Prothyraia
Prothyraia (Ancient Greek: Προθυραία) is the figure addressed in the second of the Orphic Hymns, a collection of ancient Greek hymns composed around the 2nd and 3nd centuries AD.[1] Her name means 'at the door' or 'at the door-way',[2] and is used to denote a goddess who presides over the area around the entrance to a building.[3] Prothyraia is an epiclesis of the goddesses Eileithyia, Hecate, and Artemis;[2] Prothyraia is attested as an epithet of Artemis in a 2nd-century AD inscription discovered in Epidaurus.[4] In Pausanias's Description of Greece, there is reference to a temple in Eleusis which was dedicated to Artemis Propylaia.[5]
In line 9 of the Orphic Hymn to her, she is addressed as "Eileithyia", and in line 12 she is called "Artemis Eileithyia".[4] The epithets applied to her in the hymn relate primarily to her role in helping with births,[4] and the request of the hymn implores her to aid in giving birth.[6] Two descriptions the hymn applies to her are ōdínōn eparōgós (ὠδίνων ἐπαρωγός), meaning she "who offers support in the pains of childbirth", and ōkýlocheia (ὠϰυλόχεια), meaning she "who accelerates childbirth".[3]
The placement of the hymn to Prothyraia, a figure associated with birth, at the beginning of the collection, is significant, and mirrors the position of the hymn to Thanatos (Death) as the last hymn.[7] According to Fritz Graf, during the rite in which the Orphic Hymns played a role, the hymn to Prothyraia may have been sung as the initiates were entering the building where the rite took place.[7]
Notes
[edit]References
[edit]- Athanassakis, Apostolos N., and Benjamin M. Wolkow, The Orphic Hymns, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013. ISBN 9781421408828. Internet Archive.
- Malamis, Daniel, The Orphic Hymns: Poetry and Genre, with a Critical Text and Translation, Leiden and Boston, Brill, 2024. ISBN 9789004714076. doi:10.1163/9789004714083.
- Pausanias, Description of Greece, Volume I: Books 1-2 (Attica and Corinth), translated by W. H. S. Jones, Loeb Classical Library No. 93, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1918. ISBN 978-0-674-99104-0. Online version at Harvard University Press. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Quandt, Wilhelm, Orphei Hymni, Berlin, Weidmann, 1955. OCLC 22971774.
- Ricciardelli, Gabriella, Inni Orfici, Milan, Mondadori, 2000. ISBN 8804476613.
- Rudhardt, Jean, "Recherches sur les Hymnes orphiques", in Opera inedita: Essai sur la religion grecque & Recherches sur les Hymnes orphiques, Liège, Liège University Press, 2008. ISBN 9782960071726. doi:10.4000/books.pulg.514.