When Naomi bade her son’s wife farewell, “they lifted up their voice and wept again; and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law; but Ruth clave unto her.” When Moses went to meet his father-in-law, “he did obeisance and kissed him; and they asked each other of their welfare; and they came into the tent;” and when Jacob had wrestled with the Lord he met Esau, ran towards him, fell on his neck and kissed him.
The family kiss was also much in vogue with the Romans. Propertius, in one of his elegies, chides his mistress for inventing quite ad libitum a whole crowd of relations so as always to have at hand some one to kiss her. This is how that came to pass: In ancient times there was a so-called jus osculi, which allowed all a woman’s relations to kiss her. There are several curious stories about this peculiar privilege. The old traditions, which have been solemnly discussed by several writers, relate that once upon a time women were forbidden to drink wine; the above-mentioned law must have been instituted so that the parties concerned should, in a pleasant and practical way, be able to satisfy themselves about observing the prohibition. This highly improbable explanation has been defended in a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy even in the eighteenth century.
The kiss of affection is often mentioned by the early Greeks. Odysseus, on reaching his home, meets his faithful shepherds, discloses his identity to them, and shows them, as a certain proof, the cicatrix of a wound that he had on one occasion received when out hunting:
“But come, another token most manifest will I show,
That the truth in your souls may be strengthened, and my very self ye may know.
Lo the scar of the hurt, which the wood-boar with his white tooth drave on a tide,
When with Autolycus’ children I sought Parnassus’ side!”[10]
So saying, the rags about him from the mighty weal he drew,
And they twain looked upon it, and all the tale they knew;
And they wept, and o’er wise Odysseus they cast their hands, they twain,
And kissed his head and his shoulders, and loved him and were fain.[11]
In the same hearty manner the shepherd Eumæus received Odysseus’ son on the latter’s return from his journey, and lucky escape from the treacherous plot of the suitors:
And on the head he kissed him, and both his eyes so fair,
And both his hands, moreover, and he shed a mighty tear;
And e’en as a loving father makes much of his dear son,
Who has come from an alien country where the tenth long year is done,
His only son and darling for whom he hath travailed sore,
E’en so the goodly swineherd now kisseth him o’er and o’er
Telemachus the godlike, as one escaped from death.[A]
He gets the same reception from his old nurse and his mother:
But the nurse, e’en Euryclea, beheld him first of all
As the fleecy fells she was spreading o’er the painted seats of the hall,
And, weeping, went straight toward him; and the other maids thereto
Of Odysseus hardy-hearted, all round about him drew,
And they kissed him and caressed him, his shoulders and his head.[12]
. . . . . . . . . .
Then Penelope the wise-heart from her chamber forth she sped,
Like to golden Aphrodite or Artemis the fair,
And she cast her arms amidst weeping round her son beloved and dear;
And therewithal she kissed him, his head and his lovely eyes.[13]