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 saffron[67] 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 mother[75] 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 slaves[179] 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.
Stesichorus[192] and Pindar[193] 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
chattering[204] and tippling propensities[205] 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.