Chapter III The Nurse and the Family
The helpless condition of infancy has always called for special offices to tide the child over the first years of life. These offices are performed either by mother or nurse. Among the Greeks, the nurse was a familiar figure in the household; and although our knowledge of Greek domestic life must necessarily be limited from the fact that the women’s apartments are so persistently closed against us, nevertheless from side-lights furnished by our threefold source of information—the literature, the art and the inscriptions—we cannot help being impressed by the important place which the nurse held in the family.
Let us now turn to a more exact consideration of the various duties of the nurse in relation to the children, to the grown daughter, the grown son and lastly to the household. In this way we shall be led to a clearer conception of the general characteristics which marked the nurse’s dealings with her charge.
Duties to the Child
Bathing
Among the principal duties incumbent on the nurse of an infant was the giving of the bath. That it was given immediately after birth, we infer from Lycophron’s Alexandra, 309, where a child dies πρὶν ἐκ λοχείας γυῖα χυτλῶσαι δρόσῳ, and also from Plautus, Amphitryo, 1103: “Postquam peperit pueros lavere iussit nos.” The heroine nymphs of Libya, acting as nurses, bathed Athena when she leaped in gleaming armor from the head of Zeus.58 Some nurses preferred pure water;59 others, like the Spartans, bathed the child in wine as a test of its strength, they being of the opinion that the weakly ones would faint, but the more vigorous would acquire firmness and hardness after a bath of this kind.60 On a vase portraying the life of Achilles one of the scenes shows the nurse giving the infant son of Thetis his first bath.61 The vessel in which this bath is given is mentioned by Pindar:
ἐπεί νιν καθαροῦ λέβητος ἔξελε Κλωθώ.62
Swaddling Clothes
Attic nurses wrapped the infant in swaddling clothes (σπάργανα).63 As far as we can gather from the grave-reliefs these seem to have been long narrow strips of cloth bound like bandages around the child’s body, which they completely covered from head to foot, leaving nothing but the face uncovered.64 White,65 purple,66 and saffron67 are mentioned as colors of these bands. The practice of swaddling children is alluded to by Hesiod,68 and frequent reference is made to it by the Tragedians.69 The Theban children given over to the state were swaddled.70 The nurse in the Amphitryo complained that Hercules was so large she could not swathe him.71 How long the children were kept thus bound we do not know; but we can hardly suppose that it was until they had reached the age of two years, as Plato advises.72 The Spartan nurses dispensed with these bands, allowing the children to grow up unrestrained in limb and form.73 Exposed children were sometimes recognized by the swaddling clothes.74
Food
The child was suckled either by mother75 or nurse.76 Naturally the practice of employing wet-nurses prevailed chiefly among well-to-do mothers.77 The author of the De Liberis Educandis counsels mothers to nurse their own children, and dilates on the advantages accruing therefrom; nevertheless he permits the employment of wet-nurses wherever the mothers cannot perform the duty themselves.78 Antiphanes considered the Scythians the wisest of men because they fed their children on mare’s and cow’s milk, and did not entrust them to nurses as did the Greeks.79 In the Menaechmi of Plautus distinction is made between “mater quae mammam dabat” and “mater quae pepererat,”80 and in the Adelphi of Terence the services of a nurse are secured for a courtesan.81 We have ample evidence from Demosthenes that this employment was resorted to by poor women as a means of livelihood during the hard times which followed the Peloponnesian War.82 We read besides that nurses were allowed to nurse but one child at a time.83 Plato refers to definite laws regarding the nurture of children,84 and speaks of the time when they were fed with milk: ἐκ νέων παίδων ἔτι ἐν γάλαξι τρεφόμενοι.85 In the community of wives and children, he would have the mothers, from a feeling of humanity, assisted in the nurture of the children by wet-nurses: καὶ ἄλλας γάλα ἐχούσας ἐκπορίζοντες.86 Aristotle associates infantile maladies with the physical condition of the nurse: εἴωτε δὲ τὰ παιδία τὰ πλεῖστα σπασμὸς ἐπιλαμβάνειν καὶ μᾶλλον τὰ εὐτραφέστερα καὶ γάλακτι χρώμενα πλείονα ἢ παχυτέρῳ καὶ τίτθαις εὐσάρκοις,87 and φύει δὲ πρῶτον τοὺς προσθίους, καὶ τὰ μὲν τοὺς ἄνωθεν πρότερον, τὰ δὲ τοὺς κάτωθεν. πάντα δὲ θᾶττον φύουσιν, ὅσων αἱ τίτθαι θερμότερον ἔχουσι τὸ γάλα.88 He objects to the use of wine for young children,89 and deems it unsuitable for the nurses as well: διὸ τοῖς παιδίοις οὐ συμφέρουσιν οἱ οἶνοι, οὐδὲ ταῖς τίτθαις.90 Dion Chrysostom speaks of its use: ὥσπερ ὑπὸ τίτθης γάλακτι καὶ οἴνῳ καὶ σιτίοις,91 but Hippocrates says: ἀμεῖνον εἶναι τοῖς παιδίοισιν τὸν οἶνον ὡς ὑδαρέστατον διδόναι.92 After being weaned,93 children were fed on milk,94 and honey.95 According to Athenaeus, young children thrive well on the juice of figs.[96] They were also fed on morsels: “αἱ τὰ παιδία ψωμίζουσι τροφοί.”97 The practice of first chewing the food before giving it to the child seems to have been usual, for we have several allusions to it. Democrates likens the orators to nurses αἱ τὸ ψώμισμα καταπίνουσαι, τῷ σιάλῳ τὰ παιδία παραλείφουσι,98 and Sextus Empiricus has a similar statement: εἰκότως ταῖς τίτθαις, αἱ μικρὸν τοῦ ψωμίσματος τοῖς παιδίοις διδοῦσαι τὸ ὅλον καταπίνουσι.99 Nor did it escape the ridicule of Aristophanes who says:
καθ’ ὥσπερ αἱ τίτθαι γε σιτίζεις κακῶς
μασώμενος γὰρ τῷ μὲν ὀλίγον ἐντίθης
αὐτὸς δ’ ἐκεῖνον τριπλάσιον κατέσπακας.100
Athenaeus tells the absurd story of a man who had his nurse chew his food for him all his life: Σάγαριν τὸν Μαριανδυνὸν ὑπὸ τοῦ τρυφῆς σιτεῖσθε μὲν μέχρι γήρως ἐκ τοῦ τῆς τίτθης στόματος, ἵνα μὴ μασώμενος πονήσειεν.101
The Child in the Nurse’s Arms
In the beautiful idyllic scene of Iliad, vi, 389 ff., where Hector bids farewell to Andromache and his darling son, it is to the familiar arms of the nurse that the child turns when frightened by the glancing helm:
ἂψ δ’ ὁ παὶς πρὸς κόλπον εὐζώνοιο τιθήνης
ἐκλίνθη ἰάχων.102
In those arms he had been carried,103 and when tired out from his childish play there he had slept on a soft cushion satisfied with every comfort:
αὐτὰρ ὅθ’ ὕπνος ἔλοι, παύσαιτό τε νηπιαχεύων,
εὕδεσκ’ ἐν λέκτροισιν, ἐν ἀγκαλίδεσσι τιθήνης,
εὐνῇ ενι μαλακῇ, θαλέων ἐμπλησάμενος κῆρ.104
In the Odyssey, too, the faithful Eurycleia is spoken of as carrying Odysseus and laying him in the arms of his grandsire, that the latter might choose for him a name.105 The author of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter puts these words into the mouth of the goddess-nurse:
καί κεν παῖδα νεογνὸν ἐν ἀγκοίνῃσιν ἔχουσα
καλὰ τιθηνοίμην.106
The nurse in Herodotus carried the child each day to the temple of Helen.107 Iphigenia speaking of Orestes says that she left him at home a young child in the arms of his nurse:
ἔλιπον ἀγκάλαισι νεαρὸν τροφοῦ.108
At the festival of the Amphidromia, it was the nurse who carried the child around the hearth;109 and in the Nurse-festival (τιθηνίδια) at Sparta, the nurses carried the male children to the temple of Artemis.110 We know that nurses walked the floor with fretful children in order to soothe them. A good instance of this is given in Menander’s Samia, 26–30 (Capps), where an old nurse fondles a child to her heart’s content, kissing it and calling it soft names, walking around with it until it is quieted. “The homeopathic cure of morbid ‘enthusiasm’ by means of music was, it may be incidentally observed, known to Plato. In a passage of the Laws,111 where he is laying down the rules for the management of infants, his advice is that infants should be kept in perpetual motion, and live as if they were always tossing at sea. He proceeds to compare the principle on which religious ecstasy is cured by a strain of impassioned music, with the method of nurses, who lull their babes to sleep not by silence but by singing, not by holding them quiet, but by rocking them in their arms.... An external agitation (κίνησις) is employed to calm and counteract an internal. But Plato recognized the principle only as it applied to music and to the useful art of nursing.”
This perpetual motion used by the nurse is referred to in the Timaeus,112 and Aristotle thinks “it is of advantage to have all the movements made (of the bodies of infants) that it is possible to have made in the case of creatures so young.”113 Plato lays down regulations for the nurses to carry the children into the fields, to the temples, and on visits to their acquaintances until they are able to stand alone. He would have them carried until the end of the third year, lest their limbs should be distorted by standing on them too soon: καὶ δὴ καὶ τὰς τροφοὺς ἀναγκάζωμεν νόμῳ ζημιοῦντες τὰ παιδία ἢ πρὸς ἀγροὺς ἢ πρὸς ἱερὰ ἢ πρὸς ὀικείους ἀεί πῃ φέρειν, μέχριπερ ἂν ἱκανῶς ἵστασθαι δυνατὰ γίγνηται, καὶ τότε διευλαβουμένας, ἔτι νέων ὄντων μή πῃ βίᾳ ἐπερειδομένων στρέφηται τὰ κῶλα ἐπιπονεῖν φερούσας, ἕως ἂν τριέτες ἀποτελεσθῇ τὸ γενόμενον;114 This is doubtless the reason why there is no mention made of a contrivance to keep the children’s limbs straight like the “serperastra”115 in use among the Romans.116 The Greeks were careful to develop the body and to have it well-shapen. In the Pseudo-Plutarchian Essay, De Liberis Educandis, the writer thinks it necessary for the members of children to be shapen aright as soon as they are born: ὥσπερ γὰρ τὰ μέλη τοῦ σώματος εὐθὺς ἀπὸ γενέσεως πλάττειν τῶν τέκνων ἀναγκαῖόν ἐστι.117 In the De Virtute, the author tells us that this is the work of the nurses: αἱ τίτθαι ταῖς χερσὶ τὸ σῶμα πλάττουσι.118 Plato, speaking of the influence of stories on the minds of children, says that we must persuade the nurses and the mothers to form the souls of their children by these stories πολὺ μᾶλλον ἢ τὰ σώματα ταῖς χερσὶν.119 This practice continued down to the days of Galen as is shown from the following: τὰ κῶλα διαπλάττουσι αἱ τροφοὶ τῶν βρεφῶν ὥσπερ κήρινα.120
Cradles
The nurse had various contrivances in which to place the children after they were lulled to sleep. We read that Alcmena cradled her children in a shield:
χάλκειον κατέθηκεν ἐπ’ ἀσπίδα.121
The scholiast on Callimachus, Jove, 48, alluding to this passage of Theocritus, says that military men were accustomed to place their children in shields after birth that they might become vigorous and strong. A specimen of a Greek cradle, that of the infant Hermes, a little two-handled basket shaped like a shoe, is seen on a vase.122 The σκάφη, another kind of cradle, is mentioned as being instrumental in the ἀναγνώρισις of children: καὶ οἶνον ἐν τῇ Τυροῖ διὰ τῆς σκάφης.123 Children were also exposed in a σκάφη: ἐνθέμενος οὖν εἰς σκάφην τὰ βρέφη.124 Adrasteia, the nurse of Zeus, lulled him to sleep in a golden winnowing-fan:
Λίκνῳ ἐνὶ χρυσέῳ.125
It was considered an omen of future wealth and prosperity to place children in these λίκνα.126 Bacchus is called λικνίτης,127 and is represented as carried in a λίκνον between a faun and a Bacchante.128 Hermes is conceived to have been cradled in the same manner.129 Another kind of cradle shown on a vase looks like a bed on rollers,130 and answers very well to the description given by Plutarch, Fragm. in Hesiod, 45: οἷά τισιν εὐκίνητα κλινίδια μεμηχάνηται πρὸς τὴν τῶν παιδίων εὐνήν. The rocking of the cradle is mentioned by Athenaeus: ἡ τροφὸς... ἐτίθει αὐτὸ ἐν σκάφῃ... ὅτε δὲ κλαίοι... τὴν σκάφην ἐκίνει καὶ κατεκοίμιζεν αὐτό.131
Amusements Furnished by the Nurse
It was natural for the nurse to amuse the children with the various kinds of toys in use in antiquity. Of these, both the literature and the art of Greece furnish many examples. We shall here consider only the toys which are mentioned in direct connection with the nurse. That the nurse sometimes made toys for the children, we learn from Apollonius Rhodius, iii, 131 ff., where the wonderful ball of Zeus τὸ οἷ ποίησε φίλη τροφὸς Ἀδράστεια is described. The shaking of rattles (κρόταλα) before children by the nurse is spoken of by Stobaeus,132 and Pollux has preserved a passage dealing with the same subject: τὸ κρόταλον καὶ τὸ σεῖστρον, ᾧ καταβαυκαλῶσιν αἱ τίτθαι ψυχαγωγοῦσαι τὰ δυσυπνοῦντα τῶν παιδίων.133 We have a vase-painting which portrays a nurse holding in her arms a child, while before its face she dandles a fruit.134 Plutarch’s little daughter used to ask her nurse to give her dolls the breast.135 We learn from Plautus that the nurses took the children to the theatres:
Nutrix...
Me spectatum tulerat per Dionysia.136
And in the Poenulus, the nurses are bidden to refrain from bringing the children to that play.137 In Vitruvius’ account of the origin of the Corinthian Capital, there is mention made of a Corinthian nurse who gathers in a basket the playthings which had served for the amusement of her nursling in life, in order to adorn the tomb with them after death.138
General Care Over Children
To keep the child clean and to attend to all its wants were the principal occupations of the nurse. Cilissa recalls in touching terms the childhood of her dear nursling whose death she had just learned. She ran to him by night, at his least cry, anticipating all his wishes and foreseeing all his needs. Careful for the child’s cleanliness, she washes its garments and its linen:
ὃν ἐξέθρεψα μητρόθεν δεδεγμένη,
καὶ νυκτιπλάγκτον ὀρθίων κελευμάτων
καὶ πολλὰ καὶ μοχθήρ’ ἀνωφέλητ’ ἐμοὶ
τλάσῃ. τὸ μὴ φρονοῦν γὰρ ὡσπερεὶ βοτὸν
τρέφειν ἀνάγκη, πῶς γὰρ οὔ; τρόπῳ φρενός·
οὐ γάρ τι φωνεῖ παῖς ἔτ’ ὢν ἐν σπαργάνοις,
εἰ λιμὸς ἢ δίψη τις, ἢ λιψουρία
ἔχει· νέα δὲ νηδὺς αὐτάρκης τέκνων.
τούτων πρόμαντις οὖσα, πολλὰ δ’, οἴομαι,
ψευσθεῖσα παιδὸς σπαργάνων φαιδρύντρια·
γναφεὺς τροφεύς τε ταὐτὸν εἰχέτην τέλος.139
With less vividness Moschio’s nurse recalls the days of his infancy.
πρώην τοιοῦτον ὄντα Μοσχίων’ ἐγώ,
αὐτὸν ἐτιθηνούμην ἀγαπῶσα, νῦν δ’ ἐπεὶ
παιδίον ἐκείνου γέγονεν.140
Suidas suggests another duty in an anonymous passage: μειράκια, ταῖς τίτθαις ἀπομύττειν... ἀποπέμψατε, and the same thing is referred to in the first book of the Republic: περιορᾷ καὶ οὐκ ἀπομύττει.141 After the children were washed and dressed by the nurses, they were brought to their mothers who took them up and played with them.142 This fondling of children is mentioned in Agamemnon:
πολέα δ’ ἐσχ’ ἐν ἀγκάλαις
νεοτρόφου τέκνου δίκαν.143
and in Orestes:
καὶ γὰρ μ’ ἔθρεψε σμικρὸν ὄντα, πολλὰ δὲ
φιλήματ’ ἐξέπλησε, τὸν Ἀγαμέμνονος
παῖδ’ ἀγκάλαισι περιφέρων.144
That it was resorted to by the nurses, we gather from Samia, 29 ff., where we also learn that the nurse used pet names in speaking to the children. Aeschines says that Demosthenes acquired the nickname βάταλος from his nurse.145
In learning to walk the children must have had many a tumble; but the nurse was always at hand to pick them up, and clean them, and tidy their dress and afterwards find fault with and correct them: καὶ γὰρ αἱ τίτθαι τοῖς παιδίοις πεσοῦσιν οὐ λοιδορησόμεναι προστρέχουσιν, ἀλλ’ ἤγειραν καὶ κατέστειλαν, εἶθ’ οὕτως ἐπιπλήττουσι καὶ κολάζουσι.146 Epictetus speaks of a nurse beating the stone which had caused a child to stumble.147 Philoctetes, miserably crawling along the ground to obtain food, likens himself to a child without its kind nurse:
τότ’ ἂν εἰλυόμενος, παῖς ἄτερ ὡς φίλας τίθηνας.148
Plato speaks of a method nurses had of finding out what children want. When anything is brought to an infant and he is silent, then he is supposed to be pleased, but when he weeps and cries out, then he is not pleased.149 Aristotle thinks that the crying of infants should not be restrained since it is conducive to their growth: συμφέρουσι γὰρ πρὸς αὔξησιν,150 but Plutarch in his De Cohibenda Ira says: ὅπερ οὖν αἱ τίτθαι πρὸς τὰ παιδία λέγουσι “μὴ κλαῖε καὶ λήψῃ” τοῦτο πρὸς τὸν θυμὸν οὐκ ἀχρήστως.151 By means of amulets and charms the nurses sedulously guarded the children against the pernicious influence of witchcraft and the evil eye. Demeter, in the Homeric Hymn, promises the mother that no harm shall come to the child from witchcraft:
θρέψω, κοὔ μιν ἔολπα κακοφραδίῃσι τιθήνης
οὔτ’ ἄρ’ ἐπηλυσίη δηλήσεται οὔθ’ ὑποτάμνον.152
The amulets were usually of a grotesque character that the sight being diverted to them should not make so strong an impression on the child.153 On the approach of a stranger, a nurse in charge of a sleeping infant would spit towards him as if to keep off from the child a possibly evil influence.154 Another charm against the evil eye is preserved by St. John Chrysostom: βόρβορον αἱ γυναῖκες ἐν τῷ βαλανείῳ λαμβάνουσαι τροφοὶ καὶ θεραπαινίδες καὶ τῷ δακτύλῳ χρίσασαι κατὰ τοῦ πετώπου τυποῦσι τοῦ παιδίου κἂν ἔρηταί τις, τί βούλεται ὁ βόρβορος τὶ δὲ ὁ πηλός; ὀφθαλμὸν πονηρὸν ἀναστρέφει, φασί, καὶ βασκανίαν καὶ φθόνον.155
At what age the children left the care of the nurses is not certain. Chrysippus allows three years to them,156 and according to Plato, the boys and girls were separated at six.157 It seems clear that the boys, at least, were sent early to school to keep them out of harm’s way: ἐπεὶ καὶ αἱ τίτθαι τοιάδε λέγουσι περὶ τῶν παιδίων ὡς ἀπιτέον αὐτοῖς ἐς διδασκάλου. καὶ γὰρ ἂν μηδέπω μαθεῖν ἀγαθόν τι δύνωνται, ἀλλ’ οὖν φαῦλον οὐδὲν ποιήσουσιν ἐκεῖ μένοντες.158
The Nurse and the Grown Daughter
The tie between nurse and child might continue strong in later years. She often remained in the family as the attendant and sometimes as the confidante of the young maiden. Thus Nausicaa’s old nurse lights her fire and prepares her evening meal:
ἥ οἱ πῦρ ἀνέκαιε καὶ εἴσω δόρπον ἐκόσμει.159
The same nurse who had tended Phaedra as an infant remained in her service until the death of her mistress. Her devotion, introduced mainly as a dramatic expedient, is nevertheless lifelike. Indeed it is the blindness, even to precipitancy, of her love of Phaedra which must be held accountable for the method employed by her to cure the distemper of her mistress. This she herself acknowledges in her answer to Phaedra:
ἔθρεψά σ’ εὔνους τ’ εἰμί· τῆς νόσου δέ σοι
ζητοῦσα φάρμαχ’ ηὗρον οὐχ ἁβουλόμην.
εἰ δ’ εὔ γ’ ἔπραξα, κάρτ’ ἂν ἐν σοφοῖσιν ἦ·
πρὸς τὰς τύχας γὰρ τὰς φρένας κεκτήμεθα.160
We read that the nurse accompanied the young maiden out of doors, guarded her well, looking askance at admirers who were attracted by the girl’s beauty: “Thou old nurse of a loved one, why do you bark at me while approaching you, and harshly throw me into twice as many pains? For you are leading a very beautiful virgin in whose steps I am treading. See, how I am going along my own path. It is sweet merely to look upon her form. What grudging of eyes is there, thou wretched one! We look upon the forms of even the immortals....”161
Still, she is sometimes the go-between in the maiden’s love affairs, as in the tale of Acontius and Cydippe.162 So, too, the old nurse of Hero dries the tears of her love-sick charge and receives her confidence.163 The power and influence of Polyxo, the aged nurse of Hypsiple, are evidenced by the fact of her being consulted in an affair of state.164 That these old nurses were wont to comfort and console their charges when grown up, we learn from the following:
ἠύτε κούρη
οἰόθεν ἀσπασίως πολιὴν τροφὸν ἀμφιπεσοῦσα
μύρεται.165
The Nurse and the Grown Son
Outside of Homer, we do not find the nurse as actively engaged in duties towards the grown son as towards the daughter. Eurycleia continued her care of Telemachus until he came to man’s estate. She accompanied him to his chamber, folded and smoothed his clothes, and having hung them up, carefully closed the door after her.166 She welcomed him as a son on his return from Pylos,167 and is sought by him as his faithful friend.168 She gently reproved him for having blamed his mother where there was no blame,169 yet she was anxious to see him established in his rights.170 She is the first to recognize her old master and former nursling, Odysseus.171 On the recognition, he addresses her by the old name of his childhood, μαῖα, which Telemachus also uses.172
The grief of Cilissa for Orestes shows that her love for him had endured beyond the nursery days.173 The unfortunate woodcutter in Callimachus’ Demeter, who had offended the goddess, was bewailed by the nurse by whom he had been suckled.174 Moschio’s nurse still retained loving thoughts of her dear child, Moschio, and was much interested in the son for the sake of the father.175 The old nurse in Demosthenes’ In Evergum was welcomed by her former nursling as a safe companion for his wife during his absence, and his care of her after the robbery is an evidence of the esteem in which she was held.176 A further indication of the love and gratitude evinced by young men for the nurses of their childhood is shown in the relatively large number of monuments and epigrams dedicated to them.177
The Nurse in the Household
When the nurse was not occupied with the child, she owed towards the household, duties which are specifically mentioned in Homer; but not so clearly defined in later authors. Thus the nurse of Eumaeus is engaged in washing when she is seduced by the pirates.178 Eurycleia is the mainstay of the house in Ithaca, having complete charge of the domestic arrangements. In the morning, she gives her directions for the day’s work to the female slaves179 over whom she has joint supervision with the mistress.180 These, she taught how to perform the various works of the house—making beds, strewing couches, carding wool, setting tables and cleaning rooms. Besides, she is the stewardess of the household:
ἐν δὲ γυνὴ ταμίη νύκτας τε καὶ ἦμαρ
ἔσχ’, ἣ πάντ’ ἐφύλασσε νόου πολυιδρείῃσιν,
Εὐρύκλει’, Ὦπος θυγάτηρ Πεισηνορίδαο.181
and to her Telemachus applies for provisions for his journey.182 It is characteristic of her to keep the best wine against the homecoming of Odysseus.183
Demeter enumerates the duties incumbent on a nurse in addition to her nursing cares:
οἷαί τε τροφοί εἰσι θεμιστοπόλων βασιλήων
παίδων καὶ ταμίαι κατὰ δώματα ἠχήεντα.
· · · · ·
... καὶ δώματα τηρήσαιμι,
καί κε λέχος στορέσαιμι μυχῷ θαλάμων εὐπήκτων
δεσπόσυνον, καὶ κ’ ἔργα διδασκήσαιμι γυναῖκας.184
They are substantially the same as those of Eurycleia.
So far as we can see, the nurse of Tragedy is occupied almost exclusively with the mistress. The nurse of Medea, however, affects a superior tone in speaking to the παιδαγωγός,185 and gives him directions concerning the children.186 In a similar way the nurse of Comedy seems to have authority over some of the servants.187
General Characteristics of the Nurse
Instances of the love and devotedness of nurses are not wanting in the literature. From Homer down, we see the nurse as a kind mother lavishing love and affection on the child that she nursed. In the Odyssey, Eurycleia is represented as loving Telemachus more than did the other women:
καὶ ἔτρεφε τυτθὸν ἐόντα.188
and Penelope bears witness that Eurycleia had diligently nursed and tended Odysseus:
εὐ τρέφεν ἤδ’ ἀτίταλλε.189
Right willingly did the old nurse give her services to one who reminded her of her master. She is the first to recognize him by the scar he had received in his youth. Then
τὴν δ’ ἅμα χάρμα καὶ ἄλγος ἕλε φρένα, τὼ δέ οἱ ὄσσε
δακρυόφι πλῆσθεν, θαλερὲ δέ οἱ ἔσχετο φωνή.190
A picture of true devotedness is given by Herodotus,191 where a nurse takes an ugly child every day to the temple of Helen to implore the gift of beauty for her charge.
Stesichorus192 and Pindar193 assert that it was the nurse who saved Orestes from his mother after his father’s murder. Aeschylus calls her Cilissa, and points her out to us as full of love and devotedness for the child.194 Such is the devotion of Medea’s nurse for her mistress that the old παιδαγωγός is surprised to see her outside the place without Medea.195 The nurse in the Trachiniae shows real grief for the fate of her mistress,196 while Phaedra’s nurse attributes her unwise action to excess of love,197 and Hypsipyle’s nursling is as dear to her as her own child.198 Fidelity is the attribute which characterizes Aristophanes’ πιστὴ τροφός.199 A good instance of the nurse’s care for the child is given in Menander, where an old nurse, seeing a child crying and neglected, goes up to it and says: “My darling, and my precious, and where is Mama?” She then kisses it and walks about with it until it stops crying, when she says to herself, “Ah me, it seems but yesterday I was nursing that dear child, Moschio, and now that a child is born to him!” Then to a young girl who comes running in from outside: “Bathe the child, can’t you? What is this? Is it because it is his father’s wedding day that you have no care of the little one?”200
Examples of tender attachment are also met with in real life. Demosthenes furnishes a typical illustration in Oration, xlvii. “I explained to the interpreters the attachment of the woman to our family, the cause of my having her in my house, and that she had lost her life in the defense of my property. She had no kind of family connection with me, except that she had been my nurse.”
In contrast to these, we have but few instances of unkindness on the part of the nurse. However, the perversity of human nature is exemplified in the illustration Plutarch gives: “For nurses, who are often rubbing the dirt off their infants, sometimes tear the flesh and put them to torture.”201 This contrary note is again struck in Stobaeus,202 where the lack of skill and teasing humor of some nurses is portrayed. The child is hungry, the nurse obliges it to sleep; it is thirsty, she gives it a bath; it is sleepy, she keeps it awake by shaking rattles in its ears. Aristophanes, too, does not spare those nurses who rob their nurslings of a part of their meal.203 Though the chattering204 and tippling propensities205 of the nurse are sometimes referred to, we do not read that they led her to neglect the child. In fact, neglect and unkindness to children are not characteristic of the Greek nurse as popularly conceived. Of this we have ample evidence from the number of metaphors employed in the literature wherein the nurse figures and always in a good sense. One’s fatherland is frequently called a nurse, since the care and nurture bestowed on a man by his country is like that given the child by the nurse. We read of the much-nourishing nurse, Greece (Ἑλλάδος ἀμητῆρα πολυθρέπτοιο τιθήνης);206 your motherland, most beloved nurse (γῇ τε μητρί, φιλτάτῃ τροφῷ;)207 this, thy country, nursed thee:
(οὔτ’ ἐννομ’ εἶπας οὐτε προσφιλὲς πόλει
τῇδ’, ἥ σ’ ἔθρεψε, τήνδ’ ἀποστερῶν φάτιν;)208
Apollo may love me as caring for his dear nurse, i. e. the island of Delos (Κύνθιος αἰνήσῃ με φίλης ἀλέγοντα τιθήνης),209 and many other examples. The dinner table is styled the nurse of life (βίου τιθήνη).210 The dove keeping the snake from her brood is an all-attentive nurse:
(δράκοντες ὥς τις τέκνων
ὑπερδέδοικεν λεχαίων δυσευνάτορας
πάντροφος πελειάς.)211
The fountains are called the nurses of Bacchus, because the water being mingled with the wine increased the quantity of the wine.212
Thus we find that in the performance of her fourfold office towards child, grown daughter, grown son, and household, the nurse exhibited a tender devotion towards the family in which she lived and especially towards the members of it who had been the former objects of her care.