In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, the duties which the goddess takes upon herself when she assumes the form of a nurse are identical with those performed by Eurycleia in the Odyssey: καί κεν παῖδα νεογνὸν ἐν ἀγκοίνῃσιν ἔχουσα καλὰ τιθηνοίμην, καὶ δώματα τηρήσαιμι, καί κε λέχος στορέσαιμι μυχῷ θαλάμων εὐπήκτων δεσπόσυνον, καί κ’ ἔργα διδασκήσαιμι γυναῖκας.[28] Still, she is not the slave of the people for whom she works, and is promised such compensation (θρεπτήρια) for her services as would make her an object of envy to the women of the household.[29] Aphrodite learned Anchises’ language from her Trojan nurse: γλῶσσαν δ’ ὑμετέρην καὶ ἡμετέρην σάφα οἶδα· Τρῳὰς γὰρ μεγάρῳ με τροφὸς τρέφεν, ἡ δὲ διαπρό σμικρὴν παῖδ’ ἀτίταλλε φίλης παρὰ μητρὸς ἑλοῦσα.[30] The nurse is probably a slave, for wherever slave-trading was known it must have been usual to employ a foreign nurse. The historians naturally have but little occasion to speak of domestic life. Herodotus, however, introduces into his narrative not only political history, but also matters of purely social interest. Hence we are not surprised to find a nurse in his sixth book.[31] This nurse is presumably a slave, for she receives the commands of the parents to show the child to no one. _In Tragedy._ The nurses of Tragedy are old women who have spent years in the service of their masters (παλαιὸν οἴκων κτῆμα).[32] Even after the child they had nursed had grown up, they were still retained in the household.[33] There can be no doubt that like the nurses of Homer they were slaves.[34] Medea’s nurse is addressed as κτῆμα δεσποίνης[35] and when speaking to the παιδαγωγός, she calls herself σύνδουλος.[36] Then, too, the fall of the mistress involved that of the nurse, a calamity hinted at in Hippolytus: οὐ δῆθ’ ἑκοῦσά γ’, ἐν δὲ σοὶ λελείψομαι;[37] and in Medea: χρηστοῖσι δούλοις ξυμφορὰ τὰ δεσποτῶν κακῶς πίτνοντα, καὶ φρενῶν ἀνθάπτεται.[38] Hecuba, bewailing her fate, foresees that she who had once been Queen of Troy will be forced to become the nurse of children.[39] _In Athens_ But it was not only captives and slaves who nursed children. In the fourth century we find at Athens free women performing the office of nurse. Euxitelos in pleading against Eubolides answers the reproach they attach to his mother of having been a nurse. He says that his father had gone to the war, leaving his mother with two small children to support. Hence she was obliged to take Cleinias to nurse: αὐτὴ δ’ οὖ σ’ ἐν ἀπορίαις, ἠναγκάσθη τὸν Κλεινίαν τὸν τοῦ Κλειδίκου τιτθεῦσαι.[40] He admits that it is a mean employment, but affirms that he can give the names of free-born women, who, like his mother, were compelled by stress of poverty to become nurses: καὶ γὰρ νῦν ἀστὰς γυναῖκας πολλὰς εὑρήσετε τιτθευούσας.[41]