- The Oxford Handbook of Animals in Classical Thought and Life
- Acknowledgements
- List of Illustrations
- List of Contributors
- Introduction
- Aesop and Animal Fable
- Animals in Classical Art
- Good to Laugh With: Animals in Comedy
- Animals in Epic
- Animals in Tragedy
- Domestication and Breeding of Livestock: Horses, Mules, Asses, Cattle, Sheep, Goats, and Swine
- Animal Husbandry
- Value Economics: Animals, Wealth, and the Market
- Fauna of the Ancient Mediterranean World
- Insects
- Ancient Fishing and Fish Farming
- Hunting
- Animal Communication
- Origins of Life and Origins of Species
- Civilization, Gastronomy, and Meat-Eating
- Pets
- Animals in Warfare
- Animal Magic
- Animals and Divination
- Animal Sacrifice in Antiquity
- Animals in Late Antiquity and Early Christianity
- Part-Animal Gods
- Metamorphosis: Human into Animals
- Wondrous Animals in Classical Antiquity
- Animals in Egypt
- Spectacles of Animal Abuse
- Horse Racing and Chariot Racing
- Animals and Triumphs
- Being the One and Becoming the Other: Animals in Ancient Philosophical Schools
- Philosophical Vegetarianism and Animal Entitlements
- Zoological Knowledge in Ancient Greece and Rome
- Ancient Fossil Discoveries and Interpretations
- Veterinary Medicine
- Index
Abstract and Keywords
This chapter examines the views of ancient philosophers on the connection between humans and animals. It explains the preoccupation of ancient Greeks in investigating whether the relationship between human and non-human animals involves more analogy than polarity and more sameness than differentness, and on what grounds such a determination is to be made. It discusses the pre-philosophical musings in the epic poems of Homer and analyses the philosophical views of different philosophers including the Presocratics, the Sophists, Plato and his followers, Aristotle, Theophrastus, the followers of Epicurus, and the Stoics. This chapter highlights the fact that most of these philosophers almost never composed entire treatises devoted to animals, with the exception of Aristotle and Theophrastus.
Keywords: ancient philosophers, humans, animals, ancient Greeks, Homer, Presocratics, the Sophists, Aristotle, Theophrastus, Epicurus
Stephen T. Newmyer, Duquesne University.
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- The Oxford Handbook of Animals in Classical Thought and Life
- Acknowledgements
- List of Illustrations
- List of Contributors
- Introduction
- Aesop and Animal Fable
- Animals in Classical Art
- Good to Laugh With: Animals in Comedy
- Animals in Epic
- Animals in Tragedy
- Domestication and Breeding of Livestock: Horses, Mules, Asses, Cattle, Sheep, Goats, and Swine
- Animal Husbandry
- Value Economics: Animals, Wealth, and the Market
- Fauna of the Ancient Mediterranean World
- Insects
- Ancient Fishing and Fish Farming
- Hunting
- Animal Communication
- Origins of Life and Origins of Species
- Civilization, Gastronomy, and Meat-Eating
- Pets
- Animals in Warfare
- Animal Magic
- Animals and Divination
- Animal Sacrifice in Antiquity
- Animals in Late Antiquity and Early Christianity
- Part-Animal Gods
- Metamorphosis: Human into Animals
- Wondrous Animals in Classical Antiquity
- Animals in Egypt
- Spectacles of Animal Abuse
- Horse Racing and Chariot Racing
- Animals and Triumphs
- Being the One and Becoming the Other: Animals in Ancient Philosophical Schools
- Philosophical Vegetarianism and Animal Entitlements
- Zoological Knowledge in Ancient Greece and Rome
- Ancient Fossil Discoveries and Interpretations
- Veterinary Medicine
- Index