Editing Levana

{{Short description|Roman goddess}}
{{otheruses}}
'''Levana''' (from [[Latin]] ''levare,'' "to lift"<ref>W.M. Lindsay, ''The Latin Language: An Historical Account of Latin Sounds, Stems, and Flexions'' (Cambridge University Press, 1894, reprinted 2010), p. 326.</ref>) is an [[List of Roman deities|ancient Roman goddess]] involved in [[List of Roman birth and childhood deities|rituals pertaining to childbirth]]. [[Augustine of Hippo|Augustine]] says that ''dea Levana'' is invoked when the child is lifted ''de terra'', from the earth or ground.<ref>Augustine, ''De Civitate Dei'' 4.11; perhaps also referenced by [[Tertullian]], ''Ad nationes'' 2.11, but the [[textual criticism|text is problematic]].</ref> Her function may be paralleled by the Greek ''Artemis Orthia'', if interpreted as the [[Artemis]] who lifts or raises children.<ref>[[Claude Calame]], ''Choruses of Young Women in Ancient Greece: Their Morphology, Religious Role, and Social Functions'', translated by Derek Collins and Janice Orion (Rowman & Littlefield, 2001), p. 167.</ref>

It is sometimes supposed that Levana was invoked in a ceremony by which the father lifted the child to acknowledge it as his own, but the existence of such a ceremony is based on tenuous evidence and contradicted by [[Roman law]] pertaining to legitimacy of birth.<ref>Brent D. Shaw, "Raising and Killing Children: Two Roman Myths," ''Mnemosyne'' 54.1 (2001), pp. 54–55.</ref> More likely, Levana was the goddess who oversaw the lifting of the child by the [[midwife]] immediately after birth. [[Kneeling]] or [[Squatting position|squatting]] was a more common position for childbirth in antiquity,<ref>Pierre Grimal, ''The Dictionary of Classical Mythology'' (Blackwell, 1986, 1996, originally published 1951 in French), pp. 311–312; Charles J. Adamec, "Genu, genus," ''Classical Philology'' 15 (1920), p. 199]; [[J.G. Frazer]], ''Pausanias's Description of Greece'' (London, 1913), vol. 4, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ecLNAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22di+nixi%22&pg=PA436  p. 436]; [[Marcel Le Glay]], "Remarques sur la notion de ''Salus'' dans la religion romaine,"  ''La soteriologia dei culti orientali nell' imperio romano: Études préliminaires au religions orientales dans l'empire romain'', Colloquio internazionale Roma, 1979 (Brill, 1982), p. 442.</ref> and the newborn probably came to rest on the ground before the umbilical cord was cut.<ref>Christian Laes, ''Children in the Roman Empire: Outsiders Within'' (Cambridge University Press, 2011, originally published 2006 in Dutch), p. 60; Robert Turcan, ''The Gods of Ancient Rome'' (Routledge, 2001; originally published in French 1998), p. 20.</ref>

==Modern use==
[[Thomas De Quincey]]'s [[prose poetry|prose poem]] ''Levana and Our Ladies of Sorrow'' begins with a discussion of the role of Levana in [[Religion in ancient Rome|Roman religion]] and goes on to invent three companions for her: Mater Lachrymarum, Our Lady of Tears; Mater Suspiriorum, Our Lady of Sighs; and Mater Tenebrarum, Our Lady of Darkness.

Levana is the name of an infant and child safety product manufacturer. The brand was established in 2007 and concentrates on electrical means of protection.<ref>Levana [http://myLEVANA.com Child Safety Products]</ref>

In [[the Lunar Chronicles]] by [[Marissa Meyer]], Levana is the name of the current queen of Luna (a human colony on the moon).

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*''[https://web.archive.org/web/20060714014656/http://dequincey.classicauthors.net/LevanaAndOurLadiesOfSorrow/ Levana and Our Ladies of Sorrow]'' by Thomas De Quincey.

{{Ancient Roman religion horizontal}}

[[Category:Roman goddesses]]
[[Category:Childhood goddesses]]