The Language of Birth The Symbolic Use of Childbirth Imagery on Hellenistic Cyprus

Abstract

This paper demonstrates that the images of childbirth – in different mediums – that survive from socio-religious contexts on Hellenistic Cyprus are not just valuable in the biomedical reconstruction of childbirth, but that they were used as powerful and dynamic symbols and can thus be used to access a web of ideas about the ways childbirth was approached and understood on Ancient Cyprus. To do so, it presents two case studies: the limestone figurines of Agios Photios, which connect childbirth to a diversity of concerns surrounding family, the survival of the community, and the protection of the mother and child; and the couvade ritual at Ariadne’s Tomb in Amathous, which illustrates the potential for childbirth to act as a vehicle for transformation. Together, these case studies show that childbirth existed at a point of intersection of many ideas about family, community, death, rebirth, divinity, and more.