Girdles: their origin and development, particularly with regard to their use as charms in medicine, marriage, and midwifery / [Walter J. Dilling].

Dilling, Walter J. (Walter James), 1886-1950.

Date:: 1913-14

Credit: Girdles: their origin and development, particularly with regard to their use as charms in medicine, marriage, and midwifery / [Walter J. Dilling]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$** But when Eilithvia, Goddess of the pains of travail, had brought him to the light, and he saw the rays of the sun.” 1 An excellent example of the interference of Hera in birth through the Eilithyiai is exhibited in the following account of the birth of Hercules, which Hera postponed for seven days, while she caused the premature arrival of Eurystheus:— . . On the day when Alkmene in fair-crowned Thebes was to bring fortli the strength of Hercules. . . . This day shall Eileithuia, the help of travailing women, bring to the light a man who shall be lord over all that dwell round about.” 2 And in the subsequent lines:— “For Hera darted from Olympus’ peak, and came swiftly to Achaian Argos, where she knew was the stately wife of Sthenelos, son of Perseus, who also was great with child, and her seventh month was come. Her son Hera brought to the light, though his tale of months was untold, but she stayed Alkmene’s bearing and kept the Eileithyiai from her aid.”3 According to Theocritus, the Eileithyia is called the “girdle- loosing ” (Xucr/^coro?) thus :— “She invoked Eileithyaia to loose the parturient zone.”4 And by the, later authors of Artemis, the term “ £u>vrjv KaTUTiOecrOai is employed to signify “a woman in labour,” 5 and “pavqv \veiv” as “assisting in childbirth;”6 further, the term fart] . is frequently employed in mentioning pregnant women as m the following passages“ %veyx vtto ' Pupo?; * cr Wpe\/sei' euro? . . . favrjs; ”8 and “ rohrov • • • e(f>epov inroT9 Amongst the ancient Greek women it was a practice when a pregnancy occurred for the first time to loosen their girdles and dedicate them in the Temple of Artemis,10 and the expression XiW,” “to unloosen the girdle,” is applied Lanff^Le'd ’-iiJ/'m ’ lj,“ xvi> v- 1878 ; “Iliad of Homer,” translated by 2 tvi, ,and Myers, London, 1883, p. 320 J - bid., bk. xix, v. 98-9, 103-4 ; ibid, p. 399. 4 i, d’ ldc‘ X1TX; v- H4-9 ; ibid, p. 389. Theocritus, Idyll XVII, v. 60. 0 JJindar> “Olympia,” Lib. VI, v. 66. Oppianus, “ Cynegetica,” Lib. Ill v. 56 Aeschylus “ Choephoroe,” v. 992. ’ ■ Aeschylus, “ Eumenides,” v. 608. io kuripdes, “ Hecuba,” v. 762. • S. Hartland, “Legend of Perseus,” 1895, vol. ii, p. 91.$