Birth is the first of passages, and perhaps the most radical: from not being to being, from the womb to the world. Yet in ancient societies coming into the world was not enough to make a newborn a member of the family. Rites were needed to welcome, purify and name the child. Greeks and Romans developed different ceremonies, but with a common logic.
A suspended condition
In the first days of life the newborn was in an uncertain condition. The baby was highly vulnerable, and the house itself was considered impure because of the birth. Mother and child lived through a time of margin, separated from normal life. The rites of the first days served to close this period and to bring the child into the household community.
In Greece: signs on the door
In Athens a birth was announced to the outside world with a sign hung on the door: according to ancient lexicographers, an olive wreath if a boy had been born, a band of wool if a girl. The olive recalled the citizen's life, the wool women's domestic work. Passers-by thus knew that the house was in a special condition.
The amphidromia
A few days after birth, usually the fifth or seventh, the amphidromia was celebrated, literally "the running around". The sources, mainly lexicons and scholia, describe a domestic rite in which the newborn was carried at a run around the hearth.
The hearth was the sacred centre of the house, linked with Hestia. Circling it with the child meant presenting the baby to the goddess and binding the child to that space: from that moment the little one belonged to the house. Before the rite, the women who had assisted at the birth purified themselves. Gifts and a meal followed.
The tenth day: the name
The tenth day, called dekate, was usually when the child was named, with a sacrifice and a banquet for relatives and friends. The first son often received the name of his paternal grandfather. In some families the name was already given at the amphidromia: the sources do not fully agree on the sequence, which probably varied.
Giving a name meant publicly acknowledging the child. In Athenian lawsuits over legitimacy and inheritance, having celebrated the tenth day before witnesses could be used as evidence.
In Rome: guarding the threshold
One of the most curious testimonies on Roman birth comes from Augustine, who in the City of God cites the scholar Varro. After childbirth, three men went over the threshold of the house at night: the first struck it with an axe, the second with a pestle, the third swept it with a broom. These gestures were linked to three deities, Intercidona, Pilumnus and Deverra, and served to prevent the wild god Silvanus from entering to trouble the new mother.
Axe, pestle and broom are tools of farming and household life: their use marked the boundary between the cultivated house and the wild world. The threshold, once again, became the critical point to protect.
The dies lustricus
The main Roman rite was the dies lustricus, the "day of purification". According to Macrobius and Festus, it fell on the eighth day after birth for girls and the ninth for boys. On that day:
- the child was purified with a rite of lustration;
- received a personal name, the praenomen for boys;
- had the bulla hung around the neck, the amulet worn until adulthood;
- relatives and friends offered small gifts, often miniature amulets called crepundia.
From that moment the child was recognised as a member of the family, protected by the Lares and identified by name.
A comparison: the eighth day in Jewish tradition
In Jewish tradition too the eighth day has decisive value. The book of Genesis prescribes the circumcision of male children on the eighth day after birth, as a sign of the covenant; on that occasion the child receives his name. The motivations are theological and different from the Greek and Roman ones, but the rhythm is similar: an initial period of waiting, then a rite sealing belonging.
The pattern of passage
| Stage | Greece | Rome |
|---|---|---|
| Separation | Birth, impurity, sign on the door | Birth, night protection of the threshold |
| Margin | First days of waiting | Eight or nine days |
| Aggregation | Amphidromia, name on the tenth day | Dies lustricus, name and bulla |
The newborn, in short, did not enter the family at the moment of birth, but when the community acknowledged the child through a rite.
In short
- In antiquity birth opened a period of margin for mother and child.
- In Athens a sign on the door announced whether the child was a boy or a girl.
- The amphidromia carried the newborn around the hearth; the name was usually given on the tenth day.
- In Rome the threshold was protected at night with axe, pestle and broom.
- The dies lustricus, on the eighth or ninth day, gave the child a name and the bulla.
