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Attitudes Towards Animals in Ancient Greece1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 September 2009

Steven H. Lonsdale
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Extract

Among the general questions that arise in analysing a culture's outlook on its fauna are the following: Where do animals belong in the world-view of that culture, in their cosmogony or historical mythology, and how do these aetiological beliefs reflect upon the economic position of animals? What is the range of emotional attitudes towards man's enigmatic and uncanny half-brothers, especially domesticated species? Are animals used in entertainment? Questions such as these may be further refined by determining which species are domesticated, which hunted; which are eaten by man, which taboo; which animals does man sacrifice or worship? Are animals kept as pets, and if so, what kinds of names does a culture give them–human names or abstract names embodying a spiritual quality or force in nature? To what extent are these non-verbal creatures a substitute for affection or sadistic punishment, or a target for aggressive or hostile feelings? In other words, what qualities does man project onto animals? Or put slightly differently, which powers does he attribute to the animal? Is an animal thought capable of curing illness, for example? And finally, what are some of the recurrent symbols that emerge for a given animal in legend or myth?

Type
Research Article
Information
Greece & Rome , Volume 26 , Issue 2 , October 1979 , pp. 146 - 159
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1979

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References

Notes

2. Cf. Keller (above, n. 1). For a bibliography of works on the fauna of Greece, see Kanellis, A. and Hatzissarantos, C., Bibl. Faunae Graec. (1800–1950) in To Vouno (1949–1950)Google Scholar.

2. Docs 2, Knossos Mc-Series.

4. Apiculture was practised since Neolithic times. It had the same importance as sugar production has now. Certain regions, such as Mt. Hymettos near Athens, were famous for their honey.

5. Einzig, P., Primitive Money (Oxford and London, 1949 and 1966)Google Scholar.

6. Finley, M. I., Rev. internat. des droits de l'antiquité 30 Ser. 2 (1955), 167–94, sees two stages, one matrilineal, the other patrilinealGoogle Scholar.

7. The Linear B tablets record names, mostly colour-names, for oxen, such as Wo-noquo-so, ‘Rusty’, (literally ‘wine-coloured’); cf. Docs 2, under the Knossos Mc-series, 105.

8. Cf. Dodds, E. R., The Greeks and the Irrational (Berkeley, 1951), Appendix I ‘Maenadism’, pp. 270 ffGoogle Scholar.

9. Burkert, W. in Il mito greco, edd. Gentili, B. and Paioni, G. (Rome, 1977), p. 281Google Scholar, sees pastoral myths as the survival of legends from Paleolithic times reapplied to an agrarian and urban Athens.

10. Leach, M., God Had a Dog (Rutgers, N. J., 1961), p. 354Google Scholar.

11. Cf. Herrlinger, G., Totenklage zutn Tiere in der antiken Dichtung (Stuttgart, 1930)Google Scholar.

12. See De Canibus, The Dog in Antiquity (London, 1971), pp. 43 fGoogle Scholar. by R. Merlen of the Royal Veterinary College for a discussion of the non-fatal forms.

13. Homo Necans (Berlin, 1972)Google Scholar.

14. Cf. J. L. Durand, ‘Le rituel du meutre du boeuf et les mythes du premier sacrifice animal en Attique’ (above, n. 9).

15. For a fascinating article on the hunting origin of the Athenian Ephebeia, see Vidal-Naquet, P., PCPhS n.s. 14 (1968), 49–64Google Scholar.

16. Sc. δ⋯λος (bait) also means ‘deceit’.

17. Cf. A. W. Pickard-Cambridge, Dithyramb, Tragedy and Comedy 2 (Oxford, 1962), pp. 225–53Google Scholar.

18. Animal choruses are shown in vase-painting representations a full century before Old Comedy.

19. Sexual Life in Ancient Greece (London, 1969), p. 147Google Scholar.

20. Richter, G., Animals in Greek Sculpture (London, 1930), fig. 175Google Scholar.

21. Cf. McDermott, W., The Ape in Antiquity (Baltimore, 1938), pp. 131 fGoogle Scholar.

22. Pickard-Cambridge (above, n. 17), p. 245.

23. Plato, in the Timaeus 91 fGoogle Scholar. gives his own version of a creation myth for women, birds, animals, reptiles, and fish. Birds are the issue of men with flighty thoughts on astronomy, land animals from men who had no use for philosophy, etc. These transformations are part of Plato's theories on metempsychosis discussed in the Phaedrus 248 ff.

24. The Nature of Greek Myths (Harmondsworth, 1974), pp. 50 fGoogle Scholar.

25. Cf. Lloyd, A., Herodotus 2 (Leiden, 1977)Google Scholar, passim.

26. Cf. Kahil, L., AntK 20 (1977), 86–98Google Scholar, who links Artemis with Aphrodite; the cult ceremony confers good luck and fertility on maidens about to marry.