Death Flashcards
How vulnerable were women to dying of birth in ancient times? Was there a wealth or class advantage? How was a mother perceived if they died while giving birth
Women from all classes died from childbirth. Childbirth was that dangerous.
Mothers who died while giving birth were deeply respected in ancient times
What was the estimation for infant mortality rates during the ancient times?
Based on data found in ancient Rome,
in ancient times, 30 percent of children died before they turned 1.
An additional 20 percent of children died before turning 10.
Only 50 percent of children would live past 10. 0-5 is the most crucial age for mortality
What was emotional distancing? How were wet nurses used as a result of this?
Scholars believe parents were not that emotionally connected to their kids in an early age of life. In other words, Adults were desensitized to the death of their own children. Maybe wet nurses were used for mothers to be disconnected from their child
What were some of the causes of infant mortality?
Poverty, Improper drinking water and waste disposal was most likely the main culprit for infanticide.
Diseases, common colds, bacteria, fungi, viruses, and pandemics were also a big factors in the deaths of infants.
More causes: Nutrient deficiency, improper digestive track and natural waste management, High temperature during the teething period (high infection rate when teething happens)
How should an ancient family react when a child under 3 passed away?
Children less than 3 years old should not even be mourned
How long should a family mourn when their child passes away?
The age corresponds to the amount of mourning, with 8 months being the longest (8 years)
How were children buried?
Children were not cremated if their teeth didn’t grow in (5-6 months)
Infant children being separated from other people and were buried in pots and Urns in the street.
Infants were also buried in the homes of the families via walls
Why were young childrens tombs (toddlers and infants) separated from normal tombs?
This may be because they had no identity and may were not considered real individuals
what does the following letter show?
I enclose a copy of the letter which I wrote to Marullus at the time when he had lost his little son and was reported to be rather womanish in his grief – a letter in which I have not observed the usual form of condolence: for I did not believe that he should be handled gently, since in my opinion, he deserved criticism rather than consolation. When a man is stricken and is finding it most difficult to endure a grievous wound, one must humour him for a while; let him satisfy his grief or at any rate work off the first shock; but those who have assumed an indulgence in grief should be rebuked forthwith, and should learn that there are certain follies even in tears. “Is it solace that you look for? Let me give you a scolding instead! You are like a woman in the way you take your son’s death; what would you do if you had lost an intimate friend? A son, a little child of unknown promise, is dead; a fragment of time has been lost.
This letter shows that parents did grieve when one of their children died. This is empthaized with the homeric simile “womenish grief” to describe the fathers feelings which implies both women and men cried over children. It also shows that fathers were expected to be stoic when their child dies
What does the following show?
I am not exhorting you to make an effort and rise to great heights; for my opinion of you is not so low as to make me think that it is necessary for you to summon every bit of your virtue to face this trouble. Yours is not pain; it is a mere sting – and it is you yourself who are turning it into pain. “Of a surety philosophy has done you much service if you can bear courageously the loss of a boy who was as yet better known to his nurse than to his father!
Nurses had a strong connection to the newborn child than the father.
The father’s pain is not “comparable” to wetnurses. Fathers were not expected to mourn long for newborn children as they needed to move on and contribute to society
What does the following show?
children as they need to move on and contribute to society
…By her gift
Of tears, Nature acknowledges she has granted human beings
Compassionate hearts: it’s the finest element of our sensibility.
And so she causes us to weep for the ward, who with long
Childish hair, hiding a face wet with tears, rendering its
Sex indeterminate, has summoned a defrauder to court.
Nature demands we sigh, when we meet the funeral cortege
Of a girl fated never to marry, or attend an infant’s burial,
One too young for the pyre.
Juvenal, Satire XV 131-140
Juvenal is critiquing how Egyptians care not for newborn children in satire he mad. Juvenal argues that nature has gifted compassion to human beings so it is natural to grieve for a child even when they are a newborn and have contributed nothing to society
What does the following show?
Instead of airs and humours whose nature is congenital to its own and whose familiarity and pleasantness are never denied while inside his mother’s womb, the newborn child is exposed to everything that is alien, everything that is more harsh, more dried up and less humanised. The inevitable consequence is suffering and, in many cases, death.
The womb is designed to be safe for the child. Author is saying the world is designed to kill infants as anything can kill an infant in ancient Greek
What was found in the tombs of children?
Keepsakes of the child’s infant years or childhood (Baby feeders, Toys)
What did a child’s stele depict?
Graves were sculpted in remebrance of their child (what they like to do in their spare time)
What does the following epitaph tell us?
Here stands the monument of Mnesagora and Nikochares.
They themselves are not able to be shown.
Fate took them away, and they left great grief
To both their dear father and mother
Because having died, they went to the house of Hades.
Shows that siblings who died at the same time were likely buried together
