Repository logo
 

City of Dog

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

No Thumbnail Available

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Ottewill-Soulsby, S  ORCID logo  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8214-7254

Abstract

jats:p To be fully human in the Greco-Roman world was to be a member of a city. This is unsurprising as cities were the building blocks of Greek and Roman culture and society. The urban landscape of post-Roman Western Europe looked dramatically different, with smaller, less economically diverse cities which played a smaller role in administration. Despite this, Greco-Roman ideas of humans as city-beings remained influential. This article explores this by investigating early medieval descriptions of cynocephali, which sought to determine whether the dog-headed men were human or not. Accounts of the cynocephali that presented them as human showed them living in urban settlements, whereas in reports of non-human cynocephali there are no cities. In exploring interactions between cynocephali and urban settings through ethnographic portrayals and hagiography, this article traces the lingering importance of the city for concepts of humanity. </jats:p>

Description

Keywords

St, Christopher, cynocephali, polis, monster, Ratramnus

Journal Title

Journal of Urban History

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0096-1442
1552-6771

Volume Title

47

Publisher

SAGE Publications

Rights

All rights reserved
Sponsorship
European Research Council (693418)
ERC - grant no. 693418