Lucina- Roman GodDeity"Bringer of Light"

The Esquiline Grove

Her temple stood on the Esquiline Hill, surrounded by a sacred grove that Pliny records as one of the oldest in Rome. Women who survived labor came back to leave offerings among the trees. The grove was Lucina's, and it belonged to the women who had called her name and lived.

On the first of March, the Matronalia, husbands gave gifts to their wives and wives made offerings at the temple. Ovid records the festival in the Fasti and instructs his readers to crown the goddess with flowers. The day belonged to married women, and Lucina presided because she had seen them through what came after the wedding.

Both Juno and Diana bore her name. Varro derives it from lux, light: she was the one who brought children into it. Cicero lists her among the divine functions of Juno; Catullus invokes her as Diana. A woman in labor did not need to choose. She cried out, and whichever goddess answered was Lucina.

The Loosening

Everything in the birth room had to be open. Ovid and Pliny both describe the rule: no knots on the mother's clothing, no braids in her hair. Those present could not cross their legs or lace their fingers, lest the gesture bind the child inside. Every clasp undone, every tie loosened.

The child was coming into the light. Nothing could be allowed to hold it back.