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

Regarding classical antiquity, the cumulative effect of these concepts appears in
John Boardman’s dated idea that ancient Greek culture, in particular its art, is viewed as:
the expression of a people unsurpassed for their purity of thought, behavior, and
design, democrats, philosophers, poets and historians, the true precursors of the
modern world and all-time successes in the pursuit of the true and the beautiful,
expressing a humanity that anticipated or even surpassed all that Christianity has
been able to achieve. 21
This praise of ancient Greek culture and art places emphasis on human achievement, and
therefore, removes attention from non-human animals and their roles in the respective
society; as a result, it promotes a hierarchical approach to the study of Greek art that
places foremost significance on the human form, and thus, relegates animal
representations to an invisible position. An additional example of this way of thinking
can be seen in the foreword to the exhibition catalogue of 1992, The Greek Miracle:
Classical Sculpture from the Dawn of Democracy. The Fifth Century B.C.:
Greek art centered on the image of man: man who of all the wonders in the world
was the most wonderful, capable of great good, but also of great evil; sometimes
falling back, but in the fifth-century Greek view, ultimately rising in the face of
all odds to take charge of his destiny. 22
The scholarly assertion that the human form dominated Greek art, particularly that of the
fifth century—a period indeed known for its anthropocentric view of man—is used to
justify the disregard of animal representations in the study of Greek art on the grounds
that it simply reflects ancient Greek reality. 23 Yet not only was that reality quite
different, as will be discussed below, but given the persistence of an anthropocentric
approach to Greek art, it is even surprising that animal representations have been denied
21
J. Boardman, Greek Art (fourth ed.; London and New York, 1996) 11; for a more detailed discussion by
this author on ancient Greek art and its reception since the Renaissance, see J. Boardman, Greek Sculpture.
The Late Classical Period and Sculpture in Colonies and Overseas (London, 1995) 222-228.
22
D. Oliver-Buitron, ed., The Greek Miracle. Classical Sculpture from the Dawn of Democracy. The Fifth
Century B.C. (Washington D.C., 1992) 9.
23
For the prevailing anthropocentrism of ancient Greek society, especially in the Classical period, see R.
Renehan, “The Greek Anthropocentric View of Man,” HSCP 85 (1981) 239-259.
19