Dogs in the Athenian Agora

Agora Picture Books

by Colin M. Whiting

In this book, readers are shown how dogs fit into ancient Greek society with material from the last 90 years of excavations at the Athenian Agora by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. Topics range from how ancient Greeks hunted with dogs and what they considered a proper dog's name to the excavation of tender burials in the Agora and the sacrifice of dogs to the gods of the underworld. Mythological dogs like the three-headed Kerberos appear, as do the pawprints that very real dogs left behind more than a thousand years ago. Dozens of illustrations of pottery, sculpture, and excavated remains enliven the text. Anyone curious about dogs in antiquity and how they relate to dogs in the present day will be sure to find interesting material in this portable, affordable text.

44 pages, Paperback

Published April 6, 2022

Reviews

[Aniruddh Jammoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was lucky to find this book at the Agora in Athens. A short and delightful read about dogs, and how they were an important part of the day-to-day life in Ancient Greece.

[Seolhe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short and sweet.
There's not much I can say about something that's 40-some pages, but I found it very charming, and a delightful addition to my library. It also includes a lot of beautiful pictures of dog-related archaeological finds from the Agora, including vases, lamps and baby rattles with canine motifs, bones of buried dogs and the imprints of paw prints on tiles, plus some photos of modern doggie residents of Athens.

[Trevor · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great academic work on recent excavations at the Athenian Agora that was really quite heartwarming and fascinating!