Abandoned children
Thesis:
Abandoned children in Greek civilization and literature
until the end of the Fourth Century
under Professor Paul Demont's direction
University Paris IV-Sorbonne
2009
The abandonment of children is paradoxically twofold : though recurrent in mythology and literature, it is almost not mentioned as a social fact in Greek texts from the Archaic and Classical periods.
Historians have very few sources at their disposal to determine the circumstances and the extent of newborn exposure in Greek civilization. Modern works often present it as a widespread act, to such a point that philosophers would advocate it for eugenic purposes. However, a rigorous analysis of the texts leads to more moderate conclusions. In their assessments, the scholars seem to be wrongly influenced by the omnipresence of abandoned children in literature.
From the founding myths to the New comedy, heroes are exposed at birth after a rape, an oracle or a reversal of fortune. A literary study of that theme will then consist in spotting transgeneric constants and intertextual hints, but also in bringing to light the particularities of each genre. So abandonment appears to be a polymorphic pattern, not a distinctive feature of tragedy, in spite of the current celebrity of Oedipus.