Lucina (goddess)

In ancient Roman religion and myth, Lucina was the goddess of childbirth who safeguarded the lives of women in labour. Lucina was also an epithet for Juno. The name was generally taken to mean "she who brings children into the light" (Latin: lux, lucis, "light"), but may actually have been derived from lucus ("grove") after a sacred grove of lotus trees on the Esquiline Hill associated with the goddess, later the site of her temple. Her Greek equivalent was Eileithyia.

Lucina was chief among a number of deities who influenced or guided every aspect of birth and child development, such as Vagitanus, who opened the newborn's mouth to cry, and Fabulinus, who enabled the child's first articulate speech. The collective di nixi were birth goddesses, and had an altar in the Campus Martius.

The asteroid 146 Lucina and the extinct species of ostracod Luprisca incuba are named after the goddess.

See also

• List of Roman birth and childhood deities