Lucina

"Light-bringer." The goddess of light, or rather the goddess that brings to light, and hence the goddess that presides over the birth of children; it was therefore used as a surname of Juno and Diana, and the two are sometimes called Lucinae.

When women of rank gave birth to a son, a lectisternium was prepared for Juno Lucina in the atrium of the house.1

❧

References

Notes

  1. Servius and Philargus on Virgil's Eclogues iv, 63.

Sources

  • Catullus, xxxiv, 13.
  • Horace. Carmen Saeculare, 14 ff.
  • Ovid. Fasti ii, 441 ff.; vi, 39.
  • Smith, William. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. London: Taylor, Walton, and Maberly.
  • Tibullus, iii, 4.13.
  • Varro. On the Latin Language v, 69.

This article incorporates text from Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) by William Smith, which is in the public domain.