The links between Eileithyia, an earlier Minoan goddess, and a still earlier neolithic prototype are, relatively, firm. The explanation is as simple as it is important. The continuity of her cult depends upon the unchanging concept of her function. Eileithyia was the goddess of childbirth; and the divine helper of women in labour has an obvious origin in the human midwife. To Homer she is ‘goddess of the pains of birth’. When Leto gave birth to Apollo in Delos, was in (...) attendance, and so were a number of other goddesses who bathed the god-child and wrapped him in his swaddling-clothes. (shrink)

The metics of Gortyna came under the jurisdiction of the special courts for foreigners, κσενεία δίκα, and of the κσένιος κόσμος, an official who is often named in Gortynian inscriptions. From one of these we can infer that freedmen were classed with metics, because of the artisan status of both.

Seizure before trial is forbidden in an impending dispute about a free man or slave. But if a claimant anticipates judgement he is to be fined ten staters for seizing a free man, five for a slave, and he is ordered to release the seized person within three days . If this order for release is not obeyed, the offending party incurs another fine of a stater for a free man, a drachma for a slave, for each day until the (...) order is obeyed, the judge deciding on oath about the time involved. If this offence is denied, the judge is to decide on oath, where there is no witness. (shrink)