Ancient sanctuary of Eileithyia, goddess of childbirth, on the island of Paros (Greece).

Although Asklepios (Asclepius), the god of medicine, was the main and most famous healing deity of Classical Antiquity, other gods and goddesses also had healing aspects and abilities - especially Eileithyia, the goddess of childbirth and labour pains and the protector of pregnant and birthing women and newborns. Unlike the main ancient deities (including Asklepios/Asclepius), the cult of Eileithyia was practiced in smaller districts, centred around an altar with a statue (sometimes the statue was placed in a small temple) and sometimes located outside the main part of city-states or directly in nature. One such rural sanctuary of the goddess Eileithyia is located on the island of Paros, on the southern slope of Mount Kounados (267 m above sea level), situated about 3.5 km northeast of the centre of Parikia, the capital of the island. The southern, slightly lower peak of this mountain (254 m above sea level) forms a small plateau, along and below the edge of which there is a zone of distinctive rock cliffs, creating smaller overhangs or caves in some places. The sanctuary of Eileithyia is located on a narrow terrace in the zone of these rocky cliffs, about 30 m below the plateau of the lower peak. It is an important site of its kind in the whole of Greece. The centre of worship here was probably a sacred spring (under a rock shelter) and a small cave (or rock overhang). However, offerings and inscriptions were also placed in several niches in the rock face east of the cave (between the cave and the spring). Excavations in the sanctuary have yielded rich finds - inscriptions, votive reliefs and, above all, dozens of (fragments of) terracotta busts and statuettes of women and ceramic sherds. The oldest finds from this site date back to the Geometric period (8th century BC), and the cult persisted here until the Late Roman Empire - probably until the 3rd century AD.