The relations between nurse and master were of that sacred character which cease not with death. Her sincere and tender affection was not only repaid during life by the master’s solicitude for her well-being; but after death her memory was frequently perpetuated by the erection of monuments.

The unearthing of many of these has proved a fertile source of information concerning the nurse. Her name, sometimes her parentage, and even details of her life and virtues find expression in the sepulchral inscriptions.

The commonest form of grave-stone erected to the memory of the nurse is the “Stele”, a horizontal grave-relief more or less ornamented, and usually representing the nurse seated, bidding farewell to her master or mistress. Conze in his Die attischen Grabreliefs describes several of these.

The nurse Melitta, daughter of Apollodorus, the metic, is honored by a monument erected by her master, Hippostrates, who is also represented on the relief. Beneath is the following inscription:

This inscription bears witness to the virtues of the nurse and the fond relations which must have existed between her and her master, for having loved her during life, he yearns for her when she is no more, and promises to honor her as long as he lives, thus uniting with those great honors which must necessarily be paid her in Hades, if there be there any honor paid the good.

The “Stele” of Malicha of Cytherea, the Spartan nurse of the children of Diogeitus, is engraved with an inscription bearing witness to her goodness:

The epithet ???st? so often seen on the monuments finds place on those of nurses. Thus the combination t?t?? ???st?,^[291] to which is sometimes added the name of the nurse, occurs: ?a?de?s?? t?t?? ???st?,^[292] ??????? t??f?? ???st?.^[293] Sometimes the name of the nurse and the word t?t?? are found, as ???t??? t?t??,^[294] ??????? t?t??,^[295] F????a t?t??,^[296] and there are instances where the simple word t?t?? or te?t?? occurs.^[297] Then too, the name of the nurse’s country is sometimes mentioned in the inscription: F????? ???????a t?t??^[298] and also that of her nursling: ?????? ??p???? ??e???? t?t??.^[299] ???t? ??s???? ?a?a?t??? t??f??.^[300] In these inscriptions t??f?? is less frequently used for “nurse” than t?t??.

Besides the monuments erected especially to nurses, we often find the nurse shown on the grave-relief of a mother in the act of handing the child to her for the last farewell,^[301] or holding in her arms a young child enveloped in swaddling clothes.^[302] The representation of the nurse in this connection is quite in keeping with her relations towards the family during the sad hours which preceded the burial. While the immediate members of the family were considered as the chief mourners, they did not look upon it as a condescension to allow the sympathetic heart of the nurse to unite its share of grief with theirs.^[303]

In addition to the sepulchral inscriptions mentioned above, we have literary evidence of the existence of other monuments in honor of nurses. Theocritus furnishes the following:

The use of ???s?a in the last line is in accordance with the custom referred to before.^[305]

Less complimentary to the nurse is the following selection from the Anthology, ascribed to Dioscuridus:

The unfortunate weakness of this nurse was made a subject of jest with the comic poets.^[307]

But more in keeping with the true character of the nurse is Callimachus’ epigram, wherein he commemorates the goodness of the Phrygian nurse Aeschra, to whose memory her master set up her statue in token of gratitude for her nurture:

Thus from the study of the inscriptions, as well as from the literature, we learn that the Greeks had for those devoted women who stood to them in place of mother, a tender attachment which often continued all through life; and even after the nurse’s death they sought to give some expression to it by writing epitaphs and erecting monuments to their memory.