THE NURSE IN GREEK LIFE
_By_
SISTER MARY ROSARIA, M. A.
OF THE
SISTERS OF CHARITY, HALIFAX, N. S.
A DISSERTATION
_Submitted to the Catholic Sisters College of the Catholic University of
America in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor
of Philosophy_
BOSTON
JUNE, 1917
------------------------------------------------------------------------
PREFACE
The frequent mention of the nurse in connection with the child and the
family and the numerous descriptions of her in Greek art have suggested
the investigation of Greek classical literature and the inscriptions
with the purpose of ascertaining and presenting the position and
characteristics of the nurse as a contribution to the private life of
the Greeks. The subject here dealt with is viewed solely from the social
standpoint, though the writer recognizes its value from the literary and
psychological sides.
The scope of this study practically includes the whole range of Greek
literature from Homer to Plutarch. A correct notion of the part played
in Greek life by this character could not have been obtained from a
narrower field. Certain phases of the nurse’s life are discussed by
Becker in his “Charicles” (Excursus to Scene I), and references to
different aspects of the subject are found in Hermann’s “Lehrbuch” (3rd.
ed., pt. IV). Friedländer’s “Sittengeschichte Roms” (5th. ed., I, p.
468ff.) was of special value in throwing light on some of the μυθόι of
Chapter IV. Wherever the works of other modern authors dealing with
Greek domestic life have been used, due credit will be given them.
SISTER MARY ROSARIA.
Feast of St. Joseph,
March 19, 1917.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE 3
CHAPTER I. TERMS USED FOR NURSE.
τροφός, τίτθη, τιθήνη, μαῖα 7
CHAPTER II. SOCIAL STATUS OF THE NURSE.
From Homer to Herodotus—In Tragedy—In Athens—Foreign Nurses 9
CHAPTER III. THE NURSE AND THE FAMILY.
Duties to the Child—Bathing—Swaddling—First Nurture—Wet
nurses—Food—Child in the Nurse’s Arms—Carrying of Child—
Motion Profitable for Young Children—Moulding of Child’s
Body—Cradles—σκάφη ... λίκνον,—Rocking of the Cradle—
Amusements Furnished by the Nurse—Making of Toys—Balls—
Rattles—Dolls—Dandling Fruit—Theatres—General Care Over
Children—Keeping them Clean—Fondling Children—Pet Names—
Humoring Child—Method of Finding Out What Children Want—
Crying of Children—Amulets—Time Spent in Nursery.
The Nurse and the Grown Daughter—Nausicaa’s Nurse—Tragic
Nurse—Care of Young Maiden—Go-between in Maiden’s Love
Affairs—Comfort and Consolation.
The Nurse and the Grown Son—Eurycleia—Cilissa—Moschio’s
Nurse—Old Nurse in Demosthenes—Esteem for Nurse....
The Nurse in the Household—Washing—Eurycleia’s Duties—Duties
Enumerated by Demeter—Tragedy—Comedy—General
Characteristics of the Nurse—Eurycleia—Nurse in Herodotus—
Orestes’ Nurse—Nurse in Medea—in Trachiniae—in Hippolytus—
Aristophanes’ πιστὴ, τροφός—Nurse’s Care Shown in Samia—in
Real Life—Instances of Unkindness Few—Plutarch—Stobaeus—
Aristophanes—Chattering and Tippling Propensities—
Metaphors of Nurse 16
CHAPTER IV. NURSERY TALES AND LULLABIES.
The Nurse in Education—First Lessons Imparted by Means of
Tales—Isolated Traces of Nursery Tales—Held in Contempt by
the Greeks—Apotropaic Tales—Lamia—Gorgon—Mormolyke—Acco—
Alphito—Empusa—Strigla—Wolf—Example from Theocritus—from
Callimachus—Mormo—Bad Effects of these Tales—Protreptic
Tales—Subject Matter—Censorship by Plato and Aristotle—
Immoral effects of Stories about the Gods—Hermes—Hercules—
Odysseus—Theseus and Ariadne—Magic Rings—Rings of Gyges—
Tales Told for Comfort and Consolation—Festival of the
Oschophoria—Style—Purpose—Aesopic Tales—Libyan—Cyprian—
Sybaritic—Traces of Lullabies—Metrical Humming—Peculiar
Tune—Imitations of Lullabies—Lullaby of Alcmena—Lament of
Danae—Chorus in Philoctetes—in Orestes 34
CHAPTER V. MONUMENTS TO THE NURSE.
Form—Relief—Melitta—Malicha—τίτθη χρηστή—Name of Nurse
Added—Her Master—Country—Simple Word τίτθη—Nurse
represented on Monument of Mother—Shared in Grief of
Family—Literary Evidence of Monuments—Theocritus—
Anthology—Callimachus 45
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
I. TEXTS OF SOURCES 49
II. SECONDARY AUTHORITIES 50
CHAPTER I
TERMS USED FOR NURSE
Of the various terms employed in the literature to designate the nurse
we shall speak only of four: τροφός, τιθήνη, μαῖα, and τίτθη. The first
three are found in Homer[1] and the Hymns[2] with no apparent difference
of meaning. τίτθη is of later origin and is used of a wet-nurse by
Plato,[3] Demosthenes,[4] Aristotle,[5] Antiphanes,[6] Plutarch,[7]
Soranus.[8] The ancient lexicographers generally bear out this meaning
of the word. While Herodianus (I, 456, l. 2, Lentz), Hesychius and
Photius give τροφός as a synonym for τίτθη, Suidas defines it more at
length: τίτθαι, οὕτω καλοῦνται αἱ τοῖς τιτθίοις καὶ τῷ γάλακτι τρέφουσαι
τὰ παιδία. Eustathius[9] calls wet-nurses τίτθαι, and those who have the
care of children after weaning τιθηνοί and τροφοί: τίτθαι ... αἱ τοὺς
τιτθοὺς παρέχουσαι ... τιθηνοὶ δέ, ἔτι δὲ καὶ τροφοί ... αἱ τὸν ἄλλον
φασί, πόνον μετὰ τὸν ἀπογαλακτισμὸν ἀναεχόμεναι. Pollux defines τίτθαι
as αἱ θηλάζουσαι (II, 163) and again (III, 50) he says: τὴν δὲ
θηλάζουσαν Εὔπολις τίτθην θηλάστριαν ὠνόμασε. Between τιθήνη and τίτθη
he makes this distinction: ἡ δὲ τροφὸς τῆς κόρης, τιθήνη· καὶ ἡ γάλα
παρέχουσα τίτθη (III, 41). However, a writer of the second century A. D.
plainly referring to a wet-nurse, uses τίθηνη,
κοῦρος ὑπ’ ἐκ μαζοῖο τιθήνης
χείλεσιν αὖ ἐρύει λαρὸν γλάγος.[10]
The Etymologicum Magnum refers τιθήνη to τιτθόν: τιθήνας, τροφοὺς παρὰ
τὸ τιτθόν. According to Brugmann[11] τίτθη, τιθήνη, τίτθος are formed by
reduplication beside θήλη, “mother’s breast.”
As to the word τροφός, Herodianus (I, 225, l. 11, Lentz) refers it to
τρέφω. Hesychius[12] contrasts it with θρέμμα, “nursling.” Pollux
(l. c.) seems to distinguish τροφός and μαῖα and to take the latter as
meaning more strictly, “Ea quae lactat,” as Stephanus remarks in his
Thesaurus.
Various meanings were attached to the word μαῖα. Besides its use as
“mid-wife,” it was employed as a form of address in speaking to nurses:
εἰ δ’ ἄγε δή μοι, μαῖα φίλη.[13]
μαῖα, θεῶν μὲν δῶρα καὶ ἀχνύμενοι περ ἀνάγκῃ.[14]
μαῖα, πάλιν μου κρύψον κεφαλάν.[15]
The signification was even extended to embrace the true mother, as
attested by Euripides, Alcestis 393, where the child says of its mother:
μαῖα δὴ κάτω βέβακεν.
To distinguish accurately and sharply between the different words for
nurse is not our present purpose. Doubtless the differences between them
were not broad and clear even to the Greeks themselves. τροφός seems to
be employed as the generic term, while τίτθη is generally used for
“wet-nurse” and τροφός and τιθήνη for “nursery-maid.”