the fatal words, “Expose it!” The helpless creature is then put in a rude cradle, or more often merely in a shallow pot and placed near some public place; e.g. the corner of the Agora, or near a gymnasium, or the entrance to a temple.  Here it will soon die of mere hunger and neglect unless rescued.  If the reasons for exposure are evident physical defects, no one will touch it.  Death is certain.  If, however, it seems healthy and well formed, it is likely to be taken up and cared for.  Not out of pure compassion, however.  The harpies who raise slaves and especially slave girls, for no honest purposes, are prompt to pounce upon any promising looking infant.  They will rear it as a speculation; if it is a girl, they will teach it to sing, dance, play.  The race of light women in Athens is thus really recruited from the very best families.  The fact is well known, but it is constantly winked at.  Aristophanes, the comic poet, speaks of this exposure of children as a common feature of Athenian life.  Socrates declares his hearers are vexed when he robs them of pet ideas, “like women who have had their children taken from them.”  There is little or nothing for men of a later day to say of this custom save condemnation.[+]

[*]The idea of giving a lad a “schooling” and then turning him loose to earn his own living in the world was contrary to all Athenian theory and practice.

[+]About the only boon gained by this foul usage was the fact that, thanks to it, the number of physically unfit persons in Athens was probably pretty small, for no one would think of bringing up a child which, in its first babyhood, promised to be a cripple.

46.  The Celebration of a Birth.—­But assuredly in a majority of cases, the coming of a child is more than welcome.  If a girl, tufts of wool are hung before the door of the happy home; if a boy, there is set out an olive branch.  Five days after the birth, the nurse takes the baby, wrapped almost to suffocation in swaddling bands, to the family hearth in the “andron,” around which she runs several times, followed doubtless, in merry, frolicking procession, by most of the rest of the family.  The child is now under the care of the family gods.  There is considerable eating and drinking.  Exposure now is no longer possible.  A great load is off the mind of the mother.  But on the “tenth day” comes the real celebration and the feast.  This is the “name day.”  All of the kinsmen are present.  The house is full of incense and garlands.  The cook is in action in the kitchen.  Everybody brings simple gifts, along with abundant wishes of good luck.  There is a sacrifice, and during the ensuing feast comes the naming of the child.  Athenian names are very short and simple.[*] A boy has often his father’s name, but more usually his grandfather’s, as, e.g., Themistocles, the son of Neocles, the son of Themistocles:  the father’s name being usually added in place of a surname.  In this way certain names will become a kind of family property, and sorrowful is the day when there is no eligible son to bear them!