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.
CHAPTER IV
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. 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.[[216]]
In ancient literature, however, we find only isolated traces of nursery tales which may perhaps be accounted for by the contempt with which the Greeks regarded this form of literature, an inference drawn from Socrates’ answer to Hippias: σοι χαίρουσιν οἱ Λακεδαιμόνιοι, ἅτε πολλὰ εἰδότι· καὶ χρῶνται ὥσπερ ταῖς πρεσβύτισιν οἱ παῖδες πρὸς τὸ ἡδέως μυθολογῆσαι.[[217]] More emphatic is his answer to Gorgias: τάχα δ’ οὖν ταῦτα μῦθος σοι δοκεῖ λέγεσθαι, ὥσπερ γραός· καὶ καταφρονεῖς αὐτῶν.[[218]] In a similar strain writes Lucian: ἔτι σοι γραῶν μῦθοι τὰ λεγόμενα ἐστι.[[219]] Disconnected as are the allusion to nursery tales and notwithstanding the contempt in which they were held, we have sufficient evidence to prove their existence and suggest their character.
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.[[222]]
As a substitute for the sandal, which according to Lucian[[223]] was energetically applied, they sometimes told the children stories of an awe-inspiring character. The time-honored bogey was always in requisition to frighten them into good behavior, while there were tales of a pleasing character for the good children. These two classes of tales which we may designate as protreptic and apotropaic are clearly defined by Strabo in the following passage: τοῖς τε γὰρ παισὶ προσφέρομεν τοὺς ἡδεῖς μύθους εἰς προτροπὴν εἰς ἀποτροπὴν δὲ τοὺς φοβερούς.[[224]]
We shall first consider the apotropaic tales, or bogeys. Of these, the most frequently mentioned is Lamia who is so intimately connected with the domain of fable that Plutarch called Demetrius Μῦθος because the name of his mistress was Lamia: Δημοχάρης δὲ ὁ Σόλιος τὸν Δημήτριον ἐκάλει Μῦθον· εἶναι γὰρ αὐτῷ καὶ Λαμίαν (Λάμιαν).[[225]]
From Diodorus we learn that she was of Libya: τίς τοὔνομα ἐπονείδιστον βροτοῖς οὐκ οἶδε Λαμίας τῆς Λιβυστικῆς γένος.[[226]] The Scholiast on Aristophanes, Peace, 758, says that she was a Libyan woman with whom Zeus consorted, not without the knowledge of Hera, who being jealous, destroyed Lamia’s children. When they were killed and she was overburdened, Lamia killed the children of others.[[227]] Therefore, nurses called Lamia to them to frighten children. And the story is told how she by the counsel of Hera passed her life sleepless, so that day and night she was in continual pain, until Zeus taking pity on her made her eyes removable.[[228]] 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. Whence Horace: “Neu pransae Lamia vivum puerum extrabat alvo.”[[231]] Philostratus represents her as a monster, possessing the blood-sucking reputation of the vampire.[[232]] Dionysius of Halicarnassus mentions her in a passage in which he is treating of the fables of earlier historians: Λαμίας τινὰς ἱστοροῦντες ἐν ὕλαις καὶ νάπαις ἐκ γῆς ἀνιεμένας, καὶ ναΐδας ἀμφιβίους ἐκ ταρτάρων ἐξιούσας καὶ διὰ πελάγους νηχομένας καὶ μιξόθερας, καὶ ταύτας εἰς ὁμιλίαν ἀνθρώποις συνερχομένας.[[233]]