Animals in Antiquity: Love and Slaughter

Catalog description

Wild beasts, working animals, beloved pets–ancient Greeks and Romans lived in close proximity to a remarkable diversity of non-human animals. The ancients sacrificed them, but asked the sacrificial victims for their permission to be slaughtered. They reared them lovingly and composed poems when they passed away. They abused and killed them in imperial displays of power. This course will explore the many different relationships between humans and animals at the crucial points of time in antiquity, starting from the Homeric epics to the height of the Roman Empire.