The Molossus (), also known as the Molossian hound and Epirus mastiff, is an extinct
dog breed
A dog breed is a particular type of dog that was purposefully bred by humans to perform specific tasks, such as herding, hunting, and guarding. Dogs are the most variable mammal on Earth, with artificial selection producing upward of 360 globall ...
from
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece () was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity (), that comprised a loose collection of culturally and linguistically r ...
.
History
The Molossus were dogs that were kept by the ancient
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
tribe and kingdom of the
Molossians
The Molossians () were a group of ancient Greek tribes which inhabited the region of Epirus in classical antiquity. Together with the Chaonians and the Thesprotians, they formed the main tribal groupings of the northwestern Greek group. On t ...
, who inhabited
the region of Epirus.
The Molossus were famous throughout the ancient world for their size and ferocity and were frequently mentioned in ancient literature, including the writings of
Aristophanes
Aristophanes (; ; ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek Ancient Greek comedy, comic playwright from Classical Athens, Athens. He wrote in total forty plays, of which eleven survive virtually complete today. The majority of his surviving play ...
,
Aristotle
Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...
,
Grattius
Grattius (or Gratius) Faliscus was a Latin poetry, Roman poet who flourished during the life of Augustus (63 BC – 14 AD). He is known as the author of a ''Cynegetica'', a poem on hunting.
Life
The only reference to Grattius in any extant ancie ...
,
Horace
Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 BC – 27 November 8 BC), Suetonius, Life of Horace commonly known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). Th ...
,
Lucan,
Lucretius
Titus Lucretius Carus ( ; ; – October 15, 55 BC) was a Roman poet and philosopher. His only known work is the philosophical poem '' De rerum natura'', a didactic work about the tenets and philosophy of Epicureanism, which usually is t ...
,
Martial
Marcus Valerius Martialis (known in English as Martial ; March, between 38 and 41 AD – between 102 and 104 AD) was a Roman and Celtiberian poet born in Bilbilis, Hispania (modern Spain) best known for his twelve books of '' Epigrams'', pu ...
,
Nemesianus
Marcus Aurelius Nemesianus was a Roman poet thought to have been a native of Carthage and flourished about AD 283. He was a popular poet at the court of the Roman emperor Carus (Historia Augusta, ''Carus'', 11).
Bogus name "Olympius"
A bogu ...
,
Oppian of Apamea Pseudo-Oppian (, ''Oppianós''; ), sometimes referred to as Oppian of Apamea or Oppian of Syria, was a Greeks, Greco-Syrians, Syrian Greek literature, poet during the reign of the list of Roman emperors, emperor Caracalla. His work, a Greek didacti ...
,
Plautus
Titus Maccius Plautus ( ; 254 – 184 BC) was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest Latin literary works to have survived in their entirety. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the genre devised by Livius Andro ...
,
Seneca,
Statius
Publius Papinius Statius (Greek language, Greek: Πόπλιος Παπίνιος Στάτιος; , ; ) was a Latin poetry, Latin poet of the 1st century CE. His surviving poetry includes an epic in twelve books, the ''Thebaid (Latin poem), Theb ...
,
Ovid
Publius Ovidius Naso (; 20 March 43 BC – AD 17/18), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a younger contemporary of Virgil and Horace, with whom he i ...
, and
Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro (; 15 October 70 BC21 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Rome, ancient Roman poet of the Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Augustan period. He composed three of the most fa ...
. The Molossians issued silver coinage with an image of a Molossus as their emblem.
It is sometimes stated in books and magazines, particularly in Continental Europe and North America, that all
mastiff
A mastiff is a large and powerful Dog type, type of dog. Mastiffs are among the largest dogs, and typically have a short Coat (dog), coat, a long low-set tail and large feet; the skull is large and bulky, the muzzle broad and short (brachycephal ...
-type dogs are descended from the Molossus. This theory states that the breed's progenitors arrived in Molossia from Asia and were eventually discovered by the Romans who employed large numbers as guards for the Roman Army; this theory speculates that the various mastiff breeds found throughout Europe descend from dogs left behind by the Romans. This theory has been questioned by many experts who state it relies on guesswork and lacks historical evidence, and that mastiffs likely developed elsewhere.
Another story is that in the course of his military conquests
Alexander the Great
Alexander III of Macedon (; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), most commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip ...
discovered some giant dogs in Asia that impressed him so much that he sent some home; as the son of a
Molossi princess these dogs became associated with his mother's people and that it was from these dogs that all mastiffs descend.
It seems most likely that Molossi kept two distinct types of dogs, one a hunting dog with a broad muzzle which resembled something in between a
Great Dane
The Great Dane is a German list of dog breeds, breed of large mastiff-sighthound, which descends from hunting dogs of the Middle Ages used to hunt bears, wild boar, and deer. They were also used as guardian dogs of German nobility. It is one o ...
and a heavily built
Saluki, the other a large
livestock guardian dog. Aristotle in his ''
History of Animals
''History of Animals'' (, ''Ton peri ta zoia historion'', "Inquiries on Animals"; , "History of Animals") is one of the major texts on biology by the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle. It was written in sometime between the mid-fourth centur ...
'' wrote "In the Molossian race of dogs, those employed in hunting differ in no respect from other dogs; while those employed in following sheep are larger and more fierce in their attack on wild beasts." He also added that dogs that are born of a mixed breed between the Molossian and the
Laconian
Laconia or Lakonia may refer to:
Places
* Laconia, a region of Greece
* Laconia (constituency), an electoral district of Greece
**Doric_Greek#Laconian, Laconian Greek, a dialect of Doric Greek United States
* Laconia, Indiana
* Laconia, New Hamp ...
dogs are remarkable for courage and endurance of hard labour.
Polycrates
Polycrates (; ), son of Aeaces (father of Polycrates), Aeaces, was the tyrant of Samos from the 540s BC to 522 BC. He had a reputation as both a fierce warrior and an enlightened tyrant.
Sources
The main source for Polycrates' life and activi ...
of
Samos
Samos (, also ; , ) is a Greek island in the eastern Aegean Sea, south of Chios, north of Patmos and the Dodecanese archipelago, and off the coast of western Turkey, from which it is separated by the Mycale Strait. It is also a separate reg ...
imported Molossian and Laconian dogs to the island.
According to
Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories conc ...
the goddess
Artemis
In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, Artemis (; ) is the goddess of the hunting, hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, transitions, nature, vegetation, childbirth, Kourotrophos, care of children, and chastity. In later tim ...
gave to
Procris
In Greek mythology, Procris (, ''gen''.: Πρόκριδος) was an Athenian princess, the third daughter of Erechtheus, king of Athens and his wife, Praxithea. Homer mentions her in the ''Odyssey'' as one of the many dead spirits Odysseus sa ...
a dog,
Laelaps, that never failed to catch its prey and from this dog derived the Molossian and Laconian hounds.
Modern kennel club classification
A number of modern
kennel clubs, including the
Fédération Cynologique Internationale
The (; FCI; ) is the largest international federation of national kennel clubs and purebred registries. The FCI is based in Thuin, Belgium and has 98 members and contract partners (one from each country).
History
The FCI was founded in 1911 un ...
, group the distinct mastiffs with livestock guardian dogs as a single type they call "molossoid". It has been theorised that this confusion is due to mistranslations of ancient texts and assumptions based solely on size.
See also
*
List of dog breeds
This list of dog breeds includes both Neontology#Extant taxa versus extinct taxa, extant and extinct dog breeds, Designer breed, varieties and dog type, types. A research article on dog genomics published in Science/AAAS defines modern dog breeds ...
*
List of extinct dog breeds
The following is a list of extinct
Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capa ...
*
Molossus of Epirus
References
{{Greek dogs
Extinct dog breeds
Dog breeds originating in Greece