Greyhounds In Greece

Since a lot of the sculptures we saw at Allerton Park over the weekend had some Grecian influence to it, I thought it would be fun to tell a little bit about Greyhounds and their ties to ancient Greece.

Greyhounds originated in Egypt, and were highly revered there.  Greyhounds could never be sold there, but could be given as gifts to dignitaries.  One of the earliest instances of this happening was in 1475 BC.  Queen Hatshepsut had sent an expedition to the land now known as Somalia, but at that time it was known as Punt.  She was very keen to acquire some myrrh and wanted live myrhh trees as well.  So, according to James Henry Breasted, an Egyptologist she traded four of her finest Greyhounds for "31 living myrhh trees, electrum, eye cosmetics, ebony, ivory shells, a live southern panther, many panther skins, 3,300 small cattle, huge piles of myrhh twice a man's height and large rings of commercial gold weighed in tall balances ten feet high."  I guess Greyhounds were pretty darned valuable back then.  Eventually, Greyhounds began to appear along all the major trade routes.  As in Egypt, all dogs held a place of honor in Greek society. 

Pythagoras, a mathematician and philosopher who died in approximately 497 BC had a school of followers.  Aside from that theory that now dogs everyone who comes into Algebra class, he and his followers believed, amongst other things, that if you held a dog to the mouth of a dying person, the person's soul would enter the dog's body.  This was considered desirable because only a dog was considered worthy of recieving a the virtues of a person.  In what might be the first anti-cruelty act recorded, Pythagoras stopped a man from beating a dog because he claimed to hear the voice of a friend in the dog's cries.

It is believed that Hippocrates liked dogs.  He often depicted them in his art.  Interestingly, he never wrote about them, but he is often portrayed with a dog and snake lying near his feet.

Homer, the Greek poet, is the first author to ever mention a hound in literature.  When Odysseus returns after being gone for twenty years, his dog, Argos is the only one to recognize him.  Thousands of years later, the passage of Odysseus' homecoming still captures the canine spirit.

Greyhounds even managed to make thier way into Greek mythology.  Hecate, goddess of wealth and the underworld, favored dogs and is often depicted with a Greyhound by her side.  Pollux, protector of the hunt, had a Greyhound named Leda.  They also figure into the story of Actaeon and Artemis.  The story goes that Actaeon was out hunting with his forty eight Greyhounds when he came upon Artemis bathing.  Instead of averting his gaze, he stared at her.  When she found him watching her, she turned him into a stag and his hounds attacked and killed him.  The names of all forty eight dogs are still preserved in history.

Hopefully this has been a little fun to learn about.  The stories of Greyhounds in history have fascinated me since I began sharing my life with them.  I thought it would be fun to share some of them since we had some fun pictures from our trip to go with them.

A Walk In Allerton Park

Bunny here, hoping to bring you a little cheer on Monday morning with my post from the keyboard.

This weekend, we decided to choose an easier place to get out and stretch our legs than we took last weekend.  So, we decided to go and visit Allerton Park in Monticello, Illinois.  It is not a state park, but it is listed as one of the Seven Wonders of Illinois, and for good reason.  Because this wasn't so much a hike as a walk through the park, Blueberry came along and only the people wore backpacks.

For people curious about the park, it was property once owned by an art collector named Robert Henry Allerton.  His mansion is there along with some of the artwork he collected.  He must have had a lot of money, because he sure owned a lot of land and there were a lot of sculptures there.  He spent decades shaping farmland into the into beautiful landscapes that featured some of the artwork he acquired.  After forty years, while visiting in Hawaii, he decided to start all over and do the same thing there.  So, he donated his Illinois property to the University of Illinois to create “an educational and research center, as a forest and wild-life and plant-life reserve, as an example of landscape architecture, and as a public park.”  I can tell you all, I am sure glad that he gave this most wonderful gift because we all loved seeing it.

While we were there, not one, but two weddings were being prepared for, so we didn't stop and pose for all the pictures we'd have liked to in a few areas.  We are sure hoping the people got married before it started raining later in the afternoon.  Mom said if she had to plan a wedding again (which she about breaks out in hives just thinking about) that she'd want to have one there.

There were lots of different kinds of gardens.  Some were really formal and some were kind of wild.  They all had been worked on a lot.  My favorite was the Fu Dog Garden!  It was built to showcase Mr. Allerton's collection of thirty two blue Chinese dog statues.  One of the weddings was held in that garden, so I know those people are going to have a perfect life ahead of them after getting married in such a wonderful garden.  Every one of those dogs was different, too.  We weren't the only dogs admiring the garden, either.  There were some dogs who I think might even have been attending the weddings.

There were some wedding guests there who did a lot of admiring of us and petting us, too.  That always makes the trip more fun.   One woman was especially keen on getting a Greyhound of her own and she kept fawning over us.  I wanted her to know what we make the best pets ever so she'd give another one a home, so I let her pet me for a long time.  She even offered to take a picture of us all together in front of the mansion.

Dad says we're definitely going back and I can't wait.  Hopefully this makes Monday a little brighter for everybody.  I know it sure made me happy to be there!