About Me

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Washington, United States
loves: you win if you guessed "pets" and "museums". Also books, art history, travel, British punk, Korean kimchi, bindis, martinis, and other things TBD. I will always make it very clear if a post is sponsored in any way. Drop me a line at thepetmuseum AT gmail.com !

Tuesday, December 04, 2018

greek and roman household pets

Today I'm going to send you to a fantastic article I've found, dating from 1949: "Greek and Roman Household Pets," by Francis D. Lazenby.  There you'll find a treasure trove including:

- Supposedly Ajax had a pet snake that followed him like a dog
- Quails were a favorite pet of patrician boys
- The ancestor of our domestic cats may well be the cream-colored Nubian cat
- Cats and weasels are most often interchangeable in ancient sources (that is, you can't really tell what animal exactly they're talking about)

Don't be put off by the footnotes and quotations - there's so much here!  Read it now.

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