childbirth is a battleground
the powerful on one side
women and midwives on the other
philandering Jove made Alcmena
a single mother and Juno
wanted her revenge
the child to be Hercules
grew big too big for poor Alcmena
to deliver with ease
but worse was Juno’s plotting
with Lucina gatekeeper between
uterine darkness and light of birth
Lucina in the palm of Juno sits
as tight as a Gordian knot
limbs interwoven fingers
like hands knitted
Alcmena labours seven days
hoarse with pain almost dead
her midwife and maid Galanthis
saw Lucina’s tightening grip
sees through the charade
she makes her own play
cheering Alcmena’s long agony
it is over she is delivered
astonished Lucina frees her
fingers unwinds her legs
and the child is released
Galanthis poor woman pays
for her loyalty metamorphosed
her arms now animal forelegs
her gold hair short and rough
in her weasel form Alcmena
loyal too holds her as her familiar
notes
Inspired by Book 9 of Ovid’s Metamorphosis.
Galanthis was turned into a weasel, cat or lizard depending on the story.
Working notes
Birth is a time of danger and transformation for women. The story of Alcmena is one that I was not familiar with until I read it in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. It is a story of loyalty between women: Galanthis for Alcmena. But it is also a story in which another woman pits her power against the woman giving birth: Lucina who is doing the bidding of Juno.
What I responded to in this poem is the way in which embodied form works especially the magical way in which hands tightened can work to hold back the birth. But Galanthis whose cheering ahead of the actual birth releases those hands is a figure whose wisdom is so straightforward that even the gods hadn’t anticipated it.
Unfortunately, poor Galanthis pays the price. But in an odd twist the creatures into which she is turned (according to which version you read) all have their own magical qualities, especially the cat. Cat, weasel and lizard are creatures that have powers of transformation which is what Galanthis has achieved by releasing the waters ahead of birth. Later, Alcmena was threatened with death by her husband Amphitryon because she said that Jupiter/Zeus had raped her (the story says stole her virginity in the guise of her husband). Zeus saves her by putting out the fire with rain. This is another common trope across Indo-European mythologies.
[Author’s Note: This poem and others will appear in my forthcoming collection of poems, The Sacking of the Muses which will be published in late 2019.]
(Meet Mago Contributor) Susan Hawthorne.