EILEITHYIA

pre-Hellenic goddess of childbirth, who hindered or facilitated the process according to her disposition. The earliest evidence for her cult is at Amnisus, in Crete, where excavations indicate that she was worshiped continuously from Neolithic to Roman times. In Homer's writings she appears, sometimes in the plural, as a personification of birth pangs and is described as the daughter of Hera, the consort of Zeus. In later times Eileithyia tended to be identified with Hera or Artemis, goddesses who were also associated with marriage and childbirth.