Cunae, Cunabŭla
（
λίκνον, σκάφη). A cradle. It has been thought that
cradles were little used by
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Cradle. (Museum at Beaune.)
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the Greeks, at least in early times; since Plato, in a passage on the putting of
infants to sleep, mentions only singing the lullaby and rocking in the arms (
Leg. vii. 790D). But various substitutes are mentioned. Heracles,
according to tradition, was cradled in his father's shield (Theocr. xxiv. 4); Dionysus in a
winnowing-fan (
λίκνον,
vannus), which
accordingly was borne in his processions; other deities in the same manner. The ark or cradle
in which children were exposed is
alveus,
σκάφη; but it is only in quite late authors that we find
σκάφην διασείειν, “to rock the cradle” (
H. A.
xi. 14).
In the Roman period cradles were regularly used (Plaut.
Truc. v. 13 and elsewhere), and were made to rock. We find a female
slave called
cunaria (Grut.
Inscript. 311, 7); and a
male slave, who perhaps in time became the child's
paedagogus cunarum
motor,
Mart. xi. 39, 1).
