Abstract

This chapter examines value economics in ancient Greece and Rome and the attitudes towards animals, wealth, and the market. It analyses Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey in order to understand the connections between animals and wealth because these epics served as foundations for elite behaviour and conceptions of identity. The analysis suggests that the Greeks and Romans were extremely conservative in their views about status-related activities, especially wealth measurement, markets, and wealth production, and they owned and they sold animals to improve their social status by showing that they were wealthy and part of a landed elite.