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Prothyraia (Ancient Greek: Προθυραία) is the figure addressed in the second of the Orphic Hymns, a collection of ancient Greek hymns composed around the 2nd and 3nd centuries AD. Her name means 'at the door' or 'at the door-way', and is used to denote a goddess who presides over the area around the entrance to a building. The name is an epithet of Artemis (as attested by an inscription from Epidaurus), as well as of Hecate and Eileithyia. In Pausanias's Description of Greece, there is reference to a temple in Eleusis which was dedicated to Artemis Propylaia.

In line 9 of the Orphic Hymn to her, she is addressed as "Eileithyia", and in line 12 she is called "Artemis Eileithyia". The epithets applied to her in the hymn relate primarily to her role in helping with births, and the request of the hymn implores her to aid in giving birth. 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".

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. 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.

Notes

1. Malamis, p. 29; Quandt, pp. 3–4.
2. Athanassakis & Wolkow, p. 75.
3. Rudhardt, Chapter II, para. 215.
4. Ricciardelli, p. 238.
5. Ricciardelli, p. 328; Pausanias, 1.38.6.
6. Ricciardelli, p. 238.
7. Ricciardelli, p. 238.
8. Malamis, p. 239.
9. Rudhardt, Chapter II, para. 215.
10. Athanassakis & Wolkow, p. 76.
11. Athanassakis & Wolkow, p. 76.

References

• Athanassakis, Apostolos N., and Benjamin M. Wolkow, The Orphic Hymns, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013. ISBN 9781421408828. Internet Archive.
• Malamis, Daniel, The Orphic Hymns: Poetry and Genre, with a Critical Text and Translation, Leiden and Boston, Brill, 2024. ISBN 9789004714076. doi:10.1163/9789004714083.
• Pausanias, Description of Greece, Volume I: Books 1-2 (Attica and Corinth), translated by W. H. S. Jones, Loeb Classical Library No. 93, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1918. ISBN 978-0-674-99104-0. Online version at Harvard University Press. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Ricciardelli, Gabriella, Inni Orfici, Milan, Mondadori, 2000. ISBN 8804476613.
• Rudhardt, Jean, "Recherches sur les Hymnes orphiques", in Opera inedita: Essai sur la religion grecque & Recherches sur les Hymnes orphiques, Liège, Liège University Press, 2008. ISBN 9782960071726. doi:10.4000/books.pulg.514.

• Epithets of Artemis
• Epithets of Hecate