Eileithyia


A Greek goddess of birth who was worshipped mainly by women and invoked to alleviate the pain and danger associated with childbirth.  It is said that her divine presence was only summoned by the cries of women in labor.  She was known to the Romans Ilithyia, and to the Minoans as Eleuthyia.  The center of her cult (which flourished for nearly two thousand years before the advent of Christianity) was in Crete.


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