The Couvade in ancient Cyprus: A Folk ritual perfomance

Paeon of Amathus, the ancient Cypriot mythographer, offers an important piece of information
regarding the existence of the custom of male lying-in (the couvade) in antiquity.
The information is of significance, in that it is not to be found in the scholarly literature
on the subject. Paeon noted its existence in a study relating to the couvade, without analyzing
it in any detail. As this paper indicates we are at the point of transition here from
life-cycle customs, however they are to be interpreted, to the customs of the annual festal
cycle. This particular form of the practice of the couvade is not intended to bring about
any particular birth nor to offer any magical protection for the pregnant woman and for
her child. Nor is it intended to offer symbolic confirmation of paternity, but to ensure the
fertility and fecundity of the community as a whole. Given, of course, that this particular
couvade ritual was part of an annual religious festival, it is clearly liminal, concerned with
fertility and is a rite of transition. In our case, the couvade ritual is removed from its setting
of custom and is placed in a festal framework.