The other is the man-eating cyclops\u2019s sudden display of a softer side. He addresses his favourite ram as Pepon<\/em>, a term of endearment elsewhere applied to close friends and relatives. The cyclops wonders aloud if the ram is grieving for his master\u2019s lost eye, or sharing his desire for revenge. <\/p>\n Both episodes demonstrate Homer\u2019s<\/a> remarkable capacity to ground the heroic world in the whole range of human experience, and to stress the essential links between humans and the natural world. The wide-ranging world of Homeric heroes involves not just fantastic beasts, powerful divinities and aristocrats, but ordinary men, women and creatures. <\/p>\n \n The bonds between humans and animals, whether working or otherwise, are richly represented in both literature and visual arts throughout ancient Greek culture. <\/p>\n Odysseus\u2019s wife, Penelope, has pet geese<\/a> which she describes as \u201cwarming her heart\u201d when she sees them. Penelope weeps for them when, in a dream, they are killed by an eagle. <\/p>\n In Homer\u2019s other epic poem, the Iliad<\/a>, Hector calls on his chariot horses to remember the sweet mash his wife used to feed them<\/a>, even before she attended to her husband. And Achilles\u2019s horses weep<\/a> when his friend Patroclus is killed \u2013 they are frozen in mourning \u201clike a pillar on a man or woman\u2019s tomb\u201d. <\/p>\n In later Greek literature, there is a well-established corpus of epitaphs<\/a> memorialising dogs. The 6th-5th BC poet Simonides is sometimes attributed as the author of this vivid tribute<\/a> inscribed on the gravestone of a female hunting dog:<\/p>\n Although you are dead, huntress Lycas, I fancy that the beasts still tremble at your white bones in this tomb: your valour is known to high Pelion and far-seen Ossa and the peaks of Cithaeron with their lonely pastures. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Extensive research<\/a> documents the widespread depiction of both working dogs and lapdogs in vase painting and sculpture. The Beazley Archive pottery database<\/a> in Oxford lists well over 1,400 examples of dogs in vase paintings from 700-200BC \u2013 and examples survive from earlier still. <\/p>\n The British Museum collection includes a bowl from the Mycenaean period<\/a> (1750 to 1050BC) in which the Homeric epics are set. It depicts a man struggling to control two rather frisky small dogs on leads.<\/p>\n Although there is only sparse evidence of the Greeks using dogs in warfare, vase paintings showing warriors bidding their family farewell frequently include a dog. The latter may be interpreted<\/a> either as accompanying the warrior or being left behind.<\/p>\n In a more domestic context, dogs positioned beneath the couches of men at a symposia enjoying wine (and other bodily pleasures) are a recurring visual theme, as in a well-known example<\/a> from Corinth (600\u2013590 BC).<\/p>\n While dogs, especially hunting dogs, may figure in art and funerary monuments as a status symbol, they also appear in contexts suggesting a close affectionate bond. A relief from Sparta<\/a> shows a seated man with high-status accoutrements but also with a small dog pawing at his knees.<\/p>\n In classical Athenian funerary reliefs, such dogs are a recurring motif<\/a>, predominantly accompanying figures of young age and especially children. <\/p>\n One example is the grave monument for a young girl named Euchalia, which depicts her with her parents, grandmother and a small dog poised on its hind legs and pawing at her knees. The dog is probably what was called a Meletian<\/em> \u2013 a lapdog breed noted for its affection and gentleness.<\/p>\n Dogs were not universally viewed positively in the ancient world \u2013 \u201cdog\u201d is a derogatory term<\/a> applied as an insult to both women and men in the epics. But Argos\u2019s fidelity is a marker both of Odysseus\u2019s value to his own society, and of the worth of that society beneath all its disruption and decay. <\/p>\n While Odysseus is clearly needed back in Ithaca, he requires the support of down-to-earth slaves like the swineherd Eumaeus \u2013 and perhaps the psychological validation that Argos\u2019s fidelity provides too. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n Read more:
\n The heroes of Homer\u2019s Iliad are eco-warriors battling to protect nature<\/a>
\n <\/strong>
\n <\/em>\n<\/p>\n
\nHuman-animal bonds in ancient Greek poetry<\/h2>\n
\n
Human-animal bonds in ancient Greek art<\/h2>\n
![\"On](\"https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/749768\/original\/file-20260723-64-zp079z.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.1&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip\")
<\/a>
\n The Trustees of the British Museum<\/a>, CC BY<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n![\"Grave](\"https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/749777\/original\/file-20260723-63-3bbk2o.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.1&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip\")
<\/a>
\n Kerameikos Museum<\/a>, CC BY<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\nWhat Argos symbolises<\/h2>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/counter.theconversation.com\/content\/288214\/count.gif\")
<\/p>\n![Kerameikos Museum<\/a>,](\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:The_Grave_Stele_of_Eukoline_(4th_cent._B.C.)_at_the_Archaeological_Museum_of_Kerameikos_on_27_June_2018.jpg\"){kind=link}