cunae, cunabula

(λίκνον, σκάφη). A cradle. It has been thought that cradles were little used by 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).