The expression ἐπὶ μαζῷ here employed is used in another place of the relation between mother and child:

πάις δέ οἱ ἦν ἐπὶ μαζῷ

νήπιος, ὅς που νῦν γε μετ’ ἀνδρῶν ἵζει ἀριθμῷ[[18]]

However this may be, nurses were employed as the attendants of the children whom they amused and brought up as long as they remained in the house of the parents.

Whatever function she performed, the Homeric nurse was a slave, either a captive:

τήν ποτ’ Ἀπείρηθεν νέες ἤγαγον ἀμφιέλισσαι.[[19]]

or purchased as an ordinary slave:

τήν ποτε Λαέρτης πρίατο κτεάτεσσιν ἑοῖσι,

πρωθήβην ἔτ’ ἐοῦσαν, ἐεικοσάβοια δ’ ἔδωκεν.[[20]]

The Phrygian nurse of Hector’s son may be taken as a model of the Greek nurse of an infant. Nothing is said as to her social standing, but we infer from her occupation[[21]] that she was a slave.