Birds in Roman Life and Myth by Ashleigh Green;

Author:Ashleigh Green;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: SOCIAL SCIENCE/Archaeology
ISBN: 9781000842074
Publisher: Taylor & Francis (Unlimited)
Published: 2023-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

Varro gives the same advice (Rust. 3.10.2). These white geese are the domestic breed we are familiar with today, descended from the wild European greylag (Anser anser), while the parti-coloured geese mentioned by the writers are most likely the greylag itself. These must have been caught wild on a fairly regular basis, but obviously were not as pliable as their domesticated cousins.

Figure 3.6 Byzantine depiction of a child herding a grey goose and a white goose. Tending geese was often entrusted to children. C. sixth century CE. Great Palace Mosaic Museum, Istanbul.

Source: Photo by iStock.com/burcintuncer.

A description of the goose pen runs thus. Columella advises keeping geese in a courtyard with walls nine feet high. The wall should be surrounded by porticoes, and the goose-keeper's hut was situated amongst them. Under the porticoes were pens three feet square in which the birds were enclosed when laying or sitting. If there was no pool or river nearby, an artificial pond should be constructed; for geese cannot live without water just as they cannot live without earth. They should be allowed to forage in marshy ground in which greens like endive and vetch are sown, and this should be supplemented with barley (Columella, Rust. 14.1–2). No netting was required for their enclosure, since few raptors will attack a goose; indeed, the goose is useful for discouraging birds of prey. Such an arrangement was feasible only for large landowners, but on smaller farms it was good practice to keep at least a few geese mixed in with the chickens, provided the land was suitable. In such situations, they were largely self-sufficient, and excellent watchdogs (Columella, Rust. 13.1–3). We are told that cranes and swans were fattened on Roman farms, and it is likely that these birds were shunted into goose pens such as the one Columella describes (Plut. De esu carnium, 997a).

Geese bond readily with humans, and humans in turn, like Penelope, grow to love their savage yet devoted gaggle:

The goose also keeps a careful watch, as is evidenced by its defence of the Capitol during the time when our fortunes were being betrayed by the silence of the dogs; for which reason food for the geese is one of the first contracts arranged by the censors. Moreover there is the story of the goose at Aegium that fell in love with the supremely beautiful boy Amphilochus of Olenus, and also the goose that loved Glauce, the girl that played the harp for King Ptolemy, whom at the same time also a ram is said to have fallen in love with. These birds may possibly be thought also to possess the power of understanding wisdom: thus there is a story that a goose attached itself continually as a companion to the philosopher Lacydes, never leaving his side by night or day, either in public or at the baths.113

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