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

If anyone’s out of bread
but has slaves to feed
and lots of little kids,
you can get flour from my house—
puny grains, true,
but a pound of them grow up to be
a loaf that’s very hearty to see.
And of the poor are welcome
to come to my house with sacks
and bags to carry the flour away;
my houseboy will pour it in for them.
A warning though:
Don’t come to my door—
beware of the watchdog there!
(Lys. 1203-1215) [41]
The leader of the chorus expects her dog to exhibit aggressive behavior towards
unfamiliar visitors to her house. Thus, she not only warns these visitors, but also advises
them to stay away from the animal. Her warning suggests observation and knowledge of
canine behavior, and as such, it parallels similar knowledge seen previously in the works
of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Plato, and Aristotle. Unlike the watchman in the Agamemnon,
who stood on a roof like a dog, and the dog in Aristotle’s Great Ethics that chose a roof
as its sleeping place, this dog stands by a door, thus adding to the variety of domestic
spots associated with the animal in Classical times. 253 It is uncertain, however, whether
253 The earliest texts that attest to dogs’ guarding doors of houses are the Homeric epics: in the Iliad
(22.66-22.66), Priam is afraid that the dogs that he raised to guard the gates of his palace, will rip him in
front of his doorway. Also in the Odyssey (7.91) Homer describes a pair of gold and silver dogs as flanking
the door of the house of Alkinoos. Turning to material evidence, the warning of the speaker of the chorus
is reminiscent of the inscription CAVE CANEM (Beware the Dog) from a threshold mosaic from the
vestibule of the House of the Tragic Poet in Pompeii. The mosaic depicts a large black dog attached by a
collar to a chain. The animal is in the act of menacing the unwary visitor. The depiction is reminiscent of
an episode from Petronius’ Satyricon (29) where Encolpius upon entering the house of Trimalchio mistakes
for real a dog tethered by a chain, painted on the wall to the left of the entrance, and accompanied by the
warning: beware the dog. The layout of the house in Pompeii dates to the second century B.C., but its
decoration is later, that is, shortly after the earthquake of A.D. 62: M. Ranieri Panetta, ed., Pompeii. The
History, Life and Art of the Buried City (Turin, 2004) 342; Similarly, the entry to another Pompeian House,
that of Cuspius Pansa, is decorated with a mosaic that depicts a crouching guarding dog wearing a collar
that is attached to a chain, additionally attached to one of the leaves of a half-opened door: Ranieri Panetta,
Pompeii 312; Another mosaic depicting a watchdog comes from the entrance of the house of L. Caecilius
Jucundus also in Pompeii: Jashemski, The Gardens of Pompeii 102, fig. 161; Finally, a guard dog wearing
167