A number of sources were used to analyze the perceived status of the infant in archaic and classical Greece. Very few ancient, or even modern ones, conduct a study of how the infant was perceived by adults and why the type of care they received was necessary. Although there have been many recent historical analyses on the child in the ancient world, none has focused on the infant specifically. This study considers infancy a period spanning the first three years of life. The myth of the infant Opheltes' death, the foundation story for panhellenic competition at Nemea, served as the paradigm around which this study is conducted.
The first issue that is demonstrated in the myth is the liminal quality of infancy. The boy Opheltes was at once "bringer of increase," as his name implies, and at his death was then renamed Archemoros, "beginner of doom." Following the elements revealed in the myth, philosophical, epigraphic and dramatic sources were examined that reflected this liminal tension seen throughout infancy. By understanding this condition of early childhood, one can understand the rituals used involving children, death and burial practices and the conception of the power of the infant in society.
The second issue of infancy revealed in the Opheltes myth is the central use of a wet-nurse. According to the delicate liminal state of infancy, a young child needed constant care. An examination of caretakers in the ancient world showed that parents did assume the responsibility, but that it also was common practice to hire a surrogate caretaker. The present study examined possible ideologies that would lend themselves to such a practice. The first was the belief that the proximity of the mother to the child could actually attract the envy of child-killing demons and the wrath of the gods onto her child. A surrogate served as a deflection of this particular danger. The second justification for its use can be seen in the program of male dominance. An analysis of the male conception of the unstable woman as mother necessitated the employment of a surrogate, thereby diminishing one of the only spheres of influence left to her in this patriarchal society.