I'he Exposure of Infants in Ancient Greece from Homeric to Christian Times
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I'he Exposure of Infants in Ancient Greece from Homeric to Christian Times. A thesis submitted to McG-ill University- according to the requirements for the Degreee of Master of Arts Mary Jean Grant. Contents* Introduction page 1. Homeric Times 3 From Homer to the Fifth Century. 16 The Classical Period 22 From the Fourth Century to Christian Times 39 Fate of the Exposed Child 53 System of Exposure at Sparta 59 Exposure Amongst Slaves 65 Legal References 70 Connection Between Exposure and Infanticide for Religious Motives 74 Terminology 82 Conclusion 86 Bibliography The Exposure of Infants in Ancient Greece from Homeric to Christian Times* INTRODUCTION. After the passing of centuries, it is often difficult, even well-nigh impossible, to come to a definite decision with regard to certain phases of everyday life amongst the ordinary folk: of ancient peoples, if archaeological remains are not very helpful and literary references few and far between* Thus it follows that the question as to the wide-spread prevalence of many customs is one which we are often content to settle by an occasional misinterpreted statement, or at least by two or three chance references which, perhaps, were the exception rather than the established rule* Take for instance the practice of human sacrifice amongst Greeks and Romans. Basing their conclusion on a few outstanding cases, many people claim that it was a custom fairly frequently practised. Yet without careful consideration and without further light upon the subject from new discoveries, the matter is a delicate one to handle* -2- A similar problem is the task of arriving at a correct conclusion with regard to the actual extent of the practice by the Greeks of exposing new-born infants to die, since there is the drawback of a limited amount of material and the con sequent danger of over-estimating what is at our disposal. And yet in both these cases, the correct inference from what fragmentary evidence we do possess, is of vital importance to our interpretation of the characters of the people in question. The subject of exposure has not as a matter of fact been fully dealt with by many persons* But amongst historians the brief references devoted to this topic differ widely* There are some who hold up their hands in holy horror at the very thought of this custom prevailing amongst so highly cultured and sensitive a people as the Greeks, and explain away such references as have come to their notice as isolated and unusual instances, criticising those who accept its wide spread practice as guilty of misinterpreting or stressing too strongly occasional remarks in this connection. Opposed to these are some who, from a Christian view-point, regard the Greeks as being quite barbarous enough to practise this custom extensively, and brand them as outcasts and pagans* It is my purpose herein to put forward the opinions at which I have arrived from such diverse suggestions; to substantiate these by examining various references to the subject of exposure now extant, and to consider such conditions as may have had a bearing upon its existence or on the other -3- hand, its non-existence. To evade the difficulty of over- stressing certain statements, I shall endeavour to produce as considerable a number as possible* I have purposely avoided the use of the word "infanticide", for I think that with the exception of abortion, which may or may not be included under that heading according to one's personal opinion, exposure was the only form of infanticide amongst the Greeks practiced to any extent and therefore a more appropriate title to this con sideration than "Infanticide"* The parents of the child did not resort to more swift or effective measures to bring about its death and thus by refraining from actual force reveal their unwillingness to stain their hands by spilling kindred blood* And it is my opinion that the absence of other forms of infanticide is the key-note to the explanation of the majority of cases of exposure as the unwilling, yet unavoidable submission to an inevitable necessity. Homeric Times* Further back than the period dealt with in the Homeric poems, it would be impossible for us to go in an in vestigation of this custom, for we would have practically no sources of information, no material from which to draw. Thus we may consider this period, so vividly depicted for us in the famous poems, as a natural starting point* Let us then reflect a moment upon the nature and condition of the land into which the new-born Greek was thrust. -4- The .peninsula, jutting out into the sea was a bleak, rocky and mountainous country. Small patches of arable land nestled in valleys completely cut off from each other; while short, swift-flowing streams made river transportation impossible. The soil was by no means virgin but was still cultivated with difficulty by an agricultural people. Inroads of Minoans from the south to the Peloponnese, and of various types of strangers who had, and were still coming in continuous, inundating waves, and who spread to various parts of Greece, swelled the popu lation and gave rise to the common belief amongst Greeks of later days, that before the Trojan War "the world was too full of people." And thus it was in their opinion that the remedy for this was sent by the gods, in the form of a war, which in volved considerable numbers of Greeks, and lasted long enough to lay low a goodly number—not quite so effective a method as the mighty flood of by-gone days recounted in many literatures, including the Greek, which cleansed the earth of the wicked. However that may be, the scene in which the Homeric poems were laid is one in v^hich there was a population beginning to feel crowded within the bounds of its country. Yet no remedies on the part of mortals were as yet necessary, since the obliging gods, foreseeing all needs brought about the Trojan War, at a critical time, when some good also could arise from its many evils. -5- Greece at that time enjoyed a typical Mediterranean climate. In summer, day after day the fields were scorched by the blazing sun, while no rain clouds darkened the sky. Succeed ing the hot summer,came the damp, cool days of winter. Even today with all the improvements of modern civilization this climate is not one in which young children flourish. An added evil to the Homeric Greeks was the unreliable water supply, an ever important feature. In modern Greece only one child out of three survives to its first birthday. How much less likely to survive was the nurseling in these far-off days amidst the con ditions of living which existed nearly three thousand years ago? Thus in spite of the numerous deaths of infants at birth and shortly after, the Greek world at the time of the Trojan War was beginning to be overcrowded. The over-population was of course due to the invading strangers, not to the large families of the previous inhabitants. The main point is that there was no need for exposure until their inroads began and soon after their advent, the Trojan War was effective in doing away with surplus population. As soon as mention is made of the customs in Homeric times, immediately arise the questions—"Was Homer (or whoever the author may be) representing his own time, or was he pictur ing a preceding era? Does he give us a true representation of whatever time he describes or is it not rather a romantic picture, conceived in the poet's mind?" The answer to the first question does not make a great deal of difference to our -6- coneideration, since we cannot possibly limit our statements to periods between set dates. As for the answer to the second one, this is not the place to enter a lengthy discussion upon the possibilities of either side. Suffice it to say that though there may be exaggerations or improvements here and there in the story, yet in the main, it is bound to be a reflection of the poet's own time. Now that the background is settled, let us consider the poems themselves. In all the works of Homer, there is no single instance of the exposure of a child, girl or boy. The nearest approach to anything of this sort, takes place amongst the gods. Hephaestus mentions his being hurled from heaven by his mother when he was born, lame and weak, saying "Verily, then, a dread and honoured goddess is within my halls, even she that saved me when pain was come upon me after I had fallen afar, through the will of my shameless mother, that was fain to hide me away ( K^V^I) by reason of my lameness. This of course cannot be quoted as an instance of exposure, referring as it does to a god, who was immortal and no matter what was done to him, as his mother no doubt well knew, could not be destroyed. Apart from this, no reference is made to the destruction or attempted destruction of infants. If then there are no actual references to exposure, is their anything in the poem which suggests the practice of this custom or the opposite? With regard to dowries in early times, (1) Iliad XVTH - 395. -7- whioh would include the Homeric period. Gilbert Murray says -"In the primitive ages of Greece, as ^ristotle has remarked, "men carried their weapons and bought their women from one another." That is, the suitor paid a price normally calculated in oxen, to the father of the bride, who thus became her husband's property.