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

In this passage, the conflation of Cleon with Cerberus, the deceptive watchdog of
the underworld, who fawned affectionately at newcomers by wagging his tail, but traded
their bodies, (or, as noted earlier, devoured them) urges the audience to see Cleon’s
behavior as equally deceptive. Such behavior parallels also that of the treacherous dog in
the fragment of Sophocles that fawned at and bit people at once. In this way,
Aristophanes’s use of canine behavior as a means for describing human behavior remains
consistent with the use of the same model in the texts discussed previously.
The passage also conflates the stealing of public money by Cleon, an act of which
he was accused in real life, with a dog that steals food from the kitchen and licks the
plates clean. Alan Sommerstein explains that Aristophanes alludes to this act when he
refers to Cleon as licking clean “the islands.” 261 The conflation is instructive, for it
reveals that stealing and eating food down to its last morsel were behaviors for which the
dog was known. The reference, in particular, to Cleon’s licking clean the islands in a
doglike manner hints at the exploitation of large amounts of money and, therefore,
implies the ability of the dog to consume equally large quantities of food. 262 Further, the
fact that the dog goes into the kitchen at night like an undetected thief adds to the
domestic places in which the animal has been seen so far (roof, door), and suggests its
free roaming in and around the house. Along with the kitchen, the passage also places
261 A. Sommerstein, ed., tr., Knights (The Comedies of Aristophanes 2; Warminster, 1981) 199, line 1034,
comments that the term “islands” denotes “the allied states generally, of which the Aegean islands were the
nearest to Athens….The allegation appears to be that Cleon takes bribes from the allied states in return for
ensuring that their tribute assessment is lower than it would be otherwise, thus in effect diverting the money
from the state to himself.”
262 This evidence accords well with modern observations regarding the feeding behavior of dogs. As C.
Thorne, “Feeding Behavior of Domestic Dogs and the Role of Experience,” in J. Serpell, ed., The Domestic
Dog, 106, states: “some breeds of domestic dog still demonstrate a remarkable ability to gorge, and will eat
exceptionally large quantities of food whenever it is available. This behavior is a characteristic of some of
the pack hounds, such as beagles and foxhounds, although this may be the result of the competitive group
feeding that has been the usual husbandry practice for these breeds.”
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