EILEITHYIA (Greek Eileíthōs). - In Crete Ἐλεύθυια, in Laconia Ἐλέθυια, in literature Ἐλεύθυια, perhaps from the root ελυθ meaning "to come (to light)"; Latin Ilithyia*. She is the goddess who helps bring births happily to light, a function that caused her to be assimilated, to the point of becoming an epithet, with Hera and Artemis and, respectively, among the Latins, with Juno Lucina and Diana.

Her cult, very ancient, was widespread in various places in Greece, especially at Delos, Delphi, Attica, Tegea. In Crete, Homer (Od., XVIII, 188) mentions a sacred cave dedicated to I. The excavations carried out in the city of Lato

(Priansos) have brought to light inscriptions in which the goddess is associated with deities of the oath, which, according to Nilsson, would make I. also a guardian of private law.

In Rome I. had a solemn sacrifice during the Ludi saeculares (17 B.C.) celebrated by Augustus, who offered her the libation of 27 cakes on the second night of the festival, as is documented by the official record (Commentarium) of the same, where the prayer to the goddess is reported, invoked in the singular (as Horace also does in the Carmen Saeculare, 17, where he gives her the epithets of Juno Lucina and Genitalis), while from the mention in the Commentarium (deis Ilithyis), from the number of cakes (3 × 9 = 27) and by analogy with the three Moirae, to whom the sacrifice was made on the first night, it is gathered that also in Rome, as in Greece, I. was also invoked in the plural: Εἰλείθυιαι, Ilithyiae.

Bibliography5 works

BIBL.: Sybel, s. v. in Roscher, Lexikon, I, coll. 1219-21; O. Jessen, Eileithyia, in Pauly-Wissows, V, coll. 2101-10; Th. Mommsen, I commentarii dei Ludi secolari Augusti e Severiani, in Mon. antichi della R. Acc. dei Lincei, 1 (1891), pp. 651-53; G. B. Pighi, De Ludis saecularibus populi Romani Quir., Milano 1941, p. 127; M. P. Nilsson, Geschichte der griech. Religion, I, Monaco 1941, p. 290.

Nicola Turchi

@incollection{ec6_ilitia_eileibos, author = {Turchi, Nicola}, title = {Ilitia (ΕἸΛΕΊΒΩΣ)}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VI}, pages = {1626--1627}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1951}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/ilitia-eileibos} }

One of some 20,000 entries brought back from the twelve printed volumes (1948–54). Spotted something? Help us improve it.

About this entry