Lesson 3 Relationships: How we demythologized the Dog

There have been many changes that have happened through out our history. Many of these changes have effected our relationship with animals. We have changed from being the prey of many large animals to slowly creating a barrier between us and the natural world. The barrier is so good now that we have to work to preserve the natural world around us. This is telling in the stories we tell about animals. Many of the ancient myths and legends that we have show animals in a powerful and superior condition to the humans. This is vastly different from the stories about animals we tell now. Most of these stories include human saviors who rescue an animal and bring them to civilization. The vast difference in these stories show how we have changed how we view animals. They have fallen like ancient gods to something we look back on with little understanding in a history class. 

An animal that illustrates the shift from ancient mythologized dogs to modern pets is dogs. Dogs have been companions to humans for a long time. These are many works of art that depict our relationship with dogs. This piece is a funerary monument of a dog from Ancient Greece.

 

Funerary statue of a dog 

Credit: National Archaeological Museum. Athens, Greece

This statue is so beautiful to be because of the characterization of this dog. This dog was likely an important part of the family that owned it. This because it has a statue to honor it after it's death. This statue is not an isolated example though, there are many examples of these funerary monuments to many pets, especially dogs. These depictions of loving family animals are interesting when you think of when you think of the many dogs of myth that were common during this time. There is Cerberus the guardian of the underworld in Greek mythology (Fun fact: there is evidence that Cerberus means spotted, which means the guard dog of the underworld's name is Spot) and Anubis the Egyptian god of death and burial rites. I don't know why there was an association with dogs and death in the ancient world but they are examples of the power that was attributed to dogs. 

There has been many changes since Classical Greece and now. We have modernized, and with this we have created a barrier between animals and us. We use zoos, picture books, and stuffed animals to 

educate our children about animals. 

The modern depiction of animals

Credit: Here

We are constantly observing animals. What we have forgotten that animals observe us, not that they are the only ones being observed. We have forgotten this because they have become a commodity for us. We characterize the animals down to their base elements. Our characterization hyper fixates on elements of the animal that we rarely see, creating a Technicolor fantasy that is dull compared to the real world. This makes it feel like the real world is a boring imitation of what we see in the media we consume. We need to add more to these animals. We make them more human while limiting their agency and autonomy. We try to imagine what it would be like if animals could talk. This is shown best in the song "If my Dog could talk".  In the song the singer makes his dog the same as a person lamenting that his dog can't talk. This is silly because dogs and humans are not the same in how they think. This relates to what Fudge said "We need pets to have minds in order to be pets". This is interesting because for some it isn't enough to have an animal the animal must also be human, anthropomorphized by our own imagination. This pressure to fit dogs into this mold. 

Tired Dog

Credit: Here

We try to imagine what it is like to be a dog but it is almost as hard to imagine that as it is to live in a different time period. We can learn, read, imagine, do all the research, be the best animal lover in the entire world but we will never be able to disconnect out own biases and experiences from this imagination. This is why empathy is so important. 

I will never be able to understand how or even if my dog loves me, but I can share the love that I feel for her when ever I am with her. I can giver her the best life, because of my love and work to make her the happiest she can be. Through this I can extend my love without expecting anything in return, but I have seen expressions of what I can interpret as love from her. I will never know but that's the beauty of pets, they teach us how to love with out expectations.