Infant exposure
In ancient times, a method of infanticide or at least child abandonment was to leave infants in a wild place, either to die due to hypothermia, hunger, thirst, or animal attack, or perhaps to be collected and brought up by those unable to produce their own children. Mythological. This form of child abandonment is a recurring theme in mythology, especially among hero births. Some examples include: Following exposure, the infants commonly died or were taken by slavers. Sparta. According to Plutarch, in his "Life of Lycurgus": "Offspring was not reared at the will of the father, but was  taken and carried by him to a place called Lesche, where the elders of the tribes officially examined the infant, and if it was well-built and sturdy, they ordered the father to rear it, and assigned it one of the nine thousand lots of land; but if it was ill-born and deformed, they sent it to the so‑called Apothetae, a chasm-like place at the foot of Mount Taÿgetus, in the conviction that the life of that which nature had not well equipped at the very beginning for health and strength, was of no advantage either to itself  or the state." However, this story has little other literary support, and modern excavations at the spot have found only adult human bones – it may have been used as a place of execution for criminals. Interpretation. Otto Rank explores this topic in his book, "The Myth of the Birth of the Hero". The exposure, especially in water, "signifies no more and no less than the symbolic expression of birth. The children come out of the water. The basket, box, or receptacle simply means the container, the womb; so that the exposure directly signifies the process of birth". Further, according to  Rank, these myths epitomize the natural psychological tension between parent and child. In all these stories there exists "a tendency to represent the parents as the first and most powerful opponents of the hero ... The vital peril, thus concealed in the representation of birth through exposure, actually exists in the process of birth itself. The overcoming of all these obstacles also expresses the idea that the future hero has actually overcome the greatest difficulties by virtue of his birth, for he has victoriously thwarted all attempts to prevent it."