Childhood companions: children and animal companions on attic red-figure vases

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In ancient Greece, children and animals found themselves on the periphery of social importance, moreclosely grouped with slaves than with their older male citizens. This lack of importance has resultedin a lack of documentation on them, in both ancient and modern-day times. However, in recent yearsthere has been a surge of interest in the animals and children of ancient Greece, allowing scholars theopportunity to potentially fill in certain gaps of knowledge. One of the gaps which has yet to be filled,is the relationship and interactions between children and their pets. The aim of this thesis is then toresearch the relationship that may have existed between children and their 'personal animals'.Although sources on these topics can be scarce and problematic, one of the best sources we haveshowing these interactions are on red-figure vase paintings. Therefore, 203 red-figured vases showingchildren and animal interactions were selected from the Beazley Archive, catalogued and studied.Vases which contain animals such as Spitz-type lap dogs, hunting dogs, deer, goats and hares wereincluded in this study. By studying these vases in as much detail as possible, this thesis aimed toidentify which animals were consistently paired with which age category of the child, whether or notthe vase paintings could be viewed as real life scenarios, whether it would be possible to read in thesediffering pairings of animal and child other reflections of identity and perceptions of childhood andfinally how the symbolism of the image would change in accordance to the animal and the agecategory of the child it is paired with.To do so, this study utilised a number of primary and secondary sources to gain some insight into thelives of ancient Greek children and the above-mentioned animals to better understand not only theirroles in society but also the possible meaning and symbolism linked with the various animals. It wasfound that certain animals are in fact consistently paired with specific age groups, while thesymbolism attached to animals which are depicted with a number of age groups does appear tochange, depending on the age group.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University