Aelian's On the Nature of Animals ebook

by Gregory McNamee

Gregory McNamee Ancient Civilizations English

Every paragraph is refreshing and fun to read, especially about the animals.

that we know of Aelian’s work today. If the science is sometimes sketchy, the facts

Aelian's anecdotes on animals rarely depend on direct observation: they are almost entirely taken from written sources, often Pliny the Elder, but also . Aelian, On the Nature of Animals. Translated by Gregory McNamee. Trinity University Press.

Aelian's anecdotes on animals rarely depend on direct observation: they are almost entirely taken from written sources, often Pliny the Elder, but also other authors and works now lost, to whom he is thus a valuable witness. He is more attentive to marine life than might be expected, though, and this seems to reflect first-hand personal interest; he often quotes "fishermen".

Read unlimited books and audiobooks on the web, iPad, iPhone and Android. Aelian is as brisk, as entertaining, and as scholarly a writer as Pliny, the much better known Roman natural historian. His De Natura Animalium (On the Nature of Animals) has a similar patchwork quality, but it was esteemed enough in his time to survive more or less whole, and it is about all that we know of Aelian’s work today.

Aelian’s On The Nature of Animals. Publisher: Trinity University Press. Possibly the first book to explore the history of human relationships with water on a global scale, Fagan describes three ages of water: The first, during which water was so scarce and precious that it was regarded as sacred in almost every culture; the second, when water began to be seen and used as a commodity; and the third age of water, the.

in nature and that extends human qualities, for good and bad, to animals.

If the science is sometimes sketchy, the facts often fanciful, and the history sometimes suspect, it is clear enough that Aelian had a fine time assembling the material, which can be said, in the most general terms, to support the notion of a kind of intelligence in nature and that extends human qualities, for good and bad, to animals.

Altogether, Aelian’s magnum opus constitutes an early encyclopedia of. .Excerpted from Gregory McNamee, Aelian’s On the Nature of Animals (Trinity University Press, 2011).

Altogether, Aelian’s magnum opus constitutes an early encyclopedia of animal behavior. If, like Dürer’s rhinoceros, the science is sometimes sketchy, the facts often fanciful, and the history sometimes suspect, it is clear enough that Aelian had a grand time assembling the material, which can be said, in the most general terms, to support the notion of a kind of intelligence in nature and that extends human qualities, for good and bad, to animals.

I regret, however, that for a few months a printed source induced me to believe, and state here, that it was. not translated from the Greek, but "from the Latin": Mr. McNamee kindly writes me that on the contrary he worked from the Greek text.

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Not much can be said with certainty about the life of Claudius Aelianus, known to us as Aelian. He was born sometime between A.D. 165 and 170 in the hill town of Praeneste, what is now Palestrina, about twenty-five miles from Rome, Italy. He grew up speaking that town’s version of Latin, a dialect that other speakers of the language seem to have found curious, butsomewhat unusually for his generation, though not for Romans of earlier timeshe preferred to communicate in Greek. Trained by a sophist named Pausanias of Caesarea, Aelian was known in his time for a work called Indictment of the Effeminate, an attack on the recently deceased emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, who was nasty even by the standards of Imperial Rome. He was also fond of making almanac-like collections, only fragments of which survive, devoted to odd topics such as manifestations of the divine and the workings of the supernatural.His De Natura Animalium (On the Nature of Animals) has a similar patchwork quality, but it was esteemed enough in his time to survive more or less whole, and it is about all that we know of Aelian’s work today. A mostly randomly ordered collection of stories that he found interesting enough to relate about animalswhether or not he believed themAelian’s book constitutes an early encyclopedia of animal behavior, affording unparalleled insight into what ancient Romans knew about and thought about animalsand, of particular interest to modern scholars, about animal minds.If the science is sometimes sketchy, the facts often fanciful, and the history sometimes suspect, it is clear enough that Aelian had a fine time assembling the material, which can be said, in the most general terms, to support the notion of a kind of intelligence in nature and that extends human qualities, for good and bad, to animals. His stories, which extend across the known world of Aelian’s time, tend to be brief and to the point, and many return to a trenchant question: If animals can respect their elders and live honorably within their own tribes, why must humans be so appallingly awful?Aelian is as brisk, as entertaining, and as scholarly a writer as Pliny, the much better known Roman natural historian. That he is not better known is simply an accident: he has not been widely translated into English, or indeed any European language. This selection from his work will introduce readers to a lively mind and a witty writer who has much to tell us.

Gozragore

Great book that gives the flavor of an ancient book. While I believe that much that is written in this book was written with a tongue-in-cheek attitude, it still provides some interesting insight into the ancient world and the customs and folk tales of those days. Oddly there are many similarities to modern folk tales and the bits of wisdom often heard today from common people. Well worth the price and the time to read. I wish there were more like it in the marketplace. Very suitable for children or adults and can be used as an eye-opening view of just how similar we are to the ancient folks.

Watikalate

Shows like nothing else the breadth of the classical mind, it's pure divertissement. Every paragraph is refreshing and fun to read, especially about the animals.

Steelraven

Quick read! Lots of great super short (couple sentences long) ancient stories told as knowledge. Fun and engaging!

Lo◘Ve

A great book for light reading, but far from useful for any scholarly research. The passages seem to be paraphrased and condensed from the original and the book lacks any annotations.