The Culture of Animals in Antiquity

Lewis, Sian; Llewellyn‐Jones, Lloyd

doi:10.4324/9781315201603

Cited by 52 publications

(11 citation statements)

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“…An explanation lies in how the ancients described the customs of the barbarians ( barbaroi ), which were supposed to be the opposite of the Greek customs. Thus, because the Greeks were fond of sacrificing pigs to their gods, they accused the Egyptians of a severe dislike of the animal (Lewis and Llewellyn-Jones, 2018: 104).…”

Section: Local and Ethnic Nature Of Fear Hatred And Revulsion Towards...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Toynbee, 1973: 223–36). Surprisingly, there is no ancient source that mentions fear of the spider as such (Lewis and Llewellyn-Jones, 2018: 624). Therefore, it seems that the non-venomous arachnai inhabiting ancient buildings provoked not even a trace of fear or disgust.…”

Section: Animals That Commonly Provoke Fear Revulsion and Hatementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Pliny added that the inhabitants of Italy, who feared hunger as the consequence of a locust invasion, searched for a remedy in the Sibylline Books. Pliny’s assertion that Indian locusts were so big that their legs could be used as saws (11.35.104) was part of the common belief that animals in far regions were larger, stronger and more dangerous than domestic ones (Lewis and Llewellyn-Jones, 2018: 613).…”

Section: Local and Ethnic Nature Of Fear Hatred And Revulsion Towards...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Fear, disgust, hate: negative emotions evoked by animals in ancient literature

Kostuch

2022

Hist Psychiatry

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Ancient literature contains thoughts, observations and opinions about animals causing fear, disgust or hate that can be of great interest to scientists researching the problem of phobias, fears and anxieties in history. So in this article, it is argued that we can go as far back as ancient times in the research on the history of animal phobias (or, speaking more generally, in research on the entire spectrum of negative emotions evoked by animals in individuals or in entire social groups or societies). In that period, the phenomenon was observed and described in an anecdotal form, and attempts to establish the causes of this phenomenon were undertaken. This article discusses these early ideas about phobias, fears and anxieties related to animals.

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Section: Local and Ethnic Nature Of Fear Hatred And Revulsion Towards...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Animals That Commonly Provoke Fear Revulsion and Hatementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Local and Ethnic Nature Of Fear Hatred And Revulsion Towards...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Fear, disgust, hate: negative emotions evoked by animals in ancient literature

Kostuch

2022

Hist Psychiatry

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“…The owl mentioned in the ancient accounts is the little owl (glaux, noctua, Athene noctua). This bird commonly inhabited ancient cities and villages, and its nests could be found in buildings, as well as in all manner of nooks and in trees [155]. Because of its relationship with the goddess Athena, it was particularly revered among the Greeks.…”

Section: Animals Versus Winementioning

confidence: 99%

Drunken snakes and sober owls: ancient authors on the relationship between animals and wine

Kostuch

2022

Addiction

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Aims In the article, ancient concepts linking animals and wine are discussed. This paper provides a description of animals that in antiquity were considered to be especially fond of grapes and wine, as well as animals that were, for various reasons, given wine to drink by humans, and animals that in ancient literature had an averse association with wine. In the paper, the author attempts to answer the following questions, what was the conceptual framework for the tales about drunk animals? In what circumstances were observations of animals becoming inebriated conducted? Which animal species were considered as most susceptible to the effects of wine? Last, was wine believed to affect animals and humans in a similar way? Methods Ancient literature provides a set of extant information about animals that willingly become inebriated with grapes or are given wine by humans, which deserves a separate analysis. The ancient authors commonly interspersed narration with information about the animals and invoked personal experiences of contact with the described animal and information obtained from those who had the opportunity to conduct ‘zoological’ observations or even medical experiments. Results There is a large group of animals that appear in ancient accounts consuming alcohol in the form of fermented fruit and wine. The ancients held the mostly incorrect belief that snakes had an enormous predilection for wine; moreover, contemporary research confirms that, as the ancients rightly observed, insects and birds do display a fondness for fermented fruit and wine. It was correctly observed that an excess of wine induced extreme states, such as sleepiness and aggression in animals, in a manner similar to humans. Conclusions Accounts in ancient literature show a close association between animals and wine existed among the Greeks and Romans.

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“…Simultaneously, the role and the importance of the cat in household probably did not significantly increase before the transition from the classical to medieval period [ 7 ]. Arguably because of this reason, the domestic cat was not mentioned in Roman literary sources [ 8 ], including the great agricultural lore Geoponica (6th century AD), or in the works of the prominent Roman agriculture writer Columella (1st century AD) [ 5 ]. However, although such negligence was present in terms of highlighting the contributions of house cats in human society, this perhaps did not prevent them from being a favorite pet animal.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Cat Skeleton from the Balatlar Church Excavation, Sinop, Turkey

Onar

Köroğlu

Armutak

et al. 2021

Animals

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In the 2015 excavation season, an east–west oriented burial (2015-Grave-14) built with large dimension stone blocks was unearthed on the south edge of “Area IVi” at the Balatlar Church in Sinop, on the northeastern Black Sea coast of Turkey. In this grave, which is dated between the end of the 6th century AD and the first half of the 7th century AD, a human skeleton was found with the head to the west and a cat skeleton was carefully placed next to the right femur. This study on the burial and the cat skeleton within it shows that, compared to the Roman period, the status of cats reached a higher level during the Byzantine period. It was found that alongside of being a pet, the Balatlar cat was a young healthy female individual that instinctively hunted rodents and birds, given that the remains of a rat and a sparrow were found in the region of the abdominal cavity, corresponding with the stomach location in the living animal. The grave presents the most significant direct archaeological evidence of a pet–human bond recorded at any Byzantine site so far.

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The Culture of Animals in Antiquity

Cited by 52 publications

References 0 publications

Fear, disgust, hate: negative emotions evoked by animals in ancient literature

Fear, disgust, hate: negative emotions evoked by animals in ancient literature

Drunken snakes and sober owls: ancient authors on the relationship between animals and wine

A Cat Skeleton from the Balatlar Church Excavation, Sinop, Turkey

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