Source: Joyce E. Salisbury, Beast Within. Animals in the Middle Ages, Taylor and Francis, 2012

On the orders of Zeus, Prometheus made men and beasts. But Zeus remarked that there were many animals than men and instructed him to transform some of the beasts into men. Prometheus carried out this order. It resulted in those who hadn’t been given human form in the beginning taking the shape of men but […]

This Jewish Midrash suggests that it was Adam who introduced sex, first among all living beings. Clement of Alexandria also stated in Stromata (vol. III) that it is not possible that he could have learned this practice by conforming to creatures – rather, the opposite occurred.

From the Bigotian Penitential, author unknown, 7th-8th century: He who vomits the host because of greediness, [shall do penance] forty days, but ifwith the excuse of unusual and too rich food, and from the fault not of over-saturation but of the stomach, thirty (days). If by reason of infirmity, he shall dopenance for twenty (days). […]

S. Gregorii Magni Vita, Auctore Paulo Diacono, in Patrologia Latina, ed. by J.-P. Migne (vol. 75), ca. 757. Denique a fideli et religioso viro, ac huic nostro Patri sanctissimo pro suæ religionis et utilitatis merito valde familiarissimo, fideliter post obitum ejus nobis narratum didicimus, quod cum idem vas electionis et habitaculum sancti Spiritus visionem ultimam […]

In his 1949 book, So Kam de Mensch auf den Hund, ethologist Konrad Lorenz tells the story of the co-domestication of humans and dogs. The German title could be translated as “How man ended up with dog.” The German title is also a play on the phrase “Auf den Hund kommen,” which is a common […]

In chapter 2 of the book of Genesis, God is sorry for Adam’s loneliness and works to provide him with a companion (2:18). In the next scene (2:19), we see God bringing the animals to Adam ‘To see what he would name them’, ‘But for Adam no suitable helper was found’. Only then does God […]