Animals

The diversity of animals in Greece matched that of the plants described above. The forests and maquis formed advantageous habitats for wild animals. Plants are the main food producers of the ecosystems, and all animals, including humans, depend on them. Animals can be classified according to their trophic habits. Herbivores consume plants directly, while carnivores prey on other animals. All animals and plants, before and after they die, may provide nutriment for decomposers such as bacteria, molds, and microscopic animals. Under natural conditions, species do not destroy the other species they eat; they maintain a fluctuating balance of numbers. Plotinos (Enneades 3.2.15) recognized that predators and prey are different kinds of life, both essential to the world. Just as humans have changed plant communities in Greece, most notably by removing the forests, so they also have changed the distribution of animals by altering their habitats, reducing their numbers, causing extinction, and deliberately or inadvertently introducing exotic species, whether domestic or wild. ‘‘Species richness and distribution have been influenced by local human history, especially persecution and hunting, since the early or mid-palaeolithic’’ (Blondel & Aronson 1999: 79).

Some wild mammals of Greece were herbivores that are relatives of domestic animals such as goats, sheep, cattle, swine, donkeys, and horses. Other large herbivores including bison and deer ranged the forests and grasslands. Smaller plant eaters were ubiquitous, including rabbits, hares, mice, voles, porcupines, and squirrels. In prehistoric times, some of the islands including Crete and the larger Aegean islands had unusual mammalian faunas that had evolved there in isolation, including dwarf elephants and hippopotami, deer whose limbs indicate that they were not fleet of hoof, and large rodents. Most of these endemic species became extinct in a relatively brief period after human arrival, although a few persisted or even survive until the present, such as the spiny mouse of Crete.

The next trophic level consists of animals that eat other animals: carnivores and insectivores. The larger predators included lions, leopards, lynxes, hyenas, jackals, foxes, and wolves. Some present-day readers may be surprised to learn that there were lions in Greece, but lion bones were unearthed in the Bronze Age site of Tiryns, and lions are often represented in Mycenaean art (Sallares 1991: 401). Living lions are mentioned by Classical writers such as Herodotos (7.125-6), who says that they came down from the mountains to attack camels in the Persian baggage train during Xerxes’ invasion, and Aristotle (Historia Animalium 579a31-b14). Both of the latter writers say that lions were found in their day from the Achelclos River to the Nessos, an area that covers most of northern Greece including Aristotle’s birthplace at Stagira and Macedonia, where he lived for several years. In the second century ce, Dion Chrysostomos (21.1) wrote that lions had disappeared in Macedonia. Omnivores such as the bear ate both animal and vegetable foods. There are smaller carnivores such as wildcats and weasels, and insectivores like hedgehogs, shrews, and bats.

There was a variety of amphibians and reptiles greater than today’s, including the many species of frogs that formed choruses in the ponds as well as in the famous comedy of Aristophanes. These, along with other amphibians such as toads, newts, fire salamanders, and others, as a rule are found near water and are insectivores. There were several kinds of tortoise, both herbivorous and insectivorous. Snakes of many species, poisonous and nonpoisonous, preyed mostly on small animals, thus helping to keep their numbers under control. Small lizards such as the insectivorous gecko and chameleon, including one poisonous species, could be found.

The Greeks were familiar with many species of birds, and observed them carefully, since they used them for divination. Some birds are herbivorous; finches, pigeons, and sparrows are seedeaters. Others are carnivorous, including eagles, owls, hawks, and other raptors. Some specialize in carrion: vultures, ravens, and magpies, for instance. Many are insectivores, and this makes them important to agriculture: swallows, thrushes, warblers, nightingales, starlings, and the crested hoopoe, to list a few. There are summer visitors (oriole, warblers), winter visitors (some owls, gulls), and year-round residents (buntings, wall creeper). One Mediterranean bird, the rock dove, adapted to human buildings and has spread around the world as the common pigeon.

Perhaps the majority of the animals in the ecosystem is made up of insects, whether one thinks of number of species, number of individuals, or total biomass. They perform many functions in ecological processes. Many of them, from bees, beetles, butterflies, and moths to the musical cicada, cricket, and locusts, eat plants. Insects that consume animal material include praying mantises, wasps, hornets, and some beetles. Literature pays attention with good reason to lice, fleas, flies, and mosquitoes, which include human blood in their diets. Various species of ants specialize in food sources; some are herbivorous, some carnivorous, and some practice mold agriculture or aphid pastoralism. Numerous insects, such as the dung beetle, assist in the process of decomposition. Among other herbivorous arthropods are the wood louse and millipede. Centipedes, spiders, and scorpions, which are poisonous to human beings to various degrees depending on the species, are predominantly insectivorous. Snails and slugs, which are land mollusks, are destructive to plants but serve as food for predators. Annelids like earthworms also perform the helpful function of soil aeration and fertilization, although the ancients did not discover this.

Another great ecosystem is found in the waters surrounding Greece: ofthe Aegean, Ionian, and Cretan Seas. The various climates, water depths, degrees of salinity, and benthic forms of these reaches of the Mediterranean Sea provide a variety of habitats for aquatic life. Here life depends on food producers such as algae and phytoplanktons, and also on nutrients washed down from the land. More than five hundred species of fish are found in the sea, along with algae, corals, shellfish, and sponges. Most sea life is found in the upper layers where light penetrates. The total quantity of marine organisms, however, is not particularly large compared to that of the oceans, either in number of species or in the total weight of living organisms per unit of volume of seawater. Still, it should not be supposed that Greek fisher-folk found their work unprofitable. Fishing was an important economic activity, and there were many species of economic importance, from sharks and rays to eels, sardines, and anchovies. Flounder and sole were caught on the sea bottom. The murex or rock whelk, source of the purple dye (phoenix) manufactured in Tyre in Phoenicia, was also found in Greek waters. Large quantities of sponges, brought up by divers, were exported from Greece.

Mammals of the Mediterranean waters included whales, seals, and dolphins, all of which were predators of other animal life of various sizes. Birds are well adapted to depend on the sea, whether frequenting the shore (snipe, sandpiper) or the surface (gulls, terns), or diving under the surface (cormorants). There are numerous other seabirds including grebes, pelicans, and puffins. There were several species of sea turtles.

Salt-water invertebrates are numerous and interesting, and some were considered delicacies. There are crustaceans (barnacles, shrimp, prawns, lobsters, crabs); mollusks, including univalves (limpets, tritons), bivalves (oysters, mussels, clams), and cephalopods (squid, octopus, nautilus); echinoderms (starfish, urchins, sea-cucumbers); and coelenterates (jellyfish, sea anemones, sponges, coral). Rivers and lakes provided habitats for freshwater ecosystems. The eels of Lake Kopais were famous. Other fish in lakes and streams included carp, perch, and catfish. Anadromous fish such as the salmon-trout and sturgeon spent most of their lives in salt water, but ascended rivers to spawn.