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Beasts and their Names in the Roman Empire

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2013

J. M. C. Toynbee
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Extract

Personal names of animals, mostly of dogs and horses, are, as everyone is aware, recorded in the literature and archaeological monuments of archaic, classical, and hellenistic Greece. A few examples must suffice here, by way of preface to our present study. The most familiar of Homeric named beasts is, of course, Odysseus' faithful hound Argos (‘Swiftfoot’: Od. 17, 292). Hector's steeds (Il. 8, 185) were Xanthos, Podargos, Aithon, and Lampos—Tawny, Swiftfoot, Flash, and Fire: Achilles drove Xanthos and Balios—‘Tawny’ and ‘Dapple,’ offspring of the mare Podarge (Il. 19, 400); and Menelaus yoked Agamemnon's mare Aithe (Bay) and his own horse Podargos (Il. 23. 295). Names of classical hunting-dogs are quoted in Xenophon's Cynegeticus (7, 5). In hellenistic times the best-known animal-name is that of Alexander's favourite charger Boukephalas (‘Oxhead’) (Strabo 15, I, 29; etc.). Theocritus records the names of two heifers, Lepargos (‘Whitecoat’) and Kymaitha (Plumpling ?) (4, 45–46), and of a bull, Phaethon (‘Brightcoat’) (25, 139): the author of Idyll 8 tells us of Lampourgos (Firetail), a sheep-dog (65); while among metrical epitaphs on dogs dating from this age we have that of Philokynegos (‘Chasseur’) of Pergamon, accompanied by a portrait of the deceased and dating, probably, from the third century b.c.

Type
Research Article
Information
Papers of the British School at Rome , Volume 16 , November 1948 , pp. 24 - 37
Copyright
Copyright © British School at Rome 1948

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References

1 Kaibel, Epigrammata Graeca ex lapidibus conlecta, no. 331.

2 Hoppin, Handbook of Greek Black-Figure Vases, 60, 61.

3 Mélanges de l'Université Saint-Joseph 15, 1930, pl. 3Google Scholar.

4 There do not seem to be any records of the personal names of Roman-age domestic cats.

5 See, for instance, Lucian, Nigrinus, 29: —ήδη .

6 Only a selection of the names known to the writer in each category can be given here.

6a This reference is owed to Prof. P. N. Ure.

7 Ath. Mitt. 1880, pl. 16.

8 F. Cumont, Recherches sur le symbolisme funéraire des romains, pl. 45.

9 Annali del'Inst. 1863, pl. D; de Lozoya, , Historia del arte hispánica, I, 1931, pl. 12Google Scholar ( = the right-hand end of the mosaic shown in colour); G. Bruns, Der Obelisk und seine Basis auf detn Hippodrom zu Konstantinopel, 1935, Textabbildung 12.

10 Atti della R. Accademia dei Lincei 1879, pl. 2

11 Inventaire des mosaiques de la Gaule et de l'Afrique II 540.

12 Ibid. III, 417; Bull. arch, du Comité 1906, pl. 13, no. 2.

13 Inventaire, etc., 124.

14 Ibid. II, 126.

15 Bull. arch, du Comité 1906, pl. 21.

16 Ibid. pl. 20.

17 Ibid. pl. 8.

18 Walters, Catalogue of Lamps in the British Museum, pl. 23, no. 788.

19 King, Handbook of Ancient Gems, p. 113.

20 Rostowzew, Tesserarum Sylloge, pl. 5.

21 Bulletino Comunale 1876, pl. 21, 2.

22 Photo. Anderson 27269 Ostia.

23 Bull. arch, du Comité, 1906, pl. 19.

24 Inventaire etc. II, 375.

25 Y. Béquignon, Recherches archéologiques à Phères de Thessalie, 1937, pp. 92–94, no. 69, pl. 23.

26 Fraenkel, M., Inschriften von Pergamon II, 577Google Scholar.

27 Bull. Corresp. Hellen. 1880, p. 494; Inscr. Gr. 12, ii, no. 459.

28 Espérandieu, , Recueil général des bas-reliefs de la Gaule romaine I, p. 456, no. 770Google Scholar.

29 Issus was used in Roman baby-language for the pronoun ipse.

30 Cumont, op. cit. pl. 42, no. 2. Unfortunately, some mischance has blunted the nozzle of the ‘petit spitz.’

31 J. H. Middleton, The Lewis Collection of Gems and Rings, p. 74, no. 166.

32 Le gemme antiche figurate di Leonardo Agustini, 1669, V, pl. 32Google Scholar.

33 Inventaire etc. II, suppl. 511a; G. Tennison, Animals for Show and Pleasure in Ancient Rome, p. 27.

34 L. Robert, Les gladiateurs dans l'orient grec, p. 191, no. 191a, C.

35 Mon. Piot 34, 1934, pp. 129–130, fig. 1.

36 Journ. Rom. Stud. 1934, pl. 10.