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

eing hostile to them. 247 Her behavior is consistent with the ancient Greek ethical
principle that one’s duty is to help one’s friends and harm one’s enemies, which is also
based on a contrast. 248 Clytemnestra takes pride in her having behaved like a guard
dog. 249 Such behavior is instructive, for it suggests that loyalty to the house a dog
guarded and hostility towards strangers were two opposing aspects of behavior for which
the animal was known. Like the watchman, Clytemnestra uses figurative language to
convey the affinity between her behavior and that of a dog. In this way, it becomes clear
once again that fifth-century Athenian society observed the dog carefully and used its
behavior as a model for describing human behavior.
Further evidence regarding Classical Greek knowledge of the contrasting
behaviors of the guard dog is found in a passage from Plato’s Republic. Here, two
persons speak of the dog as an exemplar for the guardian of the state:
“It may be observed in other animals, but especially in that which we likened to
the guardian. You surely have observed in well-bred hounds that their natural
disposition is to be most gentle to their familiars and those whom they recognize,
but the contrary to those whom they do not know.” “I am aware of that.” “The
was known to Homer and Hesiod, see W. Burkert, tr. P. Bing, Homo Necans: The Anthropology of Ancient
Greek Sacrificial Ritual and Myth (Berkeley, 1983) 164, n. 14.
247 This type of behavior is also alluded to in a short passage from Hesiod’s Works and Days (604-605),
which contains a recommendation to the farmer in regards to his guard dog: the farmer should be kind and
generous with the daily portions of food provided to his dog; otherwise the animal will not be able to avail
potential robbers.
248 For a discussion of this idea being central to traditional Greek morality, as evidenced by the tragedies of
Sophocles, see M. W. Blundell, Helping Friends and Harming Enemies. A Study in Sophocles and Greek
Ethics (New York and New Rochelle, 1989); L. G. Mitchell and P. J. Rhodes, “Friends and Enemies in
Athenian Politics,” GR 43 (1996) 11-30, for the place of friendship in fifth- and fourth-century political
activity in Athens, and also for that of enmity in politics of the classical period; and also D. Konstan,
“Anger, Hatred, and Genocide in Ancient Greece,” Common Knowledge 13 (2007) 170-187, who explores
the role of hostile emotions, especially anger and hatred, as morally defensible in daily life and in time of
war in ancient Greece.
249 For a discussion of Clytemnestra’s reference to herself as a guard dog and the wider function of this
image in the plot, particularly the fact that, by murdering Agamemnon, she actually proved to do the
opposite of what a guard dog would do, see R. M. Harriott, “The Argive Elders, the Discerning Shepherd
and the Fawning Dog: Misleading Communication in the Agamemnon,” CQ 32 (1982) 15-16.
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