The Talking Greeks: Speech, Animals, and the Other in Homer, Aeschylus, and Plato

401 Pages·2005·2.35 MB·English

by  John Heath

THE TALKING GREEKS
Whenconsideringthequestionofwhatmakesushuman,theancient
Greeks provided numerous suggestions. This book argues that the
definingcriterionintheHellenicworld,however,wasthemostobvi-
ousone:speech.Itexploreshowitwasthecapacityforauthoritative
speechwhichwasheldtoseparatehumansfromotheranimals,gods
fromhumans,menfromwomen,Greeksfromnon-Greeks,citizens
from slaves, and the mundane from the heroic. John Heath illus-
trateshowHomer’sepicstracethedevelopmentofimmatureyoung
men into adults managing speech in entirely human ways and how
inAeschylus’Oresteiaonlyhumanspeechcandisentangleman,beast,
and god. Plato’s Dialogues are shown to reveal the consequences of
Socraticallyimposedsilence.WithitsexaminationoftheGreekfocus
onspeech,animalization,andstatus,thisbookoffersnewreadingsof
keytextsandprovidessignificantinsightsintotheGreekapproachto
understandingourworld.
john heathisProfessorofClassicsatSantaClaraUniversity.Heis
theauthorofnumerousarticlesonLatinandGreekliterature,myth
andculture.HispreviouspublicationsincludeActaeon,theUnman-
nerlyIntruder(1992),WhoKilledHomer?(withVictorDavisHanson,
1998;revisededition,2001)andBonfireoftheHumanities(withVictor
DavisHansonandBruceThornton,2001).

THE TALKING GREEKS
Speech, Animals, and the Other in Homer,
Aeschylus, and Plato
JOHN HEATH
SantaClaraUniversity
cambridge university press
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Cambridge University Press
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Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York
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© John Heath 2005
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without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published in print format 2005
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Contents
Prefaceandacknowledgments pagevi
Introduction 1
part i speech, animals, and human status in homer
1 Bellowinglikeabull:HumansandotheranimalsinHomer 39
2 Controllinglanguage:Telemachuslearnstospeak 79
3 Talkingthroughtheheroiccode:Achilleslearnstotelltales 119
part ii listening for the other in classical greece
4 Makingadifference:ThesilenceofOtherness 171
part iii speech, animals, and human status in
classical athens
5 Disentanglingthebeast:Humansandotheranimalsinthe
Oresteia 215
6 Socraticsilence:TheshameoftheAthenians 259
Epilogue 315
Bibliography 334
Index 387
v
Preface and acknowledgments
I wrote most of this book over the past seven summers. Each fall I have
returnedtoclasses,wherethetolerantsmilesandglazedeyesofmyfreshmen
students quickly reminded me that the relevance of the Greeks can easily
be lost on the uninitiated – and the scholar. I am fortunate to have spent
myacademiclifeteachingbrightundergraduateswho,withalittlecoaxing
(okay–sometimeswithalotofcoaxing),haveoftenjoinedmeinexploring
theseancienttexts.Ithankthem.
More pragmatically, I am grateful to two classical journals for permis-
siontopublishhererevisedversionsofpreviouslypublishedarticles.Partof
Chapter2appearedas“Telemachuspepnumenos:Growingintoanepithet,”
inMnemosyne54(2001)129–57.Chapter5islargelybasedon“Disentangling
the beast: Humans and other animals in Aeschylus’ Oresteia,” in JHS 119
(1999)17–47.Theeditorsandanonymousrefereesinvolvedinthesepubli-
cationswereextremelyhelpful.SantaClaraUniversitygenerouslyawarded
twoofmystudentssummergrantstocheckreferencesandhelpcreatethe
index.IammuchindebtedtotheUniversityandespeciallytoTomGarvey
andChristineLechelt.
Severalcolleaguesandfriendshaveofferedperceptiveinsightsonindivid-
ual chapters: Walter Englert, Michelle McKenna, Helen Moritz, William
Prior, and Gail Blumberg. Nora Chapman, Mark Edwards, and Victor
Hanson read the entire manuscript when it was still a rather unattractive
adolescent. Lisa Adams loaned her acumen and acute editorial eye to the
penultimate draft. I cannot thank them enough for their many invalu-
ablecomments,queries,andsuggestions.Ifthisbookisstillungainly,itis
not their fault. The anonymous readers for the press were open-minded,
insightful, and especially helpful in convincing me to eliminate several
polemicaldivagationsofwhichIhadgrownunhealthilyfond.Tomyedi-
tor at Cambridge, Michael Sharp, I feel a particular debt of gratitude for
having faith in the intellectual merits of what first crossed his desk as a
slightlygrumpyanalysisof“animalsandtheOther”inancientGreece.
vi
Prefaceandacknowledgments vii
Finally,mygreatestdebtistoEmma,whoarrivedjustwhenIwasstarting
this book. Her intelligence and optimism are constant sources of inspira-
tion,aswellasproofthathumannatureisnotdeterminedentirelybygenes.
ItwouldalsobeunforgivableformenottoacknowledgewithaffectionMel
andAndi,whosejoyfullivesandunhappyfateshaveservedasanimpetus
for my reflection on the duties we have to all conscious creatures, both
articulateandsilent.

Introduction
The thesis of this book is embarrassingly unsophisticated: humans speak;
other animals don’t. This zoological platitude formed the basis – indeed,
themotivation–formuchoftheancientGreeks’profoundandinfluential
explorationofwhatitmeanstobehuman.
Ithaslongbeenfoundusefulinbothliteraryandanthropologicalstudies
toquoteoutofcontextLe´vi-Strauss’famousobservation(hewascritiquing
totemism)thatanimalsarechosentoconveycertainideasnotbecausethey
are good to eat, but because they are good to think with.1 But for the
agrarianGreeks,whosehandsweredirtyfromtheearthandanimalsthey
worked with and struggled against every day, animals were also good to
thinkabout.TheGreekswerehard-workingpragmatistsaswellasourintel-
lectualandculturalforebears.Theywerefarmers,andtheirunderstanding
of human nature and animals was shaped by very different “formative”
experiencesthanthoseofmostofuswhostudythem.TotakewhatIhope
isanextremeexample,myownchildhoodfamiliaritywithanimalsinthe
suburbs of Los Angeles was limited to a series of family basset-hounds
(not exactly Laconian hunting dogs), my sister’s pet rat, and a blood-
sucking half-moon parrot named Socrates, whom my mother, like the
Athenianmob2,400yearsbefore,finallyshippedofftoHadeswithatainted
beverage.
In the United States, where family farmers are no longer “statistically
relevant”–wheretherearemoreprisoninmatesthanfull-timefarmersof
any kind, and where ranchers are a dying breed2 – most of us regularly
encounter animals only as fuzzy house companions or on our plates. In
this,weareverymuchunliketheancientGreekswereadandwriteabout.
Few ofthem could afford to feed a mouth that did not help put food
1 Le´vi-Strauss(1969)162;seeLloyd(1983)8n.7.
2 Hanson(1996)xvi;Schlosser(2001)8with278n.8,133–47.Itissoberingtorememberthatnotuntil
1910didtheUnitedStateshavemoreindustriallaborersthanfarmworkers.Arecentsurveyshowed
thatmanyofusspendmorethan95percentofourlivesindoors;Bekoff(2002)139.
1