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Animal Rights History Timeline » [BCE-CE] Antiquity » Ancient Religion and Myth

Ancient Religion and Myth/Early Church Fathers

Ancient Religion

Although Jainism is the only religion to consistently advocate against harming any living being, passages against cruelty to animals can be found in the literature of many other ancient religions as well as those that evolved from them: Hinduism [Manu], Judaism [Moses], Islam [Muhammad], Zoroastrianism [Zoraster], Buddhism [Sakya-Muni, Asoka], Christianity [Jesus] and others advocate kindness to animals and often prescribe vegetarianism as a way of life.

Documenting the source of these specific religious teachings against cruelty to animals and their views regarding vegetarianism will be an enormous task due to the sheer volume of ancient religious texts, interpretations and translations. In order to move forward in this timeline, I must allow this paragraph to introduce these writings for now and leave you, the reader to pursue these lines of inquiry at your own leisure. As time has permitted, I have introduced some of these writings through both primary and secondary sources.

Mythical and Divine Origin

[Mythical Origin] Triptolemus, Ancient Athenian Laws
[Mythical Origin] Law of Draco, Draconian Law
[Divine Orgin] Laws of Manu, the Brahmins Mythical Survivor of the Flood
[Mythical Origin] Orpheus

[Historic India]—The doctrines of Ahimsa & Vegetarianism evolve.

Ancient Egyptian Priests and Prophets

[5th c. BCE] Herodotus, "On Egyptian Priests" in Histories
[480-406 BCE] Euripides, Jupiter of Crete Prophets fragment preserved in Porphyry's, On Abstinence from Animal Food.
[c350-285 BCE] Dicaearchus, On the Pristine Life of the Greeks, in Porphyry's On Abstinence from Animal Food .
[c350-285 BCE] Dicaearchus, Narration of the Manners of the Ancient Greeks in Saint Jerome's Against Jovinianus [393]
[1st c. CE] Chaeremon of Alexandria, Chaeremon the Stoic, On the Life of the Ancient Priests," in Saint Jerome's Against Jovinianus [393]
[aca245-ca305] Porphyry, On Abstinence from Aniaml Food, 2-21. [ca245-ca305] Porphyry, "On the Life of the Ancient Priests," in On Abstinence from Animal Food, Book the Fourth
[393] Saint Jerome, "On the Prophets of Jupiter of Crete, [borrowed from Porphyry]," in Against Jovinianus

Early Church Fathers

[329-379] Saint Basil of Casearea
[c347-407] Saint Chrysostom
[c348-420] Saint Jerome
[354-430] Saint Augustine of Hippo