How to Care about Animals: An Ancient Guide to Creatures Great and Small

Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers

by M.D. Usher (Compiler and translator)

An entertaining and enlightening anthology of classical Greek and Roman writings on animals―and our vital relationships with them

How to Care about Animals is a fascinating menagerie of passages from classical literature about animals and the lives we share with them. Drawing on ancient writers from Aesop to Ovid, classicist and farmer M. D. Usher has gathered a healthy litter of selections that reveal some of the ways Greeks and Romans thought about everything from lions, bears, and wolves to birds, octopuses, and snails―and that might inspire us to rethink our own relationships with our fellow creatures. Presented in lively new translations, with the original texts on facing pages, these pieces are filled with surprises―anticipating but also offering new perspectives on many of our current feelings and ideas about animals.

Here, Porphyry makes a compelling argument for vegetarianism and asserts that the just treatment of animals makes us better people; Pliny the Elder praises the virtuosity of songbirds and the virtuousness of elephants; Plutarch has one of Circe’s pigs from the Odyssey make a serio-comic case for the dignity of the beasts of the field; Aristotle puts the study of animals on par with anthropology; we read timeless Aesopian fables, including “The Hen That Laid the Golden Egg” and “The Fox and the Grapes”; and there is much, much more.

A Noah’s Ark of a book, How to Care about Animals is guaranteed to charm and inspire anyone who loves animals.

Genres: Nonfiction, Philosophy, Animals

248 pages, Hardcover

Published October 10, 2023

About the author

I am a UVM alumnus (B.A. in Greek and Latin) and joined the UVM faculty in 2000. Before attending UVM as an undergraduate I apprenticed in Germany as a post-and-beam carpenter. Upon graduation from UVM, I earned my PhD in Classics at The University of Chicago.

I teach courses in Greek and Latin language and in classical civilization. I have also taught in the Integrated Humanities Program, the Teacher-Advisor Program (TAP), and the Honors College. My academic interests include orality studies, Near Eastern influences on classical literature, especially on Greek literature of the archaic period (Homer, Hesiod and the lyric poets), and ancient philosophy (the writings of Plato and Seneca in particular). I am also deeply interested in the reception of classical texts in modern works of art, music, and literature. In addition to publishing books and articles in the field of Classics, I have written an opera libretto (in Latin), original poetry, translations, and children's books. Non-academic interests include carpentry (I built my own house and outbuildings) and farming (my wife Caroline and I own and operate Works & Days Farm in Shoreham and sell market lambs, eggs, and chicken).

Reviews

[Massimo Pigliucci]

Yet another interesting entry in the “Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers” ongoing series by Princeton University Press. While the ancient world is not exactly renowned for fair treatment of animals, the essays in this volume will make you question such received wisdom. One of my favorite chapters is the famous dialogue, by Plutarch, between Odysseus and one of his former comrades who has been turned into a pig by the sorceress Circe. Odysseus, arrogant human being that he is, assumes that of course the pigs want to be turned back into humans, since we are such a superior species. But the pig puts forth a number of funny and logically tight arguments explaining why it is far preferable to be a pig. Also in this volume, the Neoplatonist Porphyry advances reasons to be a vegetarian, based on earlier arguments by Pythagoras. Moreover, the Stoic Seneca suggests that the human animal is actually both morally and ecologically inferior to other species. And Pliny’s account of elephants and how they are treated by us is both moving and maddening. Although How to Care about Animals is not as much of a practical guide as other books in the PUP collection, it is very much worth reading in order to get a different perspective on both Greco-Roman thinkers and the animal world.

[Evelyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a compilation of selections from the writings of the Ancient Greeks about animals. It includes essays on animals, animal behavior and veganism, and quotes from plays, stories and fables, mythology, etc. some of the observations remain of interest to the reader and are still relevant today, while others make for tedious reading.

The book rates 2.5 stars.

[Curtis Price · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kindle has much untranslated material

This is a strange book. For the first half, there is a 5-star worthy English translation of important excerpts from ancient Greek texts. But then, in the Kindle version at least, it inexplicably reverts to untranslated Greek and Latin

[Gabriel Rojas Hruška · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable and informative in some ways, yet not as functionally explicit as it’s title.

[Sarah E · Rating 1 out of 5]

I would choose a better animal book to read.

[Roxana Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

very interesting read, fascinating to hear that greeks/romans had the same kind of ethical discussions we are still having. great for animal lovers, would have loved if there was more commentary alongside the translations