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

Aeschylus’s intention to liken the watchman to a watchdog. Such intention suggests that
Aeschylus considered his audience not only familiar with the behavior and qualities of a
watchdog, but also ready to “think with a watchdog in mind,” 245 evidence that, in turn,
suggests the centrality of this canine role in contemporary thought.
Further evidence of this centrality is seen in another passage from Aeschylus’s
Agamemnon, which has a reference to the role and behavior of the dog as guardian of the
house. Clytemnestra has just found out that Agamemnon is on his way back to Argos
from Troy. While dictating to a herald a message she wants delivered to him, she relates
her behavior as her husband’s regent:
Take this message away to my husband, to come as soon as possible;
he is the city’s beloved darling. As to his wife,
I wish he may find her when he comes just as faithful in his home
as the one he left behind, the house’s watchdog (ku&na) true to him while
hostile to ill-wishers and similar in everything else,
with no seal broken in the length of time. (A. 604-610) [7]
Clytemnestra clearly states the contrasting behavior she assumed during
Agamemnon’s absence. She remained faithful to her duty of guarding the palace and its
affairs as a dog is faithful to its master. 246 Like a dog, she also kept enemies at bay by
245 The phase is an adaptation of the idea of Lévi-Strauss, Totemism 126, that “animals are good to think
with.” For a discussion of the marginalization of the animals of the mind, that is, animals in sayings,
dreams, games, stories, superstitions and the language itself, in modern society, see J. Berger, About
Looking (New York, 1980) 13.
246 For a discussion of Clytemnestra’s loyalty to the affairs of the palace, see A. Betensky, “Aeschylus’
Oresteia: The Power of Clytemnestra,” Ramus 7 (1978) 15. The image of the loyal dog that Clytemnestra
claims for herself is reminiscent of Argos, Odysseus’ faithful dog, described in the Iliad (1.291-17.327) as
an old character, who has endured discomfort and neglect—he is full of ticks and lies on a heap of dung—
but waits patiently for a sight of his master. Despite his wretched condition, Argos remains alert, a
characteristic indicated by his keen sense of smell that actually enables him to identify Odysseus after
twenty years of absence. Shortly after this episode Argos dies. It is actually the timing of his death, which
follows his sight of Odysseus, that is presented by Homer as the embodiment of this dog’s loyalty to his
master. Argos was also the name of the ever-watchful giant with one hundred eyes (hence his epithet
Panoptes, “All-Seeing”), set by Hera as guardian of Io, a priestess of Hera in Argos, whom Zeus seduced
and transformed into a heifer in order to escape detection from Hera. Argos was killed by Hermes (hence
his epithet Argeiphontes, “Slayer of Argos”). Aeschylus refers to the myth of Argos and Io in his
Prometheus Bound (566-574, 640-680), and Suppliant Women (292-315). For the suggestion that the myth
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