Sister Mary Rosaria

“ LULLABIES Allied to the nursery tales are the lullabies of the nurses “aussi vieux que le monde et qui dureront autant que lui,” [277] which Athenaeus calls καταβαυκαλήσεις: αἱ δὲ τῶν τιτθενουσῶν ᾠδαὶ καταβαυκαλήσεις ὀνομάζονται. [278] They are also called 43βαυκαλήματα [279] from βαυκαλάω “to lull to sleep” onomatopoetically formed from the nurse’s song. Plato refers to them in the Laws where he says that when mothers and nurses are desirous to put their children to sleep, they do not bring them to a state of quiet, but on the contrary of motion, καὶ οὐ σιγήν, ἀλλά τινα μελῳδίαν. ”

“ 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? ”

“ The nurse, trying to conceal a vase in her dress, is seen by the robbers who fall upon her and beat her until she gives it up. Some days afterwards she dies from injuries received, but not before having been cared for by a doctor summoned especially for her.
No instance is given by Plato or Aristotle of the manumission of a nurse. The former, on the contrary, speaks of the δούλεια ἤθη τροφῶν. [43]
The nurse of New Comedy is usually a slave; still she sometimes receives her freedom, as in the case of Moschio’s nurse in the Samia of Menander ”

“ SOCIAL STATUS OF THE NURSE From Homer to Herodotus The Homeric poems deal wholly with the life of the upper classes. Hence we do not get from them a complete picture of how all classes lived. Even for the aristocrat therein described, the habits of life were simple. Mothers nursed their own children: thus Hecuba speaks to her son, Hector:
Ἕκτορ, τέκνον ἐμόν, τάδε τ’ αἴδεο καὶ μ’ ἐλέησον
αὐτήν, εἴ ποτέ τοι λαθικηδέα μαζὸν ἐπέσχον. [16] Still, there is one instance which points to a different practice. Odysseus in addressing his old nurse Eurycleia says ”

“ 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 32of a part of their meal. ”

“ In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, the duties which the goddess takes upon herself when she assumes the form of a nurse are identical with those performed by Eurycleia in the Odyssey:
καί κεν παῖδα νεογνὸν ἐν ἀγκοίνῃσιν ἔχουσα
καλὰ τιθηνοίμην, καὶ δώματα τηρήσαιμι,
καί κε λέχος στορέσαιμι μυχῷ θαλάμων εὐπήκτων
δεσπόσυνον, καί κ’ ἔργα διδασκήσαιμι γυναῖκας. [28] Still, she is not the slave of the people for whom she works, and is promised such compensation (θρεπτήρια) for her services as would make her an object of envy to the women of the household. ”

“ The nurses of Tragedy are old women who have spent years in the service of their masters (παλαιὸν οἴκων κτῆμα) . [32] Even after 12the child they had nursed had grown up, they were still retained in the household. [33] There can be no doubt that like the nurses of Homer they were slaves. [34] Medea’s nurse is addressed as κτῆμα δεσποίνης [35] and when speaking to the παιδαγωγός, she calls herself σύνδουλος. [36] Then, too, the fall of the mistress involved that of the nurse, a calamity hinted at in Hippolytus ”

“ The Phrygian nurse of Hector’s son may be taken as a model of the Greek nurse of an infant. Nothing is said as to her social standing, but we infer from her occupation [21] that she was a slave.
The Phoenician woman, nurse to Eumaeus, gives us an instance of the nurse of an older child. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In another Oration of Demosthenes, In Evergum, there is an instance of an old and poor nurse living with the man she had nursed as a child. The father of this person, in recompense for her care, had given her her freedom: καὶ μετ’ αὐτῆς τίτθή τις ἐμοὶ γενομένη πρεσβυτέρα, ἄνθρωπος εὔνους καὶ πιστή, καὶ 13ἀφειμένη ἐλευθέρα ὑπὸ τοῦ πατρὸς τοῦ ἐμοῦ. [42] She married and on the death of her husband returned to her nursling, who received her all the more willingly inasmuch as he was about to leave home and was pleased to have such a sure companion for his wife. ”

“ NURSERY TALES AND LULLABIES The importance of the nurse in Greek life may be judged from the fact that to her as well as to the mother was entrusted the early education of the child. Quintilian quoting Chrysippus, whose treatise on Greek education has unfortunately been lost, says: “Those advise better who like Chrysippus think that no part of a child’s life should be exempt from education. ”

“ 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 31see her outside the place without Medea. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 29the nurses of their childhood is shown in the relatively large number of monuments and epigrams dedicated to them. ”

“ Nurses had many ways of acting on the imaginations of their young charges in order to secure their obedience, to quiet them or put them in good humor. The choice of the tales depended on the nurse and on the intelligence of the children whom they nursed διὰ μυθολογίας, [220] and quieted again by tales after they had beaten them: καθάπερ αἱ τίτθαι τὰ παιδία, ἐπειδὰν αὐτοῖς πληγὰς ἐμβάλωσι παραμυθούμεναι καὶ χαριζόμεναι μῦθον αὐτοῖς ὕστερον διηγήσαντο. [221] This recounting of tales is also mentioned by Philostratus: καὶ καταμυθολόγει με ἡ τίτθη χαριέντως. ”

“ The fact that the Greeks employed foreign nurses may also be inferred from the essay, De Liberis Educandis, attributed to 15Plutarch, in which the author loudly inveighs against the practice of entrusting children to any nurse whatsoever. He insists on her being selected with the utmost care, laying down as a fundamental qualification that she be of the Greek race: ἀλλὰ τάς γε τίτθας καὶ τὰς τροφούς, οὐ τὰς τυχούσας, ἀλλ’ ὡς ἔνι μάλιστα σπουδαίας, δοκιμαστέον ἐστί. ”

“ 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. ”

“ For Chrysippus, though he has allowed three years to the nurses, yet is of the opinion that the minds of children may be imbued with excellent instruction even by them.” [213] The same author wishes nurses to be women of some knowledge. At any rate, they should be the best circumstances allow. [214] If we can judge from Republic, 343 a, the nurse taught the children to distinguish between ordinary words: εἰπέ μοι, ἔφη, ὦ Σώκρατες, τίτθη σοι ἔστιν;... ὅτι τοί σε, ἔφη, κορυζῶντα περιορᾷ καὶ οὐκ ἀπομύττει δεόμενον, ὅς γε αὐτῇ οὐδὲ πρόβατα οὐδὲ ποιμένα γιγνώσκεις. ”

“ The first lessons of the nurse were imparted by means of stories and songs, when children were not of an age to learn gymnastic. Of this Plato makes mention in the following passage: οὐ μανθάνεις, ἦν δ’ ἐγώ, ὅτι πρῶτον τοῖς παιδίοις μύθοις λεγόμενον; τοῦτο δέ που ὡς τὸ ὅλον εἰπεῖν ψεῦδος, ἔνι δὲ καὶ ἀληθῆ. πρότερον δὲ μύθοις πρὸς τὰ παιδία ἢ γυμνασίοις χρώμεθα. [215] Furthermore, he would have mothers and nurses mould the minds of the children by means of these tales: πείσομεν τὰς τροφούς τε καὶ μητέρας πλάττειν τὰς ψυχὰς αὐτῶν τοῖς μύθοις πόλυ μᾶλλον ἢ τὰ σώματα ταῖς χερσίν. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The purpose of all these tales is training to virtue, and is well expressed by the Scholiast on Hermogenes, Progymnasmata, i.e.: τὸν μῦθον ἀξιοῦσι προσάγειν τοῖς νεοῖς ὅτι τὰς ψυχὰς αὐτῶν πρὸς τὸ βέλτιον ῥυθμίζειν δύναται.
We conclude that there was at Athens a store of popular tales for the amusement of children, many of which were attributed to Aesop whom Herodotus calls λογοποιός. [270] The word λογοποιός seems to indicate that a prose version of his fables may have circulated in Athens in the time of Socrates. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Aristophanes, Birds, 1281, [47] makes it clear that the Athenians were “Spartan-mad.” For this reason, no doubt, 14Spartan women whose robust health was famed throughout Greece, [48] were sought to inaugurate that regimen peculiar to the Spartan nurse. Hence Plutarch: Διὸ καὶ τῶν ἔξωθεν ἔνιοι τοῖς τέκνοις Λακωνικὰς ἐωνοῦντο τιτθάς, [49] and he also records that Amycla, the nurse of Alcibiades was a Spartan: Ἀλκιβιάδου δὲ καὶ τίτθην, γένος Λάκαιναν, Ἀμύκλαν ὄνομα. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The style characteristic of modern nursery tales was in vogue in classical times, as we learn from Aristophanes where the first words of a tale correspond to our well-known “Once upon a time.”
οὕτω ποτ’ ἦν μῦς καὶ γαλῆ. [268] The Scholiast commenting on this line says: πρὸς τὴν συνήθειαν, ὅτι τὸν μῦθον προέταττον οὕτως, οἷον, ἦν οὕτω γέρων καὶ 42γραῦς. καὶ Πλάτων ἐν Φαίδρῳ (237 B) ἦν οὕτω δὴ παῖς μᾶλλον δὲ μειρακίσκος· τούτῳ δ’ ἦσαν ἐράσται πάνυ πολλοί. There is another instance in Lysistrata, where the semi-choruses, telling each other a little nursery tale begin:
οὕτως ἦν πότε ...... ”

“ Aristophanes also makes use of this word:
οὐδὲν δέομεθ’, ὦνθρωπε, τῆς σῆς μόρμονος. [250]
ὀφρῦς ἔχοντα καὶ λόφους, δείν’ ἄττα μορμορωπὰ. [251]
ὡς δὴ καταπιόμενός με. μορμὼ τοῦ θράσους. [252] Such were the tales told by nurses to frighten children into good behavior. We cannot but think that these stories, although they secured obedience for the time being, must have had a deleterious effect on the children. This view is substantiated by a passage of Lucian: “If you do not want to fill these boys’ heads with ghosts and hobgoblins, postpone your grotesque horrors for a more suitable occasion. ”

“ Μαλίχα Κυθηρία. [51] But it was not only from Sparta that the Athenians obtained nurses for their children. We have an inscription from the monument of the Corinthian nurse Φάνιον. [52] And there is an epigram of Callimachus on a Phrygian nurse whose master cared for her during her life-time, and when she was dead set up her statue, that posterity might see how the old woman received in full the thanks for her nurture. [53] Thrace, too, furnished its share of types of nurses:
καί μ’ ἁ Θευχαρίδα Θρᾷσσα τροφὸς ἁ μακαρῖτις
ἀγχίθυρος ναίοισα, κατεύξατο καὶ λιτάνεσε
τὰν πομπὰν θάσασθαι. ”

“ Plutarch thus speaks of her in De Curiositate: νῦν δὲ ὥσπερ ἐν τῷ μύθῳ τὴν Λάμιαν λέγουσιν· οἴκοι μὲν ᾄδειν τυφλήν, ἐν ἀγγείῳ τινι τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς ἔχουσαν ἀποκειμένους ἔξω δὲ προιοῦσαν ἐπιτίθεσθαι καὶ βλέπειν. Her singing would attract children to her abode but they had a chance to escape when her eyes were ἐν ἀγγείῳ. [229]
The fear which children had for the Lamia is referred to by Lucian in a passage where he is speaking of the stories told to children: μυθίδια παίδων ψυχὰς κηλεῖν δυνάμενα ἔτι τὴν Μορμὼ καὶ τὴν Λάμιαν δεδιότων. [230] She was said to devour children alive. ”