The signification was even extended to embrace the true mother, as attested by Euripides, Alcestis 393, where the child says of its mother: μαῖα δὴ κάτω βέβακεν.
To distinguish accurately and sharply between the different words for nurse is not our present purpose. Doubtless the differences between them were not broad and clear even to the Greeks themselves. τροφός seems to be employed as the generic term, while τίτθη is generally used for “wet-nurse” and τροφός and τιθήνη for “nursery-maid.”
CHAPTER II
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:
μαῖα, τίη μ’ ἐθέλεις ὀλέσαι; σὺ δέ μ’ ἔτρεφες αὐτὴ
τῷ σῷ ἐπὶ μαζῷ.[[17]]