Welcome back to the Ancient Art Podcast.
I'm the guard dog to antiquity, Lucas Livingston.
This is the third installment of a three-part
series on dogs in antiquity.
First we explored the ancient hairless breeds
of the New World, including the popular ceramic
funerary effigy of the Colima dog from a couple
thousand years ago, and we met Sputnik, my
awesome, little, hairless Xoloitzcuintli-Chihuahua
puppy (okay, confession, he's really 6 years
old).
Then we traveled to ancient China to look
closely at an expressive mastiff figurine
from the Han dynasty.
We learned a little about the roles of dogs
in oracles, sacrifice, and the culinary scene
and read a bit of the Toa Te Ching talking
about straw dogs.
Now we're heading home to the Classical World
to consider the roles of dogs in ancient Greece
and Rome.
Perhaps the most heartfelt and memorable appearance
of a dog coming to us from Greek antiquity
is found in Homer's Odyssey.
In Book 17, toward the end of the poem, after
20 years away from home, after the epic slaughter
at the fields and citadel of Troy, after the
seemingly endless wanderings and adventures
on the wine-dark sea, our eponymous hero Odysseus,
king of Ithaca, disheveled and unrecognized,
finally returns home.
Unrecognized by all save for one, his ever-faithful
dog Argos.
And I quote:
"As they were talking, a dog that had been
lying asleep raised his head and pricked up
his ears.
This was Argos, whom Odysseus had bred before
setting out for Troy.
... As soon as he saw Odysseus standing there,
he dropped his ears and wagged his tail, but
he could not get close up to his master [and]
Argos passed into the darkness of death, now
that he had seen his master once more after
20 years."
Half a millennium later, we find another heartwarming
tearjerker in the loss of Peritas, Alexander
the Great's favorite dog.
While the story is mentioned only by the first
century Greek biographer and philosopher Plutarch,
he tells us that, "It is said, too, that when
he lost a dog also, named Peritas, which had
been reared by him and was loved by him, he
founded a city and gave it the dog's name."
But life for dogs in ancient Greece wasn't
always so rosy.
After the tragic death of the young Patroclus,
sidekick to Achilles, against the Trojan hero
Hector, we learn the fate of his hounds at
his funeral celebration.
Quote:
"Patroclus had owned nine dogs who ate beside
his table.
Slitting the throats of two of them, Achilles
tossed them on the pyre."
As in ancient China, which we learned about
last time, dogs were favored by the Greeks
as sacrificial victims for purification after
death and birth.
Despite the presence of dogs at the Trojan
War, evidence in the Iliad and Odyssey suggests
that the Greeks at the time of Homer primarily
used dogs for hunting, shepherding, and guarding.
Not warfare.
In fact, there' scanty visual evidence of
the Greeks employing war dogs, even through
the Classical era.
As today, dogs in classical antiquity appeared
in many breeds.
Ancient authors and inscriptions give us the
names of some of these breeds.
Native to Greece, the swift Laconian or "Spartan"
breed was well regarded for its hunting prowess.
Far heavier and ideal as a sturdy guard dog
or hunter of large game was the Molossian,
possibly an ancestor to the modern mastiff.
And the Cretan was supposedly a crossbreed
of the Laconian and Molossian.
That's "Cretan," not "cretin."
Big difference.
As for non-Greek breeds that the Greeks enjoyed,
the Celtic Vertragus, with its lean, sleek
features, is commonly thought to be an ancestor
to the modern greyhound.
Now, I'm not a card-carrying American Kennel
Club certified dog show judge, but when I
look at this mosaic in the Art Institute of
Chicago, I see many of the features that the
Greeks admired in the Vertragus breed.
Around AD 150 in his Cynegeticus (a treatise
on "Hunting with Dogs"), the Greek military
historian Arrian wrote that Vertragus dogs:
"...in figure, the most high-bred are a prodigy
of beauty; — their eyes, their hair, their
colour, and bodily shape throughout.
Such brilliancy of gloss is there about the
spottiness of the parti-colored, and in those
of uniform colour such glistening over the
sameness of tint, as to afford a most delightful
spectacle to an amateur of coursing.
... [They should] be lengthy from head to
tail; for in every variety of dog, you will
find, on reflection, no one point so indicative
of speed and good breeding as length; ... [with]
light and well-articulated heads.
... Their eyes should be large, up-raised,
clear, strikingly bright.
The best look fiery, and flash like lightning,
resembling those of leopards, lions, or lynxes.
... Let the ears of your [vertragi] be large
and soft, so as to appear from their size
and softness, as if broken.
The neck should be long, round, and flexible
... tails fine, long, rough with hair, supple,
flexible, and more hairy towards the tip."
Ancient authors tell us that getting a large
guard dog is the first thing a farmer should
do.
"Never, with [a dog] on guard," says Roman
poet Virgil, "need you fear for your stalls
a midnight thief, or onslaught of wolves,
or Iberian brigands at your back" Though some
authors are sure to point out that you ought
make sure the dog was trained by a shepherd
rather than hunter, so it'll guard the sheep
rather than chase the rabbit.
A white dog is best for the shepherd, so you
may see it clearly at night, while a black
dog is ideal for the farm to terrify thieves
in day and for stealth in darkness.
Arrian wrote the aforementioned Cynegeticus
as something of a supplement to an earlier
treatise on dogs also entitled Cynegeticus
written by Xenophon in the late 5th or early
4th century BC.
Xenophon tells us that we should "give the
hounds short names, so as to be able to call
to them easily."
A few of the names he suggests include Dash,
Rover, Sparky, Killer, and Blossom (in order,
that's Ormé, Poleus, Phlegon, Kainon, Antheus).
If you want to see the whole list, I've published
a table of about 50 ancient Greek dog names
mostly from from Xenophon's Cynegeticus written
in Greek and Latin scripts as well as their
approximate English equivalents.
You'll find that list online at ancientartpodcast.org/dogs.
Sometimes I've taken some interpretive liberties
with the English equivalent.
When browsing the list, if you have a suggestion
for a more accurate English name, please leave
a comment or shoot me an email at info@ancientartpodcast.org.
But not all dogs in the classical world were
bred for sport or duty.
Supposedly originating from the island of
Malta, the Melitan was a small, long-haired,
short-legged lap dog.
Evidence suggests that small dogs come to
be favored during the Roman period, particularly
in Roman Britain.
This might signify a shift in attitude toward
ownership of dogs as pets rather than solely
the traditions of hunting, herding, and guarding.
This shift could also betray the taste for
conspicuous consumption among the Roman elite,
where one could afford the expense of small,
showy, "useless" pets.
Perhaps the most famous dog from Greco-Roman
antiquity is Cerberus, the three-headed guard
dog at the entrance to Hades, the underworld.
As we learned in the first of our three episode
on Dogs in Antiquity when we explored the
hairless dogs of the ancient Americas, dogs
hold prominent places as emissaries of the
dead and guides for the soul ... or to use
the fancy Greek word, "psychopomp."
With the ancient funerary effigies of the
Colima culture from West Mexico, the form
of the dog would often be altered or enhanced
with a double body, turtle shell, human face,
or some other transmutation.
Did this serve to grant the canine emissary
greater spiritual power while also evoking
a deliberately supernatural or otherworldly
guise?
It seems, then, perhaps not too far fetched
to see a similar rationalization for granting
three heads to Cerberus.
If you want to read more about dogs in the
Greco-Roman world, be sure to browse the footnotes
of this essay at ancientartpodcast.org/63,
where you'll find a good number of additional
resources.
One of those good resources is the article
"Dogs in Ancient Greece and Rome" in the Encyclopaedia
Romana website, hosted by the University of
Chicago.
You'll find a fair number of references there
for additional reading.
Also, I slightly abridged this podcast episode.
If you want the whole kit and caboodle with
more details about dogs in the Greco-Roman
world, especially if you want sources for
all those quotes, be sure to head on over
to ancientartpodcast.org/63.
Thank for tuning in to the Ancient Art Podcast.
Be sure to "like" us on Facebook at facebook.com/ancientartpodcast
and give us a nice 5-star rating on iTunes.
You can follow me on Twitter @lucaslivingston
and can subscribe to the podcast on YouTube,
iTunes, and Vimeo, where you'll hopefully
give us a good rating and leave you comments.
You can also email your questions and comments
to me at info@ancientartpodcast.org.
And if you really dig the podcast and want
to see it continue, I encourage you to consider
offering a donation.
Whatever you think the podcast has been worth
to you over the years.
Whether it's a dollar or more, your donations
help pay for web hosting, bandwidth, and keeping
it real!
So just head on over to ancientartpodcast.org
and click on the donate button.
And if you can't spare a Shilling, which is
understandable, then the best way to give
us a big juicy 5-star rating in iTunes, write
a nice comment, and give us a big thumb's
up on YouTube.
Thanks for tuning in and see you next time
on the Ancient Art Podcast.
