The dog (Greek kyon, lat. canis) appeared already in the Neolithic, around 14.000 B.C.,
as a domestic animal. Since then many breeds have been bred. From the antiquity 183 different dog names are handed down to us. The Greeks valued the dog as a guide for the blind and as a fighting dog in battle. The war dogs of the battle of Marathon were recorded in a painting in the Stoa poikile. Among the hunting dogs, the laconic (Spartan) ones took the precedence, followed by the Molossian mastiffs, which were also often depicted in art. In front of old Roman houses the inscription "Cave Canem! (Beware of the dog!) was usually attached with the picture of a dog in mosaic, to be seen among others in Pompeii.
One also knew the consequences of the bite of a rabid dog. As a prophylaxis, veratrum was administered, which was added to the dog food. In Christianity, the dog became a symbol of loyalty and vigilance against heresy. It is therefore often found on funerary monuments under the feet of the deceased person depicted.
Original in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, dated around 500 BC.
Replica original in size and material.
Diogenes of Sinope, 412-323 B.C., founded the philosophical school of the Cynics with his teacher Antisthenes. This name derives both from the high school of Kynosarges, where Antisthenes taught, and from their way of life "like dogs". Diogenes lived in a barrel, probably a Pithos, an ancient Greek large storage vessel. Despite noble origin, Diogenes led a beggar-existence. Therefore, he got the surname Kyon = dog. He worked more through his way of life than through his teachings. He demanded the annulment of marriage, advocated extreme frugality in exaggeration of Socratic self-sufficiency (he saw a child drinking water from the palm of his hollow hand and threw away his cup), despised all conventions and called himself a cosmopolitan. The phrase about the "transformation of values" goes back to him.
