drink to the dogs

Gift of Ernest Brummer, 1957 www.metmuseum.org

Perhaps this was a hunting cup: one hand on your weapons, one on your wine (so, one handled), and round the rim of the cup homage to the very dogs that were helping you chase down the prey.  This is a Greek skyphos, a deep cup, dating from the late 8th to the early 7th century B.C.   See where the handle's been placed?  Imagine holding that.  It probably helped stabilize the beverage.  Here's this item's original page at the Met if you would like to learn a little more.

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.

a greek dog on egyptian soil

www.mfa.org Egypt Exploration Fund by subscription

This terracotta dog is all of 1 15/16" x 1 5/8", but the roughness of his modeling gives him a big presence.  Isn't it amazing how a few well-placed pushes and pulls on a lump of clay create something that's unmistakably a dog? 
He lives at the Boston MFA, where they don't have a date of manufacture listed for him, but they know where he was found (by the great Egyptologist Flinders Petrie, no less).  He's from Naukratis, which was a Greek trading post in the Nile Delta established in the 7th century BC.  The British Museum has a research project about Naukratis; you can read more about it here.  If you search the research project catalog for "dog" you'll see this guy and a number of his fellows pop up, as the project worked with museum collections worldwide.  I learned there that he might be a representation of Sirius the Dog Star, whose rising happened around the yearly flooding of the Nile.

rent a cat 5 euros

photo copyright and by kind permission of candace r

From my friend Candace's recent travels in Greece and Bulgaria, here's a (joking) sign for the local kitty rental.

a dog to guard your moisturizer

Walters Art Museum [Public domain, CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

This pyxis (lidded vessel) from Greece dates from the 4th century BC.  A pyxis was for the most part a useful little box such as I have in my own drawer, full of my earrings - but mine is absolutely not as fancy as this.  This could have held cosmetics, jewelry, anything small that you needed to grab.  Other areas of this box show a bull and a griffin, so I'm being flip and choosy to say this handsome fellow is guarding your facegoop - but his playful alertness makes me wake up a bit this morning, and a bit more ready to face the day.  The bull and griffin are beautiful too.  You can see them in the additional views of this piece at the Walters Art Museum's online collection.

2 young ones

www.metmuseum.org. Rogers Fund, 1913

Puppies and babies: best buddies since time immemorial, or at least in this case since sometime in the 1st century BC to the 2nd century AD.  The Met has this little bronze as "Greek or Roman," and it's true that during that stretch of time the two cultures were interleaving to a deep extent.  The realism and warmth you see here is as fresh as anything you might create today.  In fact, I'm surprised at how pudgy and winsome the unknown artist managed to make that puppy, since "cute" is not the first adjective generally springing to mind when one thinks about the Greco-Romans.

a couple of pet epigrams from the ancient greeks

thanks pixabay  (CC0 PD)

The following are translations from ancient Greek of various epigrams (brief poems inscribed on grave markers or votive offerings).

55
On a Maltese Watch-Dog
Here the stone says it holds the white dog from Melita, the most
faithful guardian of Eumelus; Bull they called him while he was
yet alive; but now his voice is prisoned in the silent pathways
of night.

56
On a Tame Partridge
No longer, poor partridge migrated from the rocks, does thy
woven house hold thee in its thin withies, nor under the sparkle
of fresh-faced Dawn dost thou ruffle up the edges of thy basking
wings; the cat bit off thy head, but the rest of thee I snatched
away, and she did not fill her greedy jaw; and now may the earth
cover thee not lightly but heavily, lest she drag out thy remains.

This next one I believe we've seen before at the Museum, but its beauty merits another visit.

57
On a Thessalian Hound
Surely even as thou hast dead in this tomb I deem the wild
beasts yet fear thy white bones, huntress Lycas; and thy valour
great Pelion knows, and splendid Ossa and the lonely peaks of
Cithaeron.

- from Mackail, J. W. (John William). (1890). Select epigrams from the Greek anthology. London: Longmans, Green, and Co. Passim.

for day of the dead, some greek words on dogs and others gone by

thanks reusable art (PD)

Today we celebrate those we love who have gone to another shore, knowing that as long as we remember them they still stay with us.  The ancient Greeks didn't subscribe to that theory for their dearly departed, but they could still write a plaintive epitaph . . .

By Antipater of Sidon
On a Dog
Lampo, the hound of Midas, died of drought,
Though long and bravely for his life he fought.
His paws dug the moist spot ; but all too slow
Did water from the hidden runlet flow.
Worn out, he fell ; then sprang the fountain clear ;
Nymphs, ye revenged on him your stricken deer.

On an Ant
Busy toilsome hapless ant,
For thy sepulchre I plant
Next the barn a crumbled clod ;
So shall Ceres' fertile sod
Offer thee a rustic bed,
Cheer thee as thou liest dead.

By Tymnes
On a Maltese Dog
A Maltese lies this stone below,
Eumelus' watch-dog, "Bully" hight,
Most trusty friend ; his barking now
Is for the silent ways of night.

By Aristodicus
On a Pet Cicada
No more, shrill cricket, in rich Alkis' court 

Is heard thy voice ; no light of sun for thee.
Now through the meads of Hades dost thou sport
And dewy flowers of Queen Persephone.

Leaf, W. Little poems from the Greek. New York: R.M. McBride & Co., 1922. Pages 56-57, 63,64.