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

Turning to the posture of the watchman on the roof of the palace, Aeschylus
maintains that he is lying a1gkaqen (A. 3) like a dog (kuno&j di/khn, A. 3). In his attempt to
visualize the actual posture to which a1gkaqen corresponds, Eduard Fraenkel recognizes,
first, the etymological connection between this term and the word a)gkw&n, which means
not only the elbow, but the crook of the arm within the elbow. 237 For this reason, he
suggests that “the watchman (like the watchdog) lies as it were thrust forward ‘into his
arms,’ with the upper part of his body between them,” or more precisely, “[he] is lying
flat on his elbows, and in this position he is like the dog in the act of watching some
particular object with his head on his paws. In this position the watchman with the least
trouble has the widest look-out.” 238
time on the roof of a house is an image that can still be found in many places around the world. A recent
article published in the local newspaper of Goldsboro, North Carolina, features the story of a dog that spent
considerable time on the roof of its owners’ house and acted like a sentry for the entire neighborhood. The
city received complaints from a neighbor, who expressed concerns regarding the sanitary aspects of the
dog’s living on the roof, and wondered if its owners could face legal repercussions for allowing this to
happen. Animal control officers clarified that there is no law against dogs on the roof. B. Arntsen, Dog On
The Roof…No Law Against It. http://www.newsargus.com/news/archives/2004/12/31/
dog_on_the_roofno_law_against_it/index.shtml. Also for the presence of dogs on the roofs of houses as a
common phenomenon in Mexico, see D. Bower, Living in Mexico: The Friends of Animals.
http://ezinearticles.com/?Living-in-Mexico:-The-Friends-of-Animals&id=258240.
237 Fraenkel, Aeschylus. Agamemnon 4.
238 Fraenkel, Aeschylus. Agamemnon 4. He also draws evidence from the material record by suggesting (4-
5) that, the scene of “dogs on roof” is reminiscent of the figures of two dogs embellished with ivory and
depicted on a wooden box found in shaft grave V of Grave Circle A in Mycenae (1580-1500 B.C.). B.
Schweitzer, “Hunde auf dem Dach,” AM 55 (1930) 107-118, pl. XXIX, notes that the box is made of
sycamore wood found in Egypt, and that its iconographic theme is reminiscent of Early Dynastic material.
Schweitzer also proposes that the technique of the sides of the box being joined together is identical to the
Egyptian technique of working wood and ivory. For these reasons, he holds that the box was imported
from Egypt; for a discussion of this object, see also A. W. Persson, New Tombs at Dendra near Midea
(Oxford, 1942) 179-181, fig. 131.1. The posture that Fraenkel attributes to the watchman, in particular the
suggestion that he is lying flat on his elbows like a watchdog brings to mind the reclining dog depicted on
the lid of an early Minoan II (2400 B.C.) pyxis in green steatite that was found in Grave I in the cemetery at
Mochlos. The dog serves as the handle of the pyxis: S. Marinatos, Crete and Mycenae (New York, 1960)
pl. 6, 116; for a discussion of the Mochlos cemetery, see J. S. Soles, “The Prepalatial Cemeteries at
Mochlos and Gournia and the House Tombs of Bronze Age Crete,” Hesperia Supplement (1992). A
steatite pyxis dating to the same period and depicting the same figure of a reclining dog on its lid was also
found in a tomb in the Gorge of the Dead at Zakros. For this pyxis, and the suggestion that both this and the
one from Mochlos were made by the same craftsman, see N. Platon, Zakros. The Discovery of a Lost
Palace on Ancient Crete (New York, 1971) 68-69.
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