26/08/2026
Happy International Dog Day!
Dogs were just as beloved by the ancients as they are today.
Xenophon discussed the first and most important step to owning a dog is naming it. He suggests names have to be short, simple and easy to recall. He lists over 40 suitable names including: Dash, Tracker and Riot as favourable options. Ovid adds to this by including what seems to be a universally enduring canine name, Spot!
Ancient writers like Xenophon, Columella, and Pliny the Elder described dogs based on their role, such as a guard dog, lap dog or hunting dog etc, rather than by specific breeds. However, some breeds were named, such as the fierce Molossian war hounds or the pampered yappy Melitan lap dogs, a distant ancestor of the modern Maltese.
Th enduring and powerful relationship between dogs and people is summarised best in the relationship between Odysseus and his dog, Argos, who waited 20 faithful years for his master to return from Troy before dying in Odysseus' arms.
Dogs were also see as divine guardians. In the story of Artemis and Actaeon, after Actaeon was out hunting with his dogs and accidentally saw Artemis bathing. She turned him into a stag, and his own dogs tore him apart. This symbolised how although dogs were their owners' protectors, they were also guardians of all that which was sacred.
