Philaenis, Adoption, and Motherhood

 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. 

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?

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;

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?

--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.