Editing Lucina (mythology)

{{Short description|Roman goddess of childbirth}}
In [[Religion in ancient Rome|ancient Roman religion]], '''Lucina''' was a title or [[epithet]] given to the goddess [[Juno (mythology)|Juno]],<ref name=gagarin/> and sometimes to [[Diana (mythology)|Diana]],<ref name=diana_religion>Green, C.M.C. (2007). ''Roman Religion and the Cult of Diana at Aricia''. New York: Cambridge University Press.</ref> in their roles as goddesses of [[childbirth]] who safeguarded the lives of women in labor.

The title ''lucina'' (from the Latin ''lux, lucis,'' "light") links both Juno and Diana to the light of the Moon, the cycles of which were used to track female fertility as well as measure the duration of a pregnancy. Priests of Juno called her by the epithet ''Juno Covella'' on the new moon.<ref name=gagarin>Gagarin, M. 2010. ''The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome'', Volume 1. Oxford University Press.</ref> The title might alternately have been derived from ''[[lucus]]'' ("grove") after a sacred grove of [[lotus tree]]s on the [[Esquiline Hill]] associated with Juno, later the site of [[Temple of Juno Lucina|her temple]].<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Pliny the Elder|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.56616|title=The natural history of Pliny.|last2=Bostock|date=1855|publisher=H. G. Bohn|location=London|pages=B. XVI, C. 85|doi=10.5962/bhl.title.56616}}</ref>

Juno 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 this aspect of the goddess.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.telegraphindia.com/1140314/jsp/frontpage/story_18079996.jsp#.UziB0sd1HYx |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140315142932/http://www.telegraphindia.com/1140314/jsp/frontpage/story_18079996.jsp#.UziB0sd1HYx |url-status= dead |archive-date= March 15, 2014 |title=Ma, they call her Luprisca|first= G. S. |last=Mudur |work=telegraphindia.com |year=2014 |access-date=30 March 2014}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[List of Roman birth and childhood deities]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Roman religion}}

[[Category:Roman goddesses]]
[[Category:Childhood goddesses]]
[[Category:Diana (mythology)]]
[[Category:Juno (mythology)]]

{{AncientRome-myth-stub}}
[[Category:Epithets of Diana]]