What were some of the qualities parents looked for in a wet-nurse?
Maid cannot be drunk/drowsy
Proper and clean
Not easily persuaded to sleep with her husband
Won’t sleep until the newborn falls asleep first
Not be temperamental, talkative and uncontrolled in her appetite for food
Must be orderly and temperate
Not a foreigner, but a Greek
What does pietas mean?
duty towards parents and the gods (dutifulness) (filial piety)
What was the Apatouria festival and why was it important for young boys?
- This festival marked the transition from childhood to adulthood for boys
Children presented to the phratry members as new members
→ phratry: a descent group or kinship in some tribal societies
First day: fellow phratry members feasted together
Second day: given over to sacrifices made in honor of Zeus and Athena
Third day: young boys admitted into the phratry, their change of status being celebrated by sacrifices
Koureion sacrifice → dedication of a lock of a boy’s hair to Artemis to celebrate his passage out of childhood
What does patria potestas refer to?
- Paternal power
- legal authority of male head of the family
oldest son become the next head of the family
father had “right of life and death” over his children (especially when deciding whether or not to rear a newborn child)
only when the paterfamilias was dead, could his children, both male and female, own property in their own names
The paterfamilias’ consent was also required in order for his children’s legal transactions, including their marriages, to be valid
What does manus mean and why was it significant to girls?
- (subordination to a husband’s legal power)
Manus (“hand”) women entering their husband’s legal control when they married
A wife could not own property; any possessions she has when she married would henceforth belong to her husband
A husband did not have the “right of life and death” over his wife - this gives us an idea of what a young girl’s role as a woman would look like
-a girl’s transition to adulthood
“What better occupation can a child have so soon as he is able to speak? And he must be kept occupied somehow or other. Or why should we despise the profit to be derived before the age of seven, small though it be? For though the knowledge absorbed in the previous years may be but little, yet the boy will be learning something more advanced during that year, in which he would otherwise have been occupied with something more elementary.”
- this quite reveals the need to educate children from a young age (as soon as they learn how to speak)
-this tells us that the ancient Romans highly valued education and saw it as beneficial for children
-the effort put into educating children as soon as they spoke, tells us that adults were preparing children for specific roles in adulthood
What were some markers of transition into adulthood for girls?
- Emphasis on the beauty of the face and hair suggests that they’re involved in a ritual that marks the transition to womanhood
What were some ways Roman boys were prepared to transition to adulthood?
No rigid concepts of age distinctions in Roman childhood, but there were important stages sometimes linked to official ceremonies, such as going to an assembly with one’s father, take the toga virilis, offering one’s first beard to the gods, and for some, playing part in the secular games or other public events
What were girls responsible for in religious activities?
Arrephoroi = young girls, 7-11 years of age, who worked on the robe for Athena which was carried in procession at the Panathenaia, and had other cult duties on the acropolis
The Brauronia festival celebrated every 4 years
“I carried the symbols of Athena Polias”
“Then when I was ten years old I ground the corn for Artemis”
“Wearing the saffron-coloured robe”
“basket -carrier with a necklace of dried figs”
“The Ionians who lived in Aroe, Antheia and Mesatis had in common a precinct and a temple of Artemis surnamed Triclaria, and in her honor the Ionians used to celebrate every year a festival and an all-night vigil. The priesthood of the goddess was held by a maiden until the time came for her to be sent to a husband.”
- Young girls or maidens working at temples as priests suggests they had an important role in religion
- girls were chosen to work in temples because they were not married and were still virgins
–>’innocence’ and ignorance of children
–>sexual purity
“There are at Aegium other images made of bronze, Zeus as a boy and Heracles as a beardless youth, the work of Ageladas of Argos. Priests are elected for them every year, and each of the two images remains at the house of the priest. In a more remote age there was chosen to be priest for Zeus from the boys he who won the prize for beauty. When his beard began to grow the honor for beauty passed to another boy. Such were the customs. Even in my time the Achaean assembly still meets at Aegium, just as the Amphictyons do at Thermopylae and at Delphi.”
- The depiction of Zeus and Heracles described as “a boy” and “a beardless youth” indicate the ancient Romans’ awareness of children and their developmental stages
- depicting them in temples is visual representation of children, therefore, increasing public awareness of children and their roles
“There is also a temple of Artemis, with an image of the modern style of workmanship. The priestess is a maiden, who holds office until she reaches the age to marry. There stands here too an ancient image, which the folk of Aegeira say is Iphigeneia, the daughter of Agamemnon. If they are correct, it is plain that the temple must have been built originally for Iphigeneia.”
This passage lets us know that girls worked in temples until they were to get married, signifying marriage as a transition to womanhood and sexual maturity
What does praying to these Roman gods suggest?
Liber: in charge of man’s seed
Liberia: women’s “seed”
Diespater: bring children into the the light of day
Mena: Romans put in charge of women’s monthly periods
Lucina: who is called on for help in childbirth
Ops: helping the new-born by placing them on the surface of the earth
Vaticanus: when he opens the infant’s mouth for the first time to let him cry
Levana: let him look over the raisins-up of the new-born child from the ground
Cunina: let him be said to guard the child’s cradle
Rumina: god of breastfeeding
- Praying to all these Roman gods suggest that the Romans valued children and child birth.
- Having gods protecting different aspects of childhood, motherhood and pregnancy reveals their attention and awareness of childhood and the efforts put in to raising children
What was the importance of unmarried girls working in temples?
Parthenoi - unmarried virgins had important religious roles at Athens, serving Artemis and Athena in various capacities
carried various items needed for cult rituals, particularly baskets
Kanephoroi = basket-bearers
Young girls = singers and dancers for the gods
→open to young girls and adolescent women bc they were unmarried and had no responsibilities
→once they married, public roles like that were seen as inappropriate for them as wives of Athenian citizens
→virgin status of girls as a factor in their filling these roles (their purity)
→serving as attendants bringing sacrificial items
What did Spartan education promote?
- The promotion of toughness in Spartan youths through the provisions of minimal clothing
- ## teaching self-sufficiency
Aspects of Spartan physical education and training
The acceptance of pederasty as serving an educational purpose
A combination of respect and obedience at a very high level in spartan education
Children shouldn’t wear sandals because their feet will be soft, instead they shouldn’t wear them in order to make it easier for them to climb uphill without shoes on
Children should wear a single cloak throughout the year to prepare them to cope with the heat and cold (instead of wearing several layers of cloaks)
Continue labour on empty stomachs to to live without “want”
make the boys more resourceful in providing themselves with the necessities of life and to improve their skills in war
Plato, Protagoras 3.12
“Starting from when their children are very small, they instruct and chastise them as long as they live. As soon as a child understands what is said to him, his nurse, his mother, his paidagogus and his father in person devote all their energies to ensure that he is as good as can be. Whatever he says or does, they give him the benefit of their instruction and show that one thing is right and another wrong; one thing the mark of a man of nobility, another of a base man; this the mark of piety, that of impiety; he should do this, not do that. If he is obedient and willingly so, all is well. If not, they straighten him out with threats and blows, like a piece of wood which is warped and crooked.”
- this quote shows the effort of all the people in a child’s community in raising them
-parents, wet-nurse and paedagogi were all important influences on children - shows that parents really cared for their children and how they will benefit society in the future
- preparing the child for education as soon as they understand what is said to them shows how important education was to ancient Romans
-obedience was also essential to education
Quintilian, Training in Oratory
“As soon as the child has begun to know the shapes of the various letters, it will be no bad thing to have them cut as accurately as possible upon a board, so that the pen may be guided along the grooves. Thus, mistakes such as occur with wax tablets will be rendered impossible, for the pen will be confined between the edges of the letters and will be prevented from going astray.”
→takes into account how children will develop their fine motor skills (make them more steady) using writing as a tool to help them
It is better to repeat syllables and impress them on the memory and, where he is reading, not to press him to read continuously or with greater speed…the syllables once learnt, let him being to construct words with them and sentences with the words
…mistakes which he makes merely lead him to lose confidence in what he already knows…
Plutarch, Life of Cato the Elder, 20.4-7
“He was therefore himself not only the boys’ reading-teacher, but his tutor in law, and his athletic trainer, and he taught his son not merely to hurl the javelin and fight in armour and ride the horse, but also to box, to endure heat and cold, and to swim.”
Plato, Clitophon 4.19
Adequate education in letters, music, physical education, and morals
This passage seems to voice the concerns of parents of the time regarding children’s education and how and what it should teach
Moral teaching of children could have been an issue at the time
Being overcome by pleasures or being weakened by them was an issue
