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

The textual evidence discussed in this section indicates that stealing and gobbling
food were two aspects of feeding behavior for which the dog was known in Classical
Greece. This canine behavior served as a metaphor for discussing similar behavior in
humans, more specifically, political figures accused of appropriating public money for
themselves. During the process of stealing food, the dog was observed to exhibit three
specific characteristics: vigilance, agility, and swiftness. That these characteristics were
essential to the type of cunning intelligence known as mh~tij indicates that the dog was
considered to hold this mental capacity. The punishment that the dog received for its
stealing of food was beating, a cruel treatment that features in the texts as both a
conscious and culturally specific behavior. This physical aggression toward the animal
contrasts sharply with evidence that domestic dogs were provided with a variety of foods
selected on the basis of their nutritional value. The texts also indicate that the savage
nature and scavenging behavior of the dog was integral parts of its collective image.
Such behavior evoked the image of human corpses becoming carrion for dogs, an image
that inspired fear and anxiety, and also served as a reminder that dangerous feral traits of
the animal had not completely died out. Unlike the fear that the thought of the dog
feeding on human flesh evoked, however, canine flesh as food does not seem to have
generated human responses of the same type. On the contrary, the texts that are
discussed next, present the practice of eating dog flesh as one from which Classical
Greek society did not shy away.
effects of artificial and natural selection. In this way, the wolf became a dog; that is, it was no longer a wild
carnivore but a part of human society with physical and behavioral characteristics adapted to its economic,
aesthetic or ritual functions.”
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