Abandoning Newborns Was Legal and Common
An Athenian family could leave a newborn baby outside to die—no law stopped them.
François Joseph Navez — "The Massacre of the Innocents" (1824), public domain
Newborns Left to Fate
An Athenian family could leave a newborn baby outside to die—no law stopped them. This wasn’t hidden. Everyone knew it happened.
No Law, No Blame
In Athens, exposing unwanted infants wasn’t considered murder or even a legal issue. Babies might be left at city dumps or remote hillsides, especially if they were sickly, female, or simply unwanted. Sometimes, these infants were picked up by strangers and raised as slaves or servants.
The Edge of Family and Law
Archaeological evidence and literary sources both confirm this was practiced across the Greek world. The moment of birth wasn’t the start of citizenship—it was the family’s decision to claim the child as their own.
Infant exposure wasn’t a crime in classical Athens. If a baby was unwanted or seemed weak, parents might simply abandon it on a hillside or at the city dump. No formal legal procedure, no investigation—just a silent exit from civic life. Some of these exposed infants were rescued and raised as slaves, but most vanished from the record.
