Laconian (dog)

For other uses, see Laconia.

The Laconian (Ancient Greek: Λάκαινα, romanized: Lákaina)^[2], also known as the Spartan, is an extinct dog breed from Ancient Greece, famous for their sense of smell, typically used for hunting.

Laconian
Statue of a hunting dog with Laconian characteristics found on the Acropolis c. 520 BC[1]
Other names	Lacedaemonian Lakonian Spartan see more
Origin	Laconia, Ancient Greece
Breed status	Extinct
Traits Colour tan with white markings or black with tan markings Litter size 8
Dog (domestic dog)

The breed originated in Laconia, a region of Ancient Greece, famous for its city state, Sparta.

Reputation

Laconian hounds were renowned and highly valued for their hunting skills.^[3][4][5][6] They were depicted in classical sculptures,^[7] mosaics, gravestones, coins,^[8] vases,^[9] and drinking cups.^{[10][11][12][13]}

Contemporary fragments include writers such as classical writers Pindar,^[4] Sophocles,^[14] Xenophon,^[15] Plato,^[16] Aristotle,^[17] Theophrastus,^[3] as well as later Roman writers such as such as Horace,^[18] Petronius,^[19] Pliny The Elder,^[20] Oppian,^[21] and Pollux.^[22] Late antiquity writer Claudian^[23] and Elizabethan playwright Shakespeare^[24] also make allusion to the breed.

Characteristics

Two principal surviving sources describe the breed: Xenophon (c.350 BC) and Aristotle (c.350 BC).^[25][26]

Both sexes gained sexual maturity at eight months old and remained sexual active throughout their lives. Gestation lasted sixty to sixty-three days. Typical litter was of eight pups.^[17][20][27] Puppies typically opened their eyes after twelve days.^[17] The female would restart sexual activity six months after she had littered. The male lived ten years and the female twelve.^[17][20]

Described as "tawny",^[18] typically either tan with white markings on the face, throat, chest, legs, and stern or black with similarly placed tan markings.^[28] Their eyes were dark.^[28]

Based on artistic depictions of the breed, the Laconian was estimated to be about eighteen inches high at the shoulder and weighed between thirty and forty pounds, or roughly the size of a "very large beagle or small harrier."^[28]

• 
  Attic red-figure lekythos of a hunter and a Laconian. Early Classical, c.475–450 BC. ^[29]
• 
  Attic red figure kantharos in the shape of the head of a dog. made in Athens, by Brygos, c.500–475 BC ^[30]
• 
  Attic red-figure kylix of a Laconian scratching itself by Euergides, Late Archaic, c. 500 BC.^[31]
• 
  Detail on a votive relief depicting a 'Lakonian' hound accompanying the seated Artemis, c.400 BC ^[32]

Hunting traits

A deer hunt mosaic from Pella, late 4th century BC. Often attributed to being a depiction of Alexander the Great and Hephaestion.

Oppian lists the breed as one of the best hunting dogs and gives the characteristics for dogs best suited for "the swift chase of the gazelle and deer and swift-footed hare".^[21] Xenophon also covers in detail the appearance and temperament of the best hunting dogs and the specific methods of hunting that use Laconians.^[15]

Both authors agree that for the best hunting dogs: the head should be light with dark eyes with a long neck; Ears should be small and thin with little hair^[33]; The chest and shoulder blades should be broad with sloping ribs; The forelegs should be shorter than the hind legs and the tail should be long, straight and prominent. Both recommend selecting larger dogs above their smaller counterparts.^[15][21][28]

Names and confusion

There are multiple terms used to describe the Laconian.^[34]

The term Laconian refers to the region of Laconia in ancient Greece and, when applied to dogs, may denote either a general geographic origin, or, more likely, a specific breed or an "entire family of hounds 'of Laconian pedigree'".^[35] When referring to the breed, the most frequent names seem to be variations on "Laconian" (Spartan, Lacedaemonian), which were used synonymously.^[35] Other epithets are more "open to debate".^[35]

Geographic

Spartan village-based names like Amyclaeus^[36][37][38] (from Amyclae) or Cynosuran^[39][38] (from Cynosura) may have been used to refer to the same breed but bred in that village, or to identify different local variants, though the limited nature of the sources leaves some ambiguity.^[35]

Vulpine and Castorian

Hierarchical confusion regarding Xenophon's classification

In his treatise, Xenophon clears distinguishes the larger Castorian^[a] (Greek: καστορίδες, romanized: kastorides) and the smaller fox-like Vulpine (Greek: ἀλωπεκίδες, romanized: alopekides) stating that "there are two breeds of sporting dogs: the Castorian and the fox-like".^[15]

Hull and most scholars classifies both as sub-types of the overall Laconian breed.^[40] Margariti rebuts this view, stating Xenophon does not specify that he is speaking of sub-types on Laconian, but rather dogs in general. Margariti states that the belief may have come about due to Xenophon's reference to "the Spartan Castor in connection with the Castorians".^[41]

Vulpine

Aristotle describes the Laconian as the result of a cross between a dog and a fox.^[b][17][40] Pollux supports this, stating that Laconians, since they were originally bred from foxes and dogs, were also alopekides.^[22][42] Most scholars agree that Vulpine is a valid way of the describing the Laconian, either as a variety of the Laconian breed^[35][40] or as an predecessor to the breed.^[41]

Later merging of Vulpine and Castorian

Pollux, echoing Nicander of Colophon, in his 2nd Century AD thesaurus Onomasticon, merges the Castorian and the Vulpine. He states that kastorides are alopekides, since he claims that it was Castor himself who crossed dogs with foxes and thus create a new breed.^[22][42]

Hull^[40] and other scholars^[35] noted this contradiction and theorized that both Xenophon and Pollux's observations may be true if either,

1. kastorides and alopekides interbred and, over time, became indistinguishable,^[43] or
2. one of the sub-types became extinct.^[44][45]

Castorian alternatives

Pollux also lists two alternative names for the Castorian: the Menelaid (after Menelaos)^{[22][35][41][38]} and the Harmodian (after Harmodius)^[c][22][41]. Margariti puts forward that since the "only well-known Greek" names Harmodius was one of the Athenian Tyrannicides, the Castorian were "not thought of as having exclusively originated in Sparta".^[41]

Speculated Laconians

Speculated descendants

A modern day Hellenic Hound, speculated to be a descendent of the Laconian dog.

It is speculated that the Hellenic Hound may be the modern-day descendant to the Laconian.^[46] Both breeds have similar lifespans, litter sizes, and colouring.^[47][17][48]

Hull speculated that as the Laconian, after loosing favor to the greyhound, may have been cross bred with the Segusiae by Bishop of Liege, St. Hubert, to make the hounds of his kennel from which "came the four royal races: the white hounds of the king, the hounds of St. Hubert, the gray hounds of St. Louis, and the fawn hounds of Brittany." From these four lines "came all of the modern tracking hounds—the bloodhound, the basset hound, the beagle, the harrier, and the foxhound."^[49]

Speculated individuals

It has been speculated that Alexander the Great's favourite dog, Peritas, may have been a Laconian.^[50]

It has also been theorized that Odysseus's dog's Argos may have been a Laconian.^[51]

In A Midsummer Night's Dream, Theseus brags: "My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind [...]",^[24] which is interpreted to be an intended reference to the Laconian breed. However the description more closely matches the basset hound, a breed contemporary to Shakespeare.^[52][53]

Notes

1. The Castorian's name was derived from the myth that they were bred from hounds that Castor was said to have received from Apollo. See Xenophon, Cynegeticus.
2. Margariti notes that Aristotle does not reference the Castorian or the Vulpines but rather describes the Laconian as the offspring of dogs and foxes.
3. According to Margariti, the "only well-known Greek" was one of the Athenian Tyrannicides.

See also

• List of dog breeds
• List of extinct dog breeds