Did Alexander have a named Dog?

jasonxx · Post by **jasonxx** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 10:23 pm

What were the Ancient Dogs like. Akin to wolves as nearly all doge to day are hybrids.

Taphoi · Post by **Taphoi** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 4:37 pm

Peritas (Plutarch, Alexander 61), seemingly named after the Macedonian month Peritios (roughly January). Alexander founded a city in his name when he died according to Potamon of Lesbos.

Best wishes,

Andrew

athenas owl · Post by **athenas owl** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 4:41 pm

jasonxx...google images of the Alexander Sarcophagus. There is at least one dog depicted in the beautiful carvings on the side. The hunting scene side. It's beneath a horse of one of the central characters.

It doesn't look very wolf-like though, reminds me of a cross between a greyhound and a huntin' dog type hound.

athenas owl · Post by **athenas owl** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 4:42 pm

Hope that's not too big.

athenas owl · Post by **athenas owl** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 4:43 pm

hmmmm....sorry about that, the reply said "authorization failed"....

dean · Post by **dean** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 5:08 pm

Hi,
I had read about the Mollosian dogs of Alexander's time which apparently were very powerful animals- and could take on a lion- they were used in the Roman arena.

Best regards,
Dean

Taphoi · Post by **Taphoi** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 7:08 pm

There is also a dog in this early Hellenistic stag hunt in a pebble mosaic from Pella, which is believed to represent Alexander and Hephaistion. If so, the dog is probably Peritas.

Best wishes,

Andrew

smittysmitty · Post by **smittysmitty** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 7:23 pm

The tomb frieze allegedly depicting Philip and Alexander also displays similar dogs.

By the way I think the dogs name was actually 'Rusty'.

You guys are really impressing me these days - we can now get pictures uploaded on the forum. Fantastic I reckon!

I won't bother asking how you do that, the qouting process still has me baffled

cheers!

jasonxx · Post by **jasonxx** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 7:03 pm

Smitty smitty.

I guess we can both sit at the back of the class. The quote stuff has me baffled also.

kenny

alejandro · Post by **alejandro** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 7:40 pm

Hi guys,

I always thought that Peritas would look like the statue in the Hellenistic room of the British Museum. Nothing like a greyhound, but more like a thin St. Bernard: hairy, muscular and (probably, because I don't know the scale of the statue) quite big. I think that it is a Molossian dog.
I'm not claiming it is Alexander's dog or even of the same race, but the fact that both Alexander's and this dog's statues are so close to each other, probably made my mind accept the association!

Best,
Alejandro

pankration · Post by **pankration** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 4:31 am

The dogs are greyhounds probably the oldest of the purebreeds. The greyhound sites of various dog breed clubs give a lot more information.

sikander · Post by **sikander** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 5:56 pm

Greetings All,

I hope you will enjoy exploring these sites.. just a quick overview of possibilities and wishful thinking... (Laughing) If I recall correctly, there were three primary dog types: the heavier Molosser type, a hunting type dog and a smaller coursing type.

Statue:
http://www2.flickr.com/photos/441243246 ... 109921560/

Mosaic:
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/enc ... ssian.html

A Greek breeder's site:
http://www.moloss.com/breeds/stuvx/s005/

Molloser breeds today
http://www.bulldoginformation.com/molos ... -dogs.html
http://www.moloss.com/001/ptxt/breed.html

A few breed pages claiming descent:
http://us.iams.com/iams/en_US/jsp/IAMS_ ... emast.html

http://us.iams.com/iams/en_US/jsp/IAMS_ ... pmast.html

http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/nebolishmastiff.htm

A bit of history:
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/enc ... canes.html
http://www.bulldoginformation.com/molos ... story.html

An earlier Pothos response I found:

We don't know what breed of dog Peritas was. The Molossians were famous for their mastiffs, not greyhounds. Many dog breeds claim to be the one Peritas belonged too, including numerous Greyhound sites. All we know is that it was a favorite dog that he raised by hand and was named after the Macedonian month of January. For those wondering what a Molossian mastiff would look like, a close representation would be an Anatolian Shepherd, i.e. a mastiff people haven't messed with too much yet (but they're beginning). As for lion hunting, that would be a use of the typical hunting dog (altho in Macedon they'd get tested against boar) and there are numerous stories of Alexander encountering hunting dogs in India. To get an idea of the typical 'hound' of the time in Macedon, see the Stag Hunt mosiac from Pella, where we have a 35-45 lb. 'yellow Pariah Dog type' , i.e. not unlike a Dingo, your classic domestic dog gone wild, i.e. to be larger would be inefficient.

ruthaki · Post by **ruthaki** » Tue Feb 06, 2007 2:45 am

There's a beautiful sculpture of a dog in the Acropolis museum in Athens. Life size and life-like. I go to see it every time I'm there and spend a bit of time looking at it. I'm a dog lover, so interested in this sort of thing. They actually found a tomb for a dog when they were building the new Syntagma underground station.

I agree with the descriptions of the Molossion hounds. I would imagine them to be very powerful, not slender and sleek like greyhounds.

marcus · Post by **marcus** » Sat Feb 24, 2007 3:55 pm

ruthaki wrote:I agree with the descriptions of the Molossion hounds. I would imagine them to be very powerful, not slender and sleek like greyhounds.

I popped myself up to the British Museum today, and took this photo of a 2nd century sculpture of a Molossian hound. It's the one Alejandro referred to in an earlier post. I don't know if it was lifesize - I suspect it was larger than life, because it is colossal - 3.5 to 4 feet tall, if not bigger ... a real Hound of the Baskervilles!

ATB

pothos.org

Did Alexander have a named Dog?

Did Alexander have a named Dog?

Peritas

Dogs in Alexander's time

This is a Molossian Hound