According to Greek lore, Philaenis was a woman author who wrote a treatise on erotic arts. Because of this, the name Philaenis was used for a stock character of a woman who exceeded Greco-Roman gender roles. Whether she showed excessive lust, same-sex desire, or had children out of wedlock, the name Philaenis was used as an umbrella-term to cover these "unladylike" behaviors. In these poems, the name Philaenis is used for a woman who adopts a child instead of birthing one.
Philaenis gave birth to a daughter by herself,
without Heliodorus. When he was upset at the child’s sex,
Six days later, she is said to have given him a son.
I guess we don’t need to worship fertility goddesses:
If everyone gives birth like her, what purpose will they serve?
οὐκ
ἐν ῾γαστρὶ λαβοῦσα Φιλαίνιον Ἡλιοδώρῳ
θήλειαν
τίκτει παῖδ᾽ ἀπὸ ταὐτομάτου.
τοῦ
δ᾽ ἐπὶ θηλείῃ λυπουμένου, ἓξ διαλείπει
ἤματα,
καὶ τίκτειν ἄρσενα παῖδ᾽ ἔφατο.
οὕτως
Βούβαστις καταλύεται: εἰ γὰρ ἑκάστη
τέξεται
ὡς αὐτή, τίς θεοῦ ἐστι λόγος;
Non in ventre quae-conoeperat Philaenium Heliodoro
filiam peperit sponte fortuito.
Hoc autem de filia contristato, sex interponit
dies, et eniti se filium puerum dixit.
Sic Bubastis a-munere-solvitur: si enim quaeque
pariet ut illa, quid deae erit respectus?
--Nicharchus, Greek Anthology XI.18; Translated into Latin by Hugo Grotius
A
Grieving Mother Dealing with Loss
|
Name: Philippus of Thessolonica Date: 1st century CE Region: Thessalonica [modern Greece] Citation: Greek Anthology
9.254 |
Every child that I have birthed—
Died.
I, Philaenis, a mother pregnant with
grief
Who saw my third child buried,
Adopted another’s baby,
Hoping that a child I didn’t birth
Would live.
And so I adopted an unexpected child
from a fertile mother.
But a demon wanted me
To not have the gift of another
mother.
And now my adopted child has died!
I have become a source of grief
To even another’s mother.
|
ἡ πυρὶ πάντα τεκοῦσα Φιλαίνιον, ἡ βαρυπενθὴς μήτηρ, ἡ τέκνων τρισσὸν ἰδοῦσα τάφον, ἀλλοτρίαις ὠδῖσιν ἐφώρμισα: ἦ γὰρ ἐώλπειν πάντως μοι ζήσειν τοῦτον ὃν οὐκ ἔτεκον. ἡ δ᾽ εὔπαις θετὸν υἱὸν ἀνήγαγον ἀλλά με δαίμων. ἤθελε μηδ᾽ ἄλλης μητρὸς ἔχειν
χάριτα. κληθεὶς ἡμέτερος γὰρ ἀπέφθιτο:
νῦν δὲ τεκούσαις ἤδη καὶ λοιπαῖς πένθος ἐγὼ
γέγονα. |
Quae flammae cuncta peperi Philaenium, quae gravem mater, quae puerorum ternum vidi sepulcrum, luctum in-alienis partibus acquievi: sane enim speraveram fore ut omnino mihi viveret hic quem non pepereram. Ego tot-liberorum-mater subditum educabam. Sed me
daemon voluit ne alius quidem matris habere donum. Daimon Vocatus enim noster periit. Nunc vero matribus iam et reliquis luctus ego facta-sum. Translated into Latin by Johann Friedrich Duebner |
Philippus of
Thessalonica [Philippus
Epigrammaticus; 1st century CE] wrote Greek poetry during the first century CE,
but is famous for creating a new, expanded edition of the Greek Anthology.
