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Subscribe to this list via RSS Blog posts tagged in eileithyia

Posted by on in Paths Blogs
Meet the Minoans: Eileithyia

Though she's not as well-known as some of the other Minoan deities who made their way into the later Olympian pantheon, Eileithyia, the divine midwife and goddess of childbirth, was profoundly important to the ancient Cretans.

There's some speculation that Eileithyia is actually her Minoan/pre-Greek name, which is unusual among the deities from Crete; we know most of them only from their later Greek epithets. In the Cretan dialect her name is Eleuthia (e-re-u-ti-ja in Linear B), which may connect her to Eleusis and the Mysteries celebrated there. A goddess of birth could certainly have a place in the transformational ceremonies of a mystery religion.

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