Chapter V Monuments to the Nurse
The relations between nurse and master were of that sacred character which cease not with death. Her sincere and tender affection was not only repaid during life by the master’s solicitude for her well-being; but after death her memory was frequently perpetuated by the erection of monuments.
The unearthing of many of these has proved a fertile source of information concerning the nurse. Her name, sometimes her parentage, and even details of her life and virtues find expression in the sepulchral inscriptions.
The commonest form of grave-stone erected to the memory of the nurse is the “Stele”, a horizontal grave-relief more or less ornamented, and usually representing the nurse seated, bidding farewell to her master or mistress. Conze in his Die attischen Grabreliefs describes several of these.
The nurse Melitta, daughter of Apollodorus, the metic, is honored by a monument erected by her master, Hippostrates, who is also represented on the relief. Beneath is the following inscription:
Ἐνθάδε τὴν χρηστὴν τίτθην κατὰ γαῖαν καλύπτει
Ἱπποστράτης· καὶ νῦν ποθεῖ σε.
καὶ ζῶσάν σ’ ἐφίλουν, τίτθη, καὶ νῦν σ’ ἔτι τιμῶ
οὖσαν καὶ κατὰ γῆς, καὶ τιμήσω σε ἄχρι ἂν ζῶ·
οἶδα δὲ σοι ὅτι καὶ κατὰ γῆς, εἴπερ χρηστοῖς γέρας ἐστίν,
πρώτει σοι τιμαί, τίτθη, παρὰ Φερσεφόνει
Πλούτονί τε κεῖνται.289
This inscription bears witness to the virtues of the nurse and the fond relations which must have existed between her and her master, for having loved her during life, he yearns for her when she is no more, and promises to honor her as long as he lives, thus uniting with those great honors which must necessarily be paid her in Hades, if there be there any honor paid the good.
The “Stele” of Malicha of Cytherea, the Spartan nurse of the children of Diogeitus, is engraved with an inscription bearing witness to her goodness:
Ἐνθάδε γῆ κατέχει τίτθην παίδων
Διογείτου ἐκ Πελοποννήσου τήνδε δικαιοτάτην
Μαλίχα Κυθηρία.290
The epithet χρηστή so often seen on the monuments finds place on those of nurses. Thus the combination τίτθη χρηστή,291 to which is sometimes added the name of the nurse, occurs: Παίδευσις τίτθη χρηστή,292 Πυῤῥίχη τροφὸς χρηστή.293 Sometimes the name of the nurse and the word τίτθη are found, as Δημητρίᾳ τίτθῃ,294 Χοιρίνη τίτθη,295 Φιλύρα τίτθη,296 and there are instances where the simple word τίτθη or τείτθη occurs.297 Then too, the name of the nurse’s country is sometimes mentioned in the inscription: Φάνιον Κορινθία τίτθη298 and also that of her nursling: Ῥωξάνη Ζωπύρου Ἁλειέως τίτθη.299 Βιότη Λύσωνος Ἁμαξαντέως τροφός.300 In these inscriptions τροφός is less frequently used for “nurse” than τίτθη.
Besides the monuments erected especially to nurses, we often find the nurse shown on the grave-relief of a mother in the act of handing the child to her for the last farewell,301 or holding in her arms a young child enveloped in swaddling clothes.302 The representation of the nurse in this connection is quite in keeping with her relations towards the family during the sad hours which preceded the burial. While the immediate members of the family were considered as the chief mourners, they did not look upon it as a condescension to allow the sympathetic heart of the nurse to unite its share of grief with theirs.303
In addition to the sepulchral inscriptions mentioned above, we have literary evidence of the existence of other monuments in honor of nurses. Theocritus furnishes the following:
ὁ μικκὸς τόδ’ ἔτευξε τᾲ Θραΐσσᾳ,
Μήδειος τὸ μνᾶμ’ ἐπὶ τᾷ ὁδῷ κηπέγραψε Κλείτας
ἕξει τὰν χάριν ἁ γυνὰ ἀντὶ τήνων
ὧν τὸν κοῦρον ἔθρεψε. τί μάν; ἔτι χρησίμα καλεῖται.304
The use of χρησίμα in the last line is in accordance with the custom referred to before.305
Less complimentary to the nurse is the following selection from the Anthology, ascribed to Dioscuridus:
Τὴν τίτθην Ἱέρων Σειληνίδα, τὴν, ὅτι πίνοι
Ζωρὸν, ὑπ’ οὐδεμιῆς θλιβουμένην κύλικος,
Ἀγρῶν ἐντὸς ἔθηκεν, ἵν’ ἡ φιλάκρητος ἐκείνη
Καὶ φθιμένη, ληνῶν γείτονα τύμβον ἔχη.306
The unfortunate weakness of this nurse was made a subject of jest with the comic poets.307
But more in keeping with the true character of the nurse is Callimachus’ epigram, wherein he commemorates the goodness of the Phrygian nurse Aeschra, to whose memory her master set up her statue in token of gratitude for her nurture:
Τὴν Φρυγίην Αἴσχρην, ἀγαθὸν γάλα, πᾶσιν ἐν ἐσθλοῖς
Μίκκος καὶ ζωὴν οὖσαν ἐγηροκόμει,
Καὶ φθιμένην ἀνέθηκεν, ἐπ’ ἐσσομένοισιν ὁρᾶσθαι,
Ἡ γρῆυς μαστῶν ὡς ἀπέχει χάριτας.308
Thus from the study of the inscriptions, as well as from the literature, we learn that the Greeks had for those devoted women who stood to them in place of mother, a tender attachment which often continued all through life; and even after the nurse’s death they sought to give some expression to it by writing epitaphs and erecting monuments to their memory.