Ilithyia

• the goddess of the Greeks who aided women in childbirth, Lat. Juno Lucina, Hor. Carm. Sec. 14; Ov. M. 9, 283; id. Am. 2, 13, 21.

[Eileithyia.]

ILITHYIA (Εἰλειθυίας πόλις, Strab. 18. p. 817; Εἰληθυίας, Ptol. 4.5.73), a town of the Egyptian Heptanomis, 30 miles NE. of Apollinopolis Magna. It was situated on the eastern bank of the Nile, in lat. 25° 3′ N. According to Plutarch (Isis et Osir. 100.73), Ilithyia contained a temple dedicated to Bubastis, to whom, as to the Taurian Artemis, human victims were, even at a comparatively recent period, sacrificed. A bas-relief (Minutoi, p. 394, seq.) discovered in the temple of Bubastis at ElKab, representing such a sacrifice, seems to confirm Plutarch's statement. The practice of human sacrifice among the Aegyptians is, indeed, called in question by Herodotus (Hdt. 2.45); yet that it once prevailed among them is rendered probable by Manetho‘s statement of a king named Amosis having abolished the custom,and substituted a waxen image for the human victim. (Porphyr. de Abstinent. 2. p. 223; Euseb. Praep. Evang. 4.16; comp. Ovid, Ov. Fast. 5.621.) The singularity in Plutarch's story is the recent date of the imputed sacrifices.

(Εἰλείθυια). The goddess of the Greeks who aided women in childbirth when she was propitious to them, but protracted the labour-pains if she was displeased. In the Iliad the Ilithyiae (in the plural) are called the daughters of Heré; but in the Odyssey and in later poets there is only one goddess of this name. In an ancient hymn she is called the mother of Eros. See Iuno.