Prothyraia

Prothyraia (Ancient Greek: Προθυραία, romanized: Prothuraía) is the figure addressed in the second of the Orphic Hymns, a collection of ancient Greek hymns composed around the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD.²

Prothyraia's name means 'at the door' or 'at the door-way',³ and is used to denote a goddess who presides over the area around the entrance to a building.⁴ Prothyraia is an epiclesis of the goddesses Eileithyia, Hecate, and Artemis;³ Prothyraia is attested as an epithet of Artemis in a 2nd-century AD inscription discovered in Epidaurus.⁵ In Pausanias's Description of Greece, there is reference to a temple in Eleusis which was dedicated to Artemis Propylaia.⁶

In line 9 of the Orphic Hymn to Prothyraia, she is addressed as "Eileithyia", and in line 12 she is called "Artemis Eileithyia".⁵ The epithets applied to her in the hymn relate primarily to her role in helping with births,⁵ and the request of the hymn implores her to aid in giving birth.⁷ Two descriptions the hymn applies to her are ōdínōn eparōgós (ὠδίνων ἐπαρωγός), meaning she "who offers support in the pains of childbirth", and ōkýlocheia (ὠϰυλόχεια), meaning she "who accelerates childbirth".⁴

The placement of the hymn to Prothyraia, a figure associated with birth, at the beginning of the collection, is significant, and mirrors the position of the hymn to Thanatos (Death) as the last hymn.⁸ According to Fritz Graf, during the rite in which the Orphic Hymns played a role, the hymn to Prothyraia may have been sung as the initiates were entering the building where the rite took place.⁸