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Homer's Odyssey, literally the thing that defined epics and the oldest surviving literature, has a scene, where Odysseus finally manages to return to his home and see his dog.
I wont spoil it, because a movie is coming out. But then again, you had 3000 years to read it, if you still havent read it, do you even care?
The Odyssey is not the oldest surviving literature by far. We have much older Mesopotamian and Egyptian literature for example.
But it is indeed old.
I’ll spoil the end. Remember the bride VS the crazy 88 in kill Bill? Replace Uma with Odysseus and the crazy 88 with a bunch of dudes who wanna bang his wife
Gods, they always make me tear up.
"I am in tears, while carrying you to your last resting place as much as I rejoiced when bringing you home in my own hands fifteen years ago."
"Thou who passest on this path, If haply thou dost mark this monument, Laugh not, I pray thee, though it is a dog's grave. Tears fell for me, and the dust was heaped above me By a master's hand."
"To Helena, foster child, soul without comparison and deserving of praise."
Humans have always been the same. We disconnect ancient humans from their emotions, that we forget they were just like us. They loved their pups and they laughed at dick jokes
Holy crap, I can barely see the screen right now to tell you how that made me cry like a baby... as I'm being protected, while pooping by my best boy.
I'm sure there are such pets with names and unknown mystery owners where the pet has achieved the only true form of immortality thus far. There are hundreds of lives in that image, from mining the clay, to the Potter's wheel, and into the fire for countless vessels. Then to get broken and discarded onto one of the mountains of refuse. Only to then be collected and fractured to be sold at a forum, and finally into the hands of a guild artisan placing each one. Slaves then filling the grout and smoothing any sharp edges. The family living out their lives, and for hundreds of years more others living in the house until some great flood or disaster buries the house beyond what could be economically recovered... All presided over by this immortal dog, witness to the fleeting lives of all that passed it by. They, never thinking to take a moment and add their names to the list of the immortal.
To be fair the mosaic in the OP is not connected to the epitaphs quoted. The mosaic functions basically like a sign on the gate announcing the place is guarded by watchdogs does today. Chaindogs mostly did not lead very enviable lives, and were probably not considered such a member of the family as the epitaphs convey.
It is an unfortunate fact that even though we have these rare pieces of evidence of human empathy and bonding with animals, the lot of the majority of animals falling into the hands of humans throughout history has not be very good.