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

Aristophanes’s intention to control the attention of his audience in regard to Carion
remains strong. 233 This evidence notwithstanding, it is the preconceived supremacy of
the human residents of Chremylus’s house over the dog that appears to have determined
the way both these fictional characters and the audience they addressed related to the
animal.
Further evidence of the anthropocentric attitude that characterized the Classical
Greek relationship between humans and the dog is seen in philosophical writings. In
translation: S. B. Pomeroy, Xenophon. Oeconomicus. A Social and Historical Commentary (Oxford, 1994)
67. Bradley, “Animalizing the Slave” 110, maintains that this notion of assimilation is further sustained by
the fact that one of the ancient Greek words for slaves was a)ndra&podon meaning a “man-footed thing”
analogous to tetra&podon “four-footed thing.” For further discussion of these terms, see P. Cartledge, The
Greeks: A Portrait of Self and Others (Oxford and New York, 1993; second ed., 2002) 151, who clarifies
that a)ndra&podon appears to have been the technical term for those slaves acquired through capture in war.
Additional evidence that slaves and animals were closely associated in Classical Greece derives from the
epigraphic record. The inscriptions recording the sale of personal property confiscated from Alcibiades and
those Athenians who were accused of mutilating the Herms and profaning the Eleusinian mysteries (415/4
B.C.) show that both slaves and animals were included in this property. For a discussion of the slaves sold,
their names (e.g., Pistos) and their prices (e.g., 202 drachmai), see W. K. Pritchett, “The Attic Stelai, Part
I,” Hesperia 22 (1953) 246; for the animals referred in these inscriptions, that is, oxen, goats, sheep, cows,
and beehives, see W. K. Pritchett, “The Attic Stelai, Part II,” Hesperia 25 (1956) 255-261. The treatment
of animals as property on the inscriptions recalls the similarity with the current status of animals within
human society. Finally, for the ability to speak as the only criterion that differentiated slaves from animals
in Classical Greece, see J. Heath, The Talking Greeks. Speech, Animals and the Other in Homer, Aeschylus,
and Plato (Cambridge, 2005) 203, n. 113. For evidence that the same idea prevailed also in Roman society,
see Gilhus, Animals, Gods and Humans 14.
233 As Small, “Time in Space” 565, maintains: “both the classical literary and visual examples can order
their words and figures in a number of different ways to achieve particular effects.” That this may be
Aristophanes’ intention is also supported by the fact that the reference to Carion at this point seems
redundant, since Hermes has already referred to the servants of the house. For the exceptional abilities of
Aristophanes to control and direct the attention of his audience, see N. W. Slater, “Making the Aristophanic
Audience,” AJP 120 (1999) 351-368. Given the overall portrayal of Carion in the play as an unusually
outspoken and proud slave, and the fact that in both ancient Greek art and language the center is the most
important position, it may be suggested that, when placed in the center of an arrangement that is bordered
by a dog and a pig, Carion is associated, but not demoted to the level of these animals. On the contrary, he
is distinguished from them, who are presented here as the ends next in importance to the center. Within
this context, Carion’s position can be also seen as a trick that Aristophanes employs in order to store in his
audience’s mind the non-stereotypical behavior of this slave. For the perception of order and physical
context as mnemonic devices, see J. P. Small, Wax Tablets of the Mind. Cognitive Studies of Memory and
Literacy in Classical Antiquity (London and New York, 1997) esp. 84-85 and 227-230.
For the exceptional character of Carion, see Olson, “Cario and the New World” 193-199. For a discussion
of the importance of the center in ancient Greek art and language, see Small, “Time in Space” 564-565,
where references are made to specific artistic examples, such as the Parthenon frieze, and also to the
importance of the fact that Greek is an inflected language, a characteristic that allows the order of words to
reflect the importance of each word.
156