https://theses.gla.ac.uk/ Theses Digitisation: https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/research/enlighten/theses/digitisation/ This is a digitised version of the original print thesis. Copyright and moral rights for this work are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This work cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Enlighten: Theses https://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] THE TREATMENT OF INFANTS IN CLASSICAL AND HELLENISTIC GREECE SUSAN J. MILLIGAN Thesis presented for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Classics Faculty of Arts The University of Glasgow March 1989 © Susan J. Milligan 1989 ProQuest Number: 10999270 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10999270 Published by ProQuest LLC(2018). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 CONTENTS Acknowledgements Page 4 Summary 5 Abbreviations 7 Introduction 8 Notes to Introduction 14 Chapter One The Care of Infants 15 Part One The newborn Infant: immediate post-natal Mldwives and mothers 16 Age of viability 21 Other signs indicating non-viability; superfecundation and viability 32 Respiration 36 Other medical observations 44 Part T.WQ Swaddling 47 Part Three Feeding 60 Initial feeding - An excursus on theories of fetal nutrition - 62-66 Feeding of babies with human milk 71 Non-breast-feeding of Infants; weaning 85 Feeding of older Infants 95 Notes to Chapter One 98 Chapter Two Exposure and Infanticide 138 Part One Infanticide in Sparta 139 Unwanted children 140 Granting of lots to infants reared 144 Part Two Exposure in Athens and elsewhere 153 To rear or not to rear? Evidence from New Comedy 159 - An excursus on related aspects of the treatment of infants in Corned/ A: Recognition of exposed children 172 - 173 B: Suppositious children - 173 -176 The law: Athens 176 The law: Gortyn 178 The law: Thebes 180 The law: Ephesos Exposure In a political and moral context 181 The exposure debate 197 PantJhCgft Exposure In mvth and legend 209 Some aspects of exposure-myths 210 The significance of exposure In myth 212 The exposure of Cyrus 214 Greek mythical exposure and Initiation ritual 218 Characters In Greek history said to have been exposed 220 Notes to Chapter Two 230 Chapter Three Ceremonies Performed for Infants 246 Part One Amphldromla 247 Evidence for the amphldromla The date of the amphldromla 250 Women's role In the amphldromla 251 The significance of the amphldromla 252 Part Two Naming 256 The 8eKccTr| The date of naming 257 The significance of the naming ceremony 259 2 Part Three Registration in the Dhratrv 264 The age of admission 265 A second presentation 268 The Introduction of girls 271 The procedure 273 Admission to other bodies 275 The significance of phratry membership for legitimacy 277 The significance of phratry membership for citizenship 279 Notes to Chapter Three 282 Chapter Four Orphans 297 Appointment of guardians Duties of a guardian towards his ward’s person 304 The property of orphans 310 Maltreatment of orphans by their guardians 315 The eldccYYeXia kockqctecjq optpavcjv 320 The &LKf| ETTLTpOTT^Q 322 Female orphans 324 State maintenance of orphans 328 Notes to Chapter Four 337 Conclusions 352 Notes to Conclusions 364 Bibliography 365 Tables and Figures Table 1: Chart showing age of viability according to Hlpp. Oct following p. 46 Table 2: Exposure of mythical persons " 229 Table 3: Inverted exposure in myth Figure 1: Ancient feeding bottles " 97 3 Acknowledgements I should like to acknowledge first and foremost my debt to my supervisor, Professor D. M. MacDowell, who has contributed so much valuable guidance and scholarly advice and has been so patient throughout the lengthy gestation period of this thesis. My thanks are also due to Mr. George Mills of the University of Glasgow's Department of Computing Services for his advice and practical help with software and using the Macintosh Plus microcomputer. I am grateful to my husband Alan and to my parents for their supportiveness. 4 Summary This thesis examines the treatment of infants in the classical and Hellenistic ages of Greece. In the Introduction the scope and aims are described, and my use of ancient literary sources explained. Chapter One deals with the Care of Infants and examines the evidence for the treatment of newborn infants by women carers and medical men, looking in detail at the criteria by which the question of a newborn Infant's viability might have been decided, and what this might mean for the decisions whether to treat a sickly baby and whether to rear or expose the child. Swaddling and Feeding are also studied in this Chapter: the evidence for the practices in the period under study is collected and discussed. In Chapter Two the subject of the decision not to rear Is examined. The practice of killing unwanted Infants in Sparta was subject to special rules, and the related subject of the provision of land to infants who were reared is unique to Sparta, and they form the first part of this Chapter. The second deals with the practice of exposure everywhere else: most of the evidence is from Athens, Including evidence from New Comedy, which has been largely dismissed in modern scholarship and is here surveyed for what it can tell us about contemporary attitudes to exposure and motives for the practice. The laws and political and moral attitudes to exposure are next looked at, with reference especially to Athens, but also in the wider classical and Hellenistic world. The final section of this part surveys and comments on the "exposure debate" In modern scholarship. Part Three discusses the context to which most of the ancient accounts of exposure belong, that of myth and legend. It has been maintained that these tales directly reflect a practice and prevalence once found in real life, but other theories for their existence have recently been put forward which see them as the mythical expression of a ritual connected with 5 puberty Initiation and a primitive form of education in the wilderness. The exposure of Cyrus is an important key to the understanding of this connection between myth and ritual in Greek myths and legends, and the same motives for ascribing exposure to Cyrus's early life apply to the exposure stories told of certain Greek historical characters. Chapter Three deals with the ceremonies performed for infants which admitted them to the family and phratry respectively, and with the significance of the performance of the ceremonies for the legitimacy and citizenship of the child. Orphans are the subject of Chapter Four, and their treatment under Athenian law is reviewed. The state of orphanhood applied to older children as well as infants: it is included here for its value in showing the degree of protection awarded to the most vulnerable class of citizen-children, and the motives which prompted the Athenians to accord them this protection. The concluding chapter of this thesis draws together the implications of some of the evidence collected, In particular regarding the significance of the high neonatal death rate. It is suggested that the subject of exposure and infanticide be looked at In this context (as an alternative, for example, to the more usual context of birth-control and population limitation). An attempt is made to understand the prevalent attitude of parents in ancient Greece to their youngest offspring and the state of Infancy. Some of the child-care practices are assessed, as far as this is possible, for their repressive and indulgent tendencies. Conclusions of a general nature about the treatment of orphans are put forward. 6 Abbreviations Most of the abbreviations for Greek authors and texts are the same as those used in Liddell and Scott's Greek-English Lexicon. Those that differ slightly from theirs should still be easy to understand. In the Notes I have generally not resorted to abbreviations of modern publications, except for certain very well-known ones, set out below. In citing modern works, I have given the full citation the first time each is mentioned in the Notes to each Chapter, and thereafter I have referred to them by author's name and date of publication. The Bibliography, which lists alphabetically by author all works referred to, w ill provide elucidation where necessary. BiCS Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies B6U Berliner griechische Urkunde CMG Corpus Medicorum Graecorum CP Classical Philology CQ Classical Quarterly CR Classical Review FGrH F. Jacoby, Die Fragmente dergriechischen Historiker Berlin 1923 - 1958 /G Inscript iones Graecae JHS Journal of Hellenic Studies PA J. K\rz\\r\zr,ProsopographiaAttica, Berlin 1901, 1903 PCPS Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society RF Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyciopadie RFA Revue des £ tudes Anciennes VS H. Diels and W. Kranz, Die Fragmente der Vorsokratikep 6th edition 1951 - 1952 7 Introduction The treatment of children In ancient Greece Is a subject which has received little scholarly attention, and most of It has been devoted to the subject of education.