Limit search to available items
Book Cover
E-book
Author Engels, Donald W., author.

Title Classical cats : the rise and fall of the sacred cat / Donald Engels
Published London ; New York : Routledge, 1999

Copies

Description 1 online resource (xii, 227 pages) : illustrations
Contents Introduction. The cat in history -- Egypt -- Greece -- Rome -- The early Middle ages : AD 500-1000 -- Epilogue. Persecution and redemption
Summary "This is the definitive book on classical cats. The cat has played a significant role in history from the earliest times. Well known is its role in the religion and art of ancient Egypt, no less than its association with witchcraft in the Middle Ages. But when did the cat become a domestic companion and worker as well? There has been much debate about the position of the cat in ancient Greece and Rome. Artistic representations are sometimes ambiguous, and its role as a mouse-catcher seems often to have been carried out by weasels. Yet other evidence clearly suggests that the cat was as important to Greeks and Romans as it is to many modern people. This book is the first comprehensive survey of the evidence for cats in Greece and Rome, and of their functions and representations in art. Donald Engels draws on authors from Aesop to Aristotle; on vase-painting, inscriptions and the plastic arts; and on a thorough knowledge of zoology of the cat. He also sets the ancient evidence in the wider context of the Egyptian period that preceded it, as well as the views of the Church fathers who ushered antiquity into the Middle Ages."--Abstract supplied by publisher
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (Taylor & Francis, viewed February 6, 2024)
Subject Cats -- History
Cats -- Religious aspects -- History
Cats -- Greece -- History
Cats -- Rome -- History
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Folklore & Mythology.
Cats
Cats -- Religious aspects
Geschichte
Katze
Kultur
Magie
Mythologie
Katten.
Godsdienst.
Greece
Rome (Empire)
Genre/Form Electronic books
History
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9781134692866
1134692862
9780203754887
0203754883