Eloquent Alogia: Animal Narrators in Ancient Greek Literature

Eloquent Alogia: Animal Narrators in Ancient Greek Literature

Blog Article

Classical Greek literature presents a variety of speaking animals.These are not, of course, the actual voices of animals but human projections.In a culture that aligns verbal mastery with social standing, verbal animals present a conundrum that speaks to an anxiety about human communication.I argue that the earliest examples of speaking animals, in Homer, Hesiod CHLOROFRESH and Archilochus, show a fundamental connection with Golden Age tales.Later authors, such as Plutarch and Lucian, look back on such cases from a perspective that does not easily accept notions of divine causation that would permit such fanciful modes of communication.

I argue that Plutarch uses a talking pig to challenge philosophical categories, and that Fire Screen Lucian transforms a sham-philosopher of a talking-cock to undermine the very pretense of philosophical virtue.