Chapter 6
Animals – cattle, goats, pigs, deer, sheep, poultry, birds, fish – were a part of the food supply in antiquity, but also provided other raw materials such as wool, leather and fur. Horses, mules, oxen, elephants and camels also served as means of transport and conveyance, particularly in war. Animals were thus the companions, servants and guardians of people, and at the same time a means of entertainment and prestige in spectacles and at the hunt. Finally, they were used as sacrificial offerings to the gods, whose will was divined by observation of birds – the Roman auspices – or by the reading of entrails.
Animal husbandry was the foundation of rural subsistence. In early Greece, the stock of animals was initially a greater determinant of wealth than landholding.1 Cattle were of the greatest economic importance, both as draught animals and as suppliers of meat and leather. Sheep, which were also held in large numbers, provided milk and wool. Together with cereals, the meat of sheep, goats and pigs formed the foundation of the diet. Dogs served as protectors and companions, particularly on the hunt; the close relationship between them and their masters is often shown expressively on grave steles.
The Greeks appear to have had two different basic attitudes in their relationship with animals. On the one hand, animals were admired as an incarnation of nature; on the other, they were seen as a hostile threat, as a natural danger to be overcome. However, animals also had a role as mediators between gods and humans, for example in ritual sacrifices; their fat and entrails were burned on the altars, and their meat eaten. Animals were regarded as permanent companions and interpreters of the gods, and could also have symbolic significance, as expressed in the constellations of the zodiac, and in their association with certain gods.
In the Near East many gods had been venerated in animal form. Animals, particularly the deer, bull, panther and lion, at the same time also represented attributes of the gods. In Egypt there were animal divinities such as the royal god Amun (in the form of a ram), the fertility god Apis (in the form of a bull), and the fertility goddesses Hathor/Isis (in the form of a cow). Gods were often represented with human bodies and animal heads: thus the seated goddess Sachmet (‘the most powerful’) of Memphis has a lion's head, expressing her unbridled nature and her unpredictability. Here animals were already seen as mediators between humans and gods. There was a partnership between them, since both derived from the creator god, so that only he could be the master of the animals. Dead animals were treated like the human deceased; they entered as Osiris into the nature of the god, and thus obtained religious protection.2
In the Old Testament, on the other hand, the representation of the divine in animal form is rejected. In Exodus 32 the golden calf created by Aaron is venerated by the Israelites, whereupon they are punished. There is a clear separation between the human and the animal; moreover, there is a division between pure and impure animals. Blood may not be ingested, since the soul lives in it. The animal is nevertheless regarded as a creature of God, the one closest to the human being.
In Greece the gods took anthropomorphic form; nevertheless they also had the goat-legged Pan, or Poseidon's son Triton, with a snake's or horse's body. Animals functioned as attributes of the gods: the eagle was assigned to Zeus, the owl to Athena, the ram to Hermes, dogs and snakes to Asclepius. Animals were thus representatives, projections, of divine power. Artemis was seen as the mistress and protector of animals (potnia theron) and of the hunt. In the Greek legends gods turned themselves or other people into animals: Zeus turns into a swan or a bull; Actaeon is turned into a stag by Aphrodite and torn to pieces by his dogs.
Moreover, we encounter numerous beings of mixed nature: centaurs, sirens, griffins, gorgons (Medusa), phoenixes and sphinxes; the fire-breathing Chimaera, with her lion's head, the goat's head on her back and her snake's tail, combines the hostile powers of three animals. In the legends such dangerous monsters in wild nature are overcome by heroes: Heracles conquers the Nemean lion, and Theseus the Minotaur. The coat of the slain lion becomes Heracles’ trophy, and lends him strength. The lion symbolises bravery, ferocity and power; as a stone guardian on graves, it has apotropaic power, the ability to ward off evil. In real life it was exterminated in Greece, along with the leopard and the hyena, by the dawn of the Christian era.3
Images of animals appear in Greece earlier than human images. Small bronze horses go back to the tenth century BC, their cylindrical bodies and broad legs emphasising the speed of their legs. The horse, which was already in use during the Mycenaean era (sixteenth to eleventh centuries BC), was an object of prestige, and embodied wealth and status. It could be used in battle and for hunting. Chariot teams served both for war and for sport. Deer and birds appear from the eighth century BC; thereafter, there are images of animal fights. The ram served as a guardian and symbolised both aggressiveness and resistance at the same time.
Animals such as the lion, boar, bull and wolf, as well as bees and birds, appear in parables as early as Homer, and are known from fables since the sixth century BC – primarily Aesop's – complete with the human traits ascribed to them: the stubborn donkey, the sly fox, the cowardly rabbit, the faithful and bold dog, the courageous lion, the stupid sheep, the insidious snake, the dirty pig, the dangerous wolf: they are the standards for human behaviour and ethical orientation. In comedies such as Aristophanes’ Frogs, Wasps or Birds, animal choirs appear, and create a critical distance from the human community.
Zoology, as the science of animals, was not established until Aristotle in the fourth century BC (part. an. 645a 6). He lists over 550 species of animals, distinguishing those ‘with blood’ from those ‘without blood’. However, since animals were without reason (logos) or faith, people were not required to deal justly with them. By propagating human superiority over animals, Aristotle made the latter an object of exploitation (pol. 1254b 10ff., 1256b 15ff.). The Stoics in the third century BC derived a natural law under which animals were mere creatures of instinct, which they demonstrated by their behaviour. Animals were irrational and created for humans, who, thanks to their logos, had the right to dispose of them (Sen. epist. 76.9–10).
Nevertheless, there was already at an early stage criticism of anthropocentrism, which assumed that animals were by nature superior to humans. Animal protection and vegetarianism reached back at least to the Pythagoreans, who believed in the transmigration of souls and wanted to avoid shedding blood (Ov. met. 15.463–9). Aristotle's pupil Theophrastus in the fourth century BC called for the protection of animals for ethical reasons, and criticised blood sacrifices (Porphyr. abst. 2.5ff., 20ff.). However, the majority assumption was that humans had no moral obligation towards animals, which justified interventions in animal populations, and would later influence Rome and also Christianity.
1 Richter 1968, 32ff.
2 Hornung 1967; Prieur 1988, 33ff.
3 Hughes 1994, 105–6.