Observing and Imagining Animal Behaviour

Abstract

Using animals as a means of measuring and describing human behaviour was one of their earliest functions in Classical literature, with the most enduring example from Classical antiquity being the fables of Aesop, traditionally assumed to stem from the sixth century BC;¹ similarly in the Homeric epics, long before Greek writers began the process of seriously investigating the nature of animal and human life, the actions of warriors during the Trojan War and its aftermath were effectively illustrated with similes drawn from the animal world (a literary use characterized by Newmyer as ‘philosophical reflection’),² and these observations range from pastoral or domestic scenes to vivid descriptions of hunting and imaginary accounts of animals in the wild. Animal imagery is used particularly in moments of heightened tension in the Homeric epics to illustrate moments of extreme violence or emotion, and because of this their animal subjects are credited with a wide range of emotional faculties such as the following example of a lion robbed of his cubs. The context in the Iliad is the aftermath of the death of Patroclus, the emotional crux of the entire poem as it rouses Achilles to re-enter the war and pursue Hector: the type of animal emotion described is the deep maternal love often described in later discussions of animal capabilities and which went undisputed among later writers.