Cave hominem

Abstract

Abstract This article explores two episodes from Pseudo-Oppian’s Cynegetica which both feature domestic animals: the horse in 1.239-270 and the dog in 4.354-376. Both of these episodes are highly intertextual, alluding to, respectively, Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus and the abduction narratives from Moschus’ Europa and the Homeric Hymn to Demeter. I argue that the poet of the Cynegetica invites his readers to reflect on the potentially problematic nature of the power dynamic for these animals through sophisticated allusions to the poetic tradition, through which the relationship between man and animal is compared to that between the gods and humans.