The Judgment of Animals in Classical Greece: Animal Sculpture and ...

knowledge of the dog mating with other species. Xenophon, for example, in his treatise
On Hunting, states that a breed of hounds called “Vulpine is a hybrid between the dog
and the fox: hence the name” (Cyn. 3.1) [189].
Specific evidence regarding the breeding between a dog and a lion does is offered
by Aristotle. In the Generation of Animals, although he acknowledges that these two are
two different species of animals, he does not preclude the idea of breeding between them.
In fact, he draws attention to how the sex of each species in this case affects differently
the species of the offspring:
Two animals which differ in species produce offspring which differs in species;
for instance, a dog differs in species from a lion, and the offspring of a male dog
and a female lion is different in species; so is the offspring of a male lion and a
female dog. (GA 747b) [51]
Aristotle does not specify what the offspring of a lion and a dog would be, but his
statement is crucial for establishing cross-breeding between the two animals as a fixed
idea in his day. 224 Although he does not identify the types of dogs used in this practice,
his earlier comment that similar-sized animals is a prerequisite for mating between
different species suggests that large dogs were most likely used in this case. Also that the
lion is, in his mind, a strong, high-bred animal (HA 488b) [54] suggests that the species
most likely to be altered by cross-breeding in this case is the dog. Aristotle’s idea of a
lion and a dog being cross-bred is also supported by a later author, Pollux (A.D. II), who
reports that in Hycarnia, a region to the south of the Caspian Sea, dogs are crossed with
lions (Onom. 5.38) [163].
224 Another instance of the well-established idea that the sex of each species affects the species of the
offspring is the case of the mule, which Aristotle defines as (GA 746b, 747a, 748a) as the sterile offspring
of a male donkey and a female horse and also that of a hinny, that is, the offspring of a male horse and a
female donkey.
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