Note 18 — Chapter II · SOCIAL STATUS OF THE NURSE

Ibid., xi, 448.

Note.—Seymour (Life in the Homeric Age, N. Y., 1914, p. 139), objects to this on the ground that “nothing indicates that she (Eurycleia) ever bore a child and could have served as a wet-nurse.” The words εὐνῇ δ’ οὔ ποτ’ ἔμικτο (Od. I, 433) merely show that Eurycleia was not the concubine of Laertes, and not that she was childless. Dolius, the slave, had a wife and family in the household of Laertes (Od. xxiv, 389). Moreover, if the apportioning of awards mentioned in Od., xxi, 214 (ἄξομαι ἀμφοτέροις ἀλόχους) were a matter of custom, would not the faithful Eurycleia have served as a very special prize? Cf. Buchholz, Die Hom. Realien, Leipzig, 1881, vol. II, Pt. 2, p. 24.