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]

Fragment of a hekataion with the head of Hecate Prothyraia, 4th-century BC, Museum of Cycladic Art, Greece^[1]

Epithet

Prothyraia's 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]

Orphic Hymn

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]