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Jeremy Mclnerney, Cattle of the Sun: Cows and Culture in the World of the Ancient Greeks, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2010; pp. 340. ISBN 978-0-691-14007-0; $73
Jeremy Mclnerney's intriguing book has appeared at a time when interest in the impact of animals on ancient societies is booming, as evidenced, for example, by Linda Kalof s recent 6-volume series, A Cultural History of Animals, Stephen Newmyer's Animals in Greek and Roman Thought, and Kenneth Rothwell's study of animal choruses in Nature, Culture, and the Origins of Greek Comedy. Mclnerney's work, however, focuses not on our relationship with the animal world in general, but specifically on the role of cattle in the cultural development of the ancient Greeks.
Through a detailed examination of history, literature, mythology, economics, and law, cattle herding emerges as a recurring theme in Greek culture, both functionally and symbolically. Indeed, despite the inevitable move to agriculture, the practice of herding seems to have left an indelible mark on the Greek psyche, a lingering presence (what Mclnerney calls a "bovine register") that can be found in many fundamental ideas and institutions - cattle as a source of wealth and status, the staple of feasts, a manifestation of the divine, the focus of heroic action and sacrifice, an incentive for preserving sanctified land, and a catalyst for legal and economic reforms. As Mclnerney himself sums up his approach, he is "not arguing for a reductive view . . . according to which every significant cultural gesture, value, or idea arises from the fact that once upon a time the Greeks bred cattle", but rather, "that by recognizing pastoralism as a powerful, affective experience that continues to shape a culture long after it has been superseded as the dominant economic practice one may understand more fully the distinctive practices of Greek culture" (p. 243). Their relationship with cattle thus provides a framework within which to explore the mechanisms that not only shaped ancient Greek society, but helped it to define what it meant to be Greek.
Mclnerney lays out his thesis in Ch. 1, 'Cattle habits', quickly establishing the complex and pervasive role that cattle...