Animals played a wide-ranging role in the life of the ancient Greeks, which initially started for their practical use and gradually went far beyond that.

Unlike modern societies, in Ancient Greece, the relationship between humans and animals did not reflect an anthropocentric view of the world.

The bond developed between ancient Greeks and animals, both wild and domesticated, influenced and enriched the Classical culture in literature, arts, religion, philosophy and morals.

It also induced people to analyze the implications of their relationship with “subhuman” creatures. Were they concerned with the problems related to animal welfare? Was the bond genuine and important to them?

The proximity of animal enclosures to houses indicates the importance of keeping animals secure and a “tolerance of noise and smell.” The ancient Greeks were a mixed planter and animal-breeder cult from the Early Bronze Age.

Overall, surviving documents show that the mentalities clearly evolved since the Creta-Mycenaean era until the first centuries of the Roman empire. By the Classical period, animals were respected and each species had a role in ancient Greek society.

Practical use of animals in society

Many ordinary people believed that it was right and unobjectionable to use animals as slaves, to kill them for sport, for sustenance, for appeasing divine powers, and even to capture and cage or leash them for human amusement.

According to Aristotle, man is an animal, but the other animals were created for man’s sake. In “Politics,” he states: “If therefore nature makes nothing without purpose or in vain, it follows that nature has made all the animals for the sake of men.” He believed that animals serve human needs, but he did not explicitly advocate for exploiting them solely for pleasure. His perspective was more aligned with the idea that animals could be used for practical purposes, such as food and labor, within the context of natural order.

Mammals were renewable resources, the animals most likely to engender empathy and provide services, or to advertise status and confer prestige.

Since most of Greece is mountainous, the ancients mostly raised sheep, goats and pigs, all three favored over cattle, because of their more accommodating dietary needs and quicker breeding and growth to maturity. Their renewable and marketable wool, hair, and milk (cheese) were very important. The wealthy landowners, on the other hand, could afford to raise horses and horned cattle.

There is no indication that cows were used for dairy production; instead, goats served as the primary source of milk.

Because of their value, oxen were at the basis of important economic and social practices. Before the introduction of coinage, cattle were a measuring-stick of wealth. In the funeral games of Patroclus in the “Iliad,” the victor of the wrestling is accorded a tripod worth twelve oxen.

Cattle were exchanged in the social institution of dowry. Dowry in ancient Greece may not have been a one-way exchange, but a more or less mutual trade between the bride and groom’s family.

On the importance of animals, and especially oxen, ancient Greek poet Hesiod wrote: ”First of all, get a house, and a woman, and an ox for the plough”.

Sacred animals of Ancient Greece

Ancient Greeks had several animals they considered sacred, attributing their qualities to certain deities. Wolves, for instance, are known for their adaptability and evolution. They have a social and intelligent character. They live in very well-organized packs with respect for hierarchy but also with a high sense of pride. They symbolize unity and endurance. They also represent loyalty and friendship, especially when related to their descendants, the dogs. At times, their character makes them lone wolves.

The god Apollo is often referred to as Lycean, from the Greek word (λύκος) for wolf. This is an invocation of Apollo as the god of light that indicates the origin of the words twilight and dawn, that is, dusk and dawn. The coins of the city of Argos, which had the god Apollo as its patron, were decorated with wolves until about the 5th century BC.

The dog has been man’s most faithful companion for thousands of years. Here we must emphasize that there are few animals for which myths have been created by the ancient Greeks.

For this reason, the dog is highly esteemed, to the point of being considered the closest animal to humans. Apollo tamed the dog and gave it to his sister, the goddess Artemis, in order to accompany her on the hunt.

The bull (taurus, ταύρος in Greek) was the sacred animal of ancient Crete. According to the myth, King Minos of Crete asked Poseidon to reveal to him an animal for sacrifice. The god of the sea, presented him with a taurus. Minos was dazzled by the beauty of the bull and decided not to sacrifice it. Poseidon, in order to punish Minos for his insolence, made the bull go mad and the animal caused much destruction, while another version says that Poseidon made the bull mate with Minos’ wife, Pasiphae, and from this mating the half-man half-bull, Minotaur was born.

The sacred animal of the goddess Artemis was the deer. According to myth, it had golden horns, bronze hooves and was so fast that no one could catch it. Eurystheus ordered Hercules to bring this deer alive to Mycenae. For a whole year Hercules hunted it in the mountains and forests without success. One day the deer entered the Ladon River to cross over. Then Hercules hit it lightly in the leg with an arrow. Then he lifted it onto his shoulders and took it to Mycenae. After showing it to Eurystheus, he set it free, as he had promised the goddess Artemis. The deer symbolizes freedom, independence and purity, according to the ancient Greeks.

The horse was of great importance to the Greeks as well. It was one of the animal symbols of the god Poseidon, and it also played a major role in mythology and history. The best horsemen in mythology were the Amazons and the Trojans, while the most trained and fastest horses in antiquity were owned by the Myrmidons of Achilles. The most famous horse in world history is Alexander the Great’s Bucephalus, which no one could tame except Alexander the Great. And of course there was the famous wooden horse that gave the Greeks victory over the Trojans, the Trojan Horse.

Sacrificial animals and cults

The ancient Greeks communicated with their gods through animal sacrifices and interpreted divine will through bird omens. The belief that the Olympians inhaled the smoke of burnt sacrifices offered by mortals is parodied by Aristophanes in “The Birds.”

Apollo, Hermes and Pan were all flock protectors, and both sheep and goats were commonly sacrificed to these and other gods. As ancient Greeks were not avid meat eaters, pronounced meat-eating habits are associated with religious cults.

The ritual eating of raw ox flesh was the culminating act of the Dionysian winter dance. There is evidence for the belief that Dionysus appeared as a bull in the dance. The exhausted female worshippers tore apart a live bull and ingested the inward parts in order to become one with the god.

In contrast, the sacrifice of an ox was prohibited by law in ancient Greece due to its vital role in daily life.

However, during Athens’ Bouphonia sacrifice, which involved the murder of an ox with an axe, the legal prohibition was temporarily bypassed. The ritual included a mock trial in which the participants were absolved of guilt, and the axe was declared the guilty agent instead of the person who wielded it, allowing the sacrificial act to be carried out without violating the law.

Empathy for animals in ancient Greek poetry

According to Tua Korhonen and Erika Ruonakoski, in preserved ancient Greek texts animals usually serve as a representation of the human world. There are instances where the protagonists adopt an animal perspective, arousing empathy with the animal situation. In Homer’s “Odyssey,” Odysseus is crying when he sees that his dog, Argos, is dying. In Oppian’s “Cynegetica,” the reader is invited to identify with a hunted bear, and we have similes comparing animals to humans.

In an epigram attributed to Xenophanes, Pythagoras is said to pity an abused dog, because he heard the voice of a friend in the dog’s barking. When the human addresses the animal with the vocative “you” it is meant to arise feelings of pity. In “Iliad,” Zeus pities Achilles’ horses Xanthus and Balius crying for the dead Patroclus, and uses the pronoun “you”.

Other poems invite directly the reader to feel the animal body. In a passage of Hesiod’s  “Works and Days,” the reader would inhabit the body of wild cattle and goats, which, with their “teeth chattering mournfully,” are running among the rocks, looking for a shelter to hide from a snowstorm.

Animals in ancient Greek comedy

Animals featured in ancient Greek comedy as well, given human traits and characteristics. In Aristophanes’ parody “The Birds” we see the humorous possibilities animals represented in entertainment. The Greeks’ love of a good story and the narrative importance of animals in myth is translated into action in the dramatic festivals of the archaic and classical period.

Amidst the Athenian 5th century drama, there were lyric contests and animal masquerades. Aristotle traces the origins of tragedy to the dithyramb, a lyric contest in honor of Dionysus, performed by choruses of men displaying the physical characteristics of goats. Indeed, the light-hearted play which provided relief from the trilogy of tragedies at the Festival of Dionysus was known as the satyr-play.

Goat- and horse-men wearing giant phalluses reenacted, or perhaps it is fairer to say, distorted ancient legends in a wholly grotesque and hilarious manner. As part of the merrymaking, a processional mime involving an agon between revelers and on-lookers, some of the participants dressed up and impersonated animals.

In ancient comedy it may be assumed that plays such as “The Birds,” “The Wasps,” and “Frogs” of playwright Aristophanes made the most of the dramatic possibilities of choruses of men hopping about the stage in animal guise. Comedy incorporated the talking animals from folklore and fantastical legends about the escapades of the super-naturals in every manifestation, including animal metamorphoses.

The fascination with bestiality known from Greek myths, such as the seduction of Leda by Zeus in the form of a swan, seems to have been successful on stage. Hans Licht makes a very convincing case for the enactment of intercourse between animals and men before spectators in Hellenistic Greece.

Dogs

Ancient Greeks gave great importance in interpreting the wonderful creations that surrounded them. This way, they developed a special relationship with animals, which complement, along with man, the obvious forms of animate manifestation of nature. The animal that is at the top of the pyramid of beings, after man, and has a direct relationship with the social life of man is the dog.

There is an ancient myth about the origin of the dog, attributing its creation to Hephaestus, god of blacksmiths, carpenters, metal workers and artisans in general.

Maria Leach, author of “God Had a Dog: Folklore of the Dog,” a comprehensive book on the dog in mythology and religion, asserts that “the position of the dog can be ascertained by the names bestowed upon him. Dogs who serve a community merely as scavengers are seldom, if ever, named.” It is interesting that while the ancient Greeks named dogs, they did not give human names either to hunting dogs or to pet dogs.

Four hundred dog names have survived from antiquity. Some of them are from the “Cynegeticus” of Xenophon, who provides the huntsman with a list of possible names for hounds. Short, two-syllable names facilitate the hunter in calling his hounds. As examples he gives ‘Psyche’ (soul), ‘Chara’ (joy), ‘Hybris’ (hubris), ‘Methepon’ (helper), ‘Lailaps’ (whirlwind).

These names, which may be taken as representative of Greek dog-names, indicate something of the assumptions underlying the kinship between man and dog was regarded not as a creature possessing a complete human personality but as exemplifying some generalize or spiritual force.

Plato discusses the qualities of the guardian dog and holds up the dog as an exemplar. According to him, comparable to a true lover of wisdom, a dog can distinguish between an unknown person and an acquaintance.

The sense of reciprocity applies also to the dog, which was never far removed from the herdsman. The dog served as a faithful companion to ward off the cattle-robbers and scavengers, cats and the wild dogs, which preyed on a man’s possessions and peace of mind.

The origins of man’s relationship with the dog may thus have a symbiotic basis, and this may incidentally help to explain the deep emotional tie between the two creatures. At death certain dogs were buried and eulogized in a manner not unlike that which their masters might expect for themselves.

In the Odyssey, the loyal dog Argos recognizes Odysseus, who is miraculously disguised as a beggar with the help of the goddess Athena, on his secretive return to Ithaca. Homer’s account of the man-dog relationship might be the first written story about this bond.

In summary, man’s relationship with animals in Ancient Greece was neither one of superiority nor of submission. By virtue of his reason and technical accomplishment man harnesses the domesticated animal and makes it work for him.

Between the shepherd and his flock or the hunter and his dog there or the homeowner and the cat there is a sense of reciprocity. The animal is a source of comfort, even joy for the man, while the man offers food, shelter and safety to the animal.

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