Inancient Roman religion,Lucina was a title orepithet given to the goddessJuno,[1] and sometimes toDiana,[2] in their roles as goddesses ofchildbirth who safeguarded the lives of women in labor.
The titlelucina (from the Latinlux, lucis, "light") links both Juno and Diana to the light of the Moon, the cycles of which were used to track female fertility as well as measure the duration of a pregnancy. Priests of Juno called her by the epithetJuno Covella on the new moon.[1] The title might alternatively have been derived fromlucus ("grove") after a sacred grove oflotus trees on theEsquiline Hill associated with Juno, later the site ofher temple.[3]
Juno Lucina was chief among a number of deities who influenced or guided every aspect of birth and child development, such asVagitanus, who opened the newborn's mouth to cry, andFabulinus, who enabled the child's first articulate speech. The collectivedi nixi were birth goddesses, and had an altar in theCampus Martius.
Theasteroid146 Lucina and the extinct species of ostracodLuprisca incuba are named after this aspect of the goddess.[4]
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