesses Artemis and Hekate , sharing with the latter strong chthonic elements in her cult. Pausanias described a sanctuary to the goddess in the city of Aigion , and

1581-433: The immortal sons of Heracles , the greatest of the Greek heroes, and Hebe , the goddess of youth. They were likely responsible for the protection and fortification of towns and citadels and may have been regarded as gatekeepers of Olympus, a role often associated with their father, Heracles. Their birth occurred after Heracles' mortal death and subsequent ascent to Olympus. Some sources suggest that during their birth, Hebe

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1632-655: The introduction of the Greek language to Greece. The language is preserved in inscriptions in Linear B , a script first attested on Crete before the 14th century BC. Most inscriptions are on clay tablets found in Knossos , in central Crete, as well as in Pylos , in the southwest of the Peloponnese . Other tablets have been found at Mycenae itself, Tiryns and Thebes and at Chania , in Western Crete. The language

1683-409: The last half of the 15th century BCE and the earliest years of the 14th. While the Mycenaean dialect is relatively uniform at all the centres where it is found, there are also a few traces of dialectal variants: Based on such variations, Ernst Risch (1966) postulated the existence of some dialects within Linear B. The "Normal Mycenaean" would have been the standardized language of the tablets, and

1734-453: The material culture of the region.) However, since the Linear B script does not indicate several possible dialectical features, such as the presence or absence of word-initial aspiration and the length of vowels, it is unsafe to extrapolate that Linear B texts were read as consistently as they were written. The evidence for "Special Mycenaean" as a distinct dialect has, however, been challenged. Thompson argues that Risch's evidence does not meet

1785-489: The most important one alongside the other two. Offerings were often given to the goddess Eileithyia within the ten days following a child's birth Pausanias describes a sanctuary to her in the city of Argos, and the myth associated with it: "Near the Lords [sanctuary of the Dioskouroi at Argos] is a sanctuary of Eilethyia, dedicated by Helene when, Theseus having gone away with Peirithous to Thesprotia, Aphidna had been captured by

1836-415: The name is Greek, derived from the verb eleutho ( ἐλεύθω ) , "to bring", the goddess thus meaning The Bringer . Walter Burkert believed that Eileithyia is the Greek goddess of birth and that her name is pure Greek. 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

1887-455: The name is pre-Greek. Her name Ἐλυσία ( Elysia ) in Laconia and Messene probably relates her with the month Eleusinios and Eleusis . Nilsson also believed that the name "Eleusis" is pre-Greek. According to F. Willets, the goddess shows a clear connection to a preexisting Minoan goddess, as well as an earlier Neolithic concept. Eileithyia's guidance in childbirth may give influence of

1938-530: The oldest known Mycenaean inscription, with a purported date to the 17th century BC. However, its authenticity is widely doubted, and most scholarly treatments of Linear B omit it from their corpora. The earliest generally-accepted date for a Linear B tablet belongs to the tablets from the 'Room of the Chariot Tablets' at Knossos, which are believed to date to the LM II-LM IIIA period, between

1989-422: The particular local dialects reflecting local vernacular speech would have continued, eventually producing the various Greek dialects of the historic period. Such theories are also connected with the idea that the Mycenaean language constituted a type of a special koine representing the official language of the palace records and the ruling aristocracy. When the 'Mycenaean linguistic koine' fell into disuse after

2040-470: The people who produced them and about Mycenaean Greece, the period before the so-called Greek Dark Ages . Mycenaean preserves some archaic Proto-Indo-European and Proto-Greek features not present in later ancient Greek : The consonant usually transcribed z probably represents *dy, initial *y, *ky, *gy. It is uncertain how it was pronounced. It may have represented a pair of voiceless and voiced affricates / ts / and / dz / (marked with asterisks in

2091-402: The profession - many being slaves with only empirical training or some theoretical training in obstetrics and gynecology. More highly educated midwives, typically from higher classes, were referred to as iatrenes or doctors of women's diseases and would be respected as physicians. She was invoked by women in labour, to ease the pain of labour, and to further the birth. Callimachus recorded

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2142-467: The quality of the following vowel), or the consonant is omitted. (See above for more details.) Thus, determining the actual pronunciation of written words is often difficult, and using a combination of the PIE etymology of a word, its form in later Greek and variations in spelling is necessary. Even so, for some words the pronunciation is not known exactly, especially when the meaning is unclear from context, or

2193-1283: The same sound) because the correspondence does not necessarily work both ways: 𐁀 , a 2 cannot necessarily be used in place of 𐀀 , a. For that reason, they are referred to as 'overlapping values': signs such as 𐁀 , a 2 are interpreted as special cases or 'restricted applications' of signs such as 𐀀 , a , and their use as largely a matter of an individual scribe's preference. Nouns likely decline for 7 cases : nominative , genitive , accusative , dative , vocative , instrumental and locative ; 3 genders : masculine, feminine, neuter; and 3 numbers : singular , dual , plural . The last two cases had merged with other cases by Classical Greek . In Modern Greek , only nominative , accusative , genitive and vocative remain as separate cases with their own morphological markings. Adjectives agree with nouns in case , gender , and number . Verbs probably conjugate for 3 tenses : past , present , future ; 3 aspects : perfect , perfective , imperfective ; 3 numbers : singular , dual , plural ; 4 moods : indicative , imperative , subjunctive , optative ; 3 voices : active , middle , passive ; 3 persons : first, second, third; infinitives , and verbal adjectives . The verbal augment

2244-418: The same symbols except that ⟨d⟩ stands for /d/ and ⟨t⟩ for both / t / and / tʰ / ). Both / r / and / l / are written ⟨r⟩ ; /h/ is unwritten unless followed by /a/ . The length of vowels and consonants is not notated. In most circumstances, the script is unable to notate a consonant not followed by a vowel. Either an extra vowel is inserted (often echoing

2295-609: The site was used for prayers for both female and male fertility, based on the type of offerings that have been found. There was a sanctuary dedicated to Eileithyia near the Sanctuary of Artemis Orthia , which Pausanias noted: "Not far from Orthia [the temple of Artemis in Sparta, Lakedaimon] is a sanctuary of Eileithyia. They say that they built it, and came to worship Eileithyia as a goddess, because of an oracle from Delphoi." Lucian, in On

2346-438: 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. Eileithyia is commonly in classical Greek art most often depicted assisting childbirth. Vase-painters, when illustrating the birth of Athena from Zeus' head, may show two assisting Eileithyiai, with their hands raised in

2397-406: The table above): / ts / deriving from Pre-Greek clusters of a voiceless or voiceless aspirated velar stop + *y (*ky, *kʰy, *kʷy, kʷʰy) and corresponding to -ττ- or -σσ- in Greek varieties written in the Greek alphabet, and / dz / deriving from Pre-Greek clusters of a voiced dental or velar stop + *y ( *dy, *gy, *ɡʷy ), or in certain instances from word-initial *y , and corresponding to ζ in

2448-430: The traveler Pausanias in the 2nd century AD ( Description of Greece vi.20.1–3); in it, a virgin-priestess cared for a serpent that was fed on honeyed barley-cakes and water—an offering suited to Demeter. The shrine memorialized the appearance of a crone with a babe in arms, at a crucial moment when Elians were threatened by forces from Arcadia . The child, placed on the ground between the contending forces, changed into

2499-450: The word has no descendants in the later dialects. The Mycenaean language is preserved in Linear B writing, which consists of about 200 syllabic characters and ideograms . Since Linear B was derived from Linear A , the script of an undeciphered Minoan language , the sounds of Mycenaean are not fully represented. A limited number of syllabic characters must represent a much greater number of syllables used in spoken speech: in particular,

2550-456: Was assisted by her sister, Eiliethyia , the goddess of childbirth. Their names translate from Greek as "Unconquerable" and "Warding-Off-War," signifying their roles and invincible nature. There is evidence suggesting that Anicetus and Alexiares might have been worshipped in places such as Thebes and Rhodes. However, due to the scarcity of historical records, the exact nature and extent of their cult are uncertain. This article relating to

2601-540: Was extremely important to pregnant women and their families. People would pray for and leave offerings for aid in fertility, safe childbirth, or give appreciation for a successful birth. Archaeological evidence of terracotta votive figurines depict children found at shrines, and holy sites dedicated to Eileithyia suggest that she was a kourotrophic divinity, whom parents would have prayed to for protection and care of their children. Midwives had an essential role in ancient Greek society, with women of all classes participating in

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