A Review of the Proposition: The Goat is Humanity's Best Tutor

Aristotle's goat jumped into my consciousness one Saturday afternoon as I was watching a documentary on television about World War I. After a routine camera pan of miscellaneous dignitaries viewing a military parade, a 'creature' appeared at the head of one of the marching units. I was stunned and began a deep dive into the story of this 'creature' who turned out to be Taffy IV, the goat mascot of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, in his full military regalia, green cape and all. The deep dive went deeper: Taffy was a war hero. Aristotle's rambling goat who he said is not capable of repose [1] is one of Joseph Campbell's tutors of humanity [2]

For the primitive hunting peoples of those remotest human millenniums
when the sabertooth tiger, the mammoth, and the lesser presences of the animal kingdom were the primary manifestations of what was alien—the source at once of danger, and of sustenance—the great human problem was to be linked psychologically to the task of sharing the wilderness with these beings. An unconscious identification took place, and this was finally rendered consciously in the half-human, half animal, figures of the mythological totem ancestors. The animals became the tutors of humanity. -- Joseph Campbell [3]

The goat is one of those tutors.

LESSON 1: GOAT MEAT IS YUMMY!

The goat, who has voluntarily associated with human groups from earliest times, was easy for humans to find and kill. Images of the Ibex, as prey, are found in ancient cave paintings and in archeological sites as early as 64,000 years ago. As herbivores there is no danger that a hungry goat will kill and eat a human. [4] It does not compete with humans for food. Being smallish in size, an individual person could wrangle and partially train them. [5] They require less work than other livestock who are often picky eaters. [6] Goats also reproduce in captivity thereby insuring food for the future. They are a reliable source of meat. 'Forget the special grass, Kevin, just eat the sheep!'

LESSON 2: GRASS CAN BECOME MILK.

Humans cannot digest most grasses, seeds and woody plants in an unprocessed form: it makes them sick! As ruminants [7] goats are able to provide regular milk because they process the grasses into milk. Domestication of the goat in the Fertile Crescent dates back 10,000 years, at about the same time as truly domesticated strains of grasses and grain crops emerged [8] The new abundance of grasses at the end of the last Ice Age did not directly result in an increase of food for humanity, but it did feed 'farm stock', who in turn fed people.

Perhaps the second age of humanity could be called the 'Age of Cooking' rather than the 'agricultural age' because the new and most important element in human society became the processing of 'raw' materials rather than simply hunting and gathering. The use of fire for cooking and the availability of milk from ruminants brought the abundance of the warmer climate into the homes of humanity [9]. Thus, the goat helped to save humanity from the cold, sparse, desperate and often dangerous conditions of life during the Ice Ages.

LESSON 3: BE ORGANIZED.

As the planet settled into a warmer and more certain environment, humans began to shift to a commercial society and the role of the goat shifted. [10] Hunter-gatherers had to become farmers and cooks in order to benefit directly from the changing world. Commerce, rather than surviving the cold, became the main driving force as humanity changed from a migratory life into the settled grouping of civilization. [11] Stores of grain had to be measured and protected. Herds had to be counted and contained. Early humans then had to become accountants and governors. [12]

But, what happened to the goat? The goat itself remained important for a single family. In the family setting the goat was small enough to live in the squeezed homestead of urbanized life and still provide a reliable supply of milk and meat. [13] Goats also found a place for themselves when humans sold or exchanged food becoming a 'product' in commerce: providing extra milk and milk products which could be sold or exchanged when it was alive; and providing meat and hides to sell when it was dead. The goat became simply another an item in humanity's inventory

Commercial life started as a simple exchange system known as the baba system. [14] Six thousand years ago the Sumerian city-state of Lagash taxed transactions by farmers, cattle breeders, artisans, hunters and merchants by taking part of the income received in 'kind', by conscription, by construction of temples and canals and other exchanges. Goats were an integral part of that system: In the Bible, for example, Jacob, took speckled, spotted or black sheep and goats as wages and then carefully bred his flocks to become large and sturdy making himself extremely rich. [15]Joseph , a son of Jacob, was chosen by the Egyptian Pharaoh to be his chancellor.[16] He exchanged bread for livestock for his family when there was no money left to buy bread in the lands of Egypt and Cannan [17] Later Joseph acquired the lands of his tribe, who worked the land as surfs and were permitted to keep most of the harvest, providing them with some property rights. They became fruitful and increased in numbers [18] Nomadic wealth was measured by the size of the goat herd owned by one family or tribe.[19]

Along with excess, society developed and supported specialized individuals such as priests, artists, and kings who no longer produced their own food. Goat meat was placed among the benefits accorded to priests 'Offerings can be an animal from either herd or flock...if the offering is an animal out of a flock, a lamb or a goat offered as a holocaust, is a male without blemish.'[20] Sacrifices for Sin provide a way to be forgiven for certain sins. Sins of priests and leaders of the community require the sacrifice of a bull. Sins of private individuals require sacrifice of a she-goat or female lamb. The offering is an atonement for the inadvertent sin or doing something forbidden by the commandments of Yahweh. If the person cannot afford an animal of the flock, two turtledoves or young pigeons will substitute: one for a sacrifice for sin and one for a burned offering. And if that cannot be afforded, then a bushel sized figurine of wheat flour, mixed with oil or incense can be substituted as a memorial.[21] In the hierarchy of sacrifices, the sacrificed goat is sufficient for some sins of individuals but the sins of leaders and priests require beef. In these ways the goat retained a codified significance within that exchange system.

Outside of the commercial world, the goat regularly appeared in religious hierarchies and systems [22], but never as the leader. The goat was always relegated to a second level of importance appearing as servants of the gods occasionally having some specific but limited magical powers. Some examples include Agni, the Vedic fire god, rode on goats and used them to pull his chariot through the sky. The Norse god, Thor, possessed a magical chariot pulled by two goats named Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr. They were killed and eaten daily but returned to life when the chariot was needed.

Another Norse goat, Hedendom, lived on the roof of Odin's palace, where he ate leaves from the Tree of Life and produced a constant stream of mead for the warriors. Amalthea, a nymph, who is often described as a goat nursed the infant Zeus on her milk. Her horn, known as the cornucopia, was a magical horn capable of producing endless amounts of food or drink. Her goat skin was part of her shield and was used as a weapon in Zeus's battle against the Titans. She was rewarded by becoming a constellation in the sky but not a goddess. Pan, a satyr who is a half-man, half-goat creature was so hideous that his mother and nurse abandoned him. His father, Zeus, took him to Mt. Olympus where he became a favorite of the gods. He also referred to as the son of Hermes and as the god of shepherds, hunters and the wilds of nature. As the wild goat he symbolized strength and unpredictability. But as a satyr he was not part of the higher court on Olympus. The goat was an only attribute of Marduk, the Sumerian god who created heaven and earth. [23]

In the Old Testament Bible the goat had some limited magical powers as a scapegoat. [24] Yahweh added the requirements of the Great Day of Atonement requiring that requiring that Aaron should receive two goats for a sacrifice for his own sin and a ram for a holocaust for atonement for himself and his family. Aaron allotted one goat to Yahweh and the other to Azazel [the demon of the desert]. The goat for Yahweh is sacrificed in the rite of atonement of sin. The other goat is sent into the desert to Azazel. Aaron, while laying his hands on the head of the second goat, confesses all the faults of the sons of Israel and lays them to its charge. The goat bore all of their faults away with it into the desert. The sacrifice of a goat became a substitute for human sacrifice. Abraham, who was singled out by Yahweh to form a great nation with all the nations of the earth, to command his sons and to maintain the way of Yahweh by just and upright living was tested for loyalty and passed because he was willing to kill and burn his son as a show of loyalty. An angel revealed a goat hanging in a nearby bush who was acceptable as a substitute for the boy. “Because you have done this, you have not refused me your son, your only son, I will shower blessings on you. I will make your descendants as many as the stars of heaven and the grains of sand on the seashore. Your descendants shall gain possession of the gates of their enemies. All nations of the earth shall bless themselves by your descendants, as a reward for your obedience.” [245

Although these goats had essential and important tasks in the more organized human society, the goat's basic position as livestock did not change. Humanity learned to 'use' the goat.

LESSON 4: BE CURIOUS!

Accumulating more and more is an easy, if repetitive and boring, endeavor. Although humans are reassured by classification [256] they also like to explore their environs and will incorporate new food into their diets. Perhaps the efficient browsing behavior which helps goats survive in extreme climates is a precursor to curiosity. Curiosity, defined as a strong desire to know or to learn something more than is necessary for our immediate foreseeable needs, is more than simple mimicry. Is curiosity acquired in childhood or is it given in some inherited form? This question continues to be pondered to this day. [27] It could also be learned or reinforced by observation of other species such as the friendly and productive goat. After humans were nourished by and began to sell the goat and its products as part of commerce, they began to comment on the importance of the inquisitive nature of the goat not just its role as a product or servant.

Aristotle, commented that 'with goats, the shepherds appointed no bell-weather [a ram trained by a shepherd to lead the flock] as the animal is not capable of repose, but is frisky and apt to ramble.' [28] That interest in exploring (or curiosity) cannot be fully tamed, although curiosity can advance civilization even after the basic needs are sated.

The curiosity of the goat has contributed to its own survivability in harsh environments. It brought new items to the community table for its own species and for humanity. The groups of goats that try out different grasses and grains survive better than those groups that stagnate. When the 'Flock Queen' comes upon a plant that is poisonous or inedible, she will sniff the plant and then snort and show obvious dislike for it. All the goats in the herd will take turns smelling the same plant, using its scent as identification of that particular plant. After they have all taken a turn memorizing the plant’s odor, the 'Top Buck' will trample the plant. [29] The 'fittest' species are those that can adapt to a changing environment, not just those which are the 'strongest'.

As need for organization on a large scale emerged keeping track of supplies and inventory fundamentally changed the way humans had to think.. This change from simple to complex thought has been described as the origin of consciousness. [30] The early mind consisted of non-conscious thought that could not reason or articulate why one did something. The structure of the government had become so complicated that the king's singular thoughts were heard as fourteen different voices. One clear mind could not cope with larger societies. One farmer can keep track of one or ten buckets of milk but not hundreds. Humanity had to think beyond the facts before it to operate the complicated system it was creating. Curiosity was among humanity's steps into the complex mind.

However, rather than being lauded for its curiosity, the goat is often ridiculed for it. For a long time, goats were depicted eating tin cans in cartoons and comics . In actuality, the goat is often seen exploring a can for something tasty and rarely actually 'eats' the can. [31] Continual 'exploration' and willingness to consume a variety of items as food is how the goat can survive and even thrive in rough environments where other ruminants die. Rather than praising the goat for its curious nature, the tin can reference is one of ridicule coupled with a suggestion of danger. 'Curiosity kills the cat' is a maxim warning humans about the dangers of questioning the status quo. Part of being curious is being able to doubt what has been taught and repeated by society.

Humans are often warned against being curious beyond the strictures of their society or religion. Eve caused the ruination of humanity because she ate an apple, a tasty and healthy fruit forbidden by her god. [32] Epimetheus, a brother of Prometheous, was given a jar containing all manner of misery and evil and was warned by his brother not to open it.. Zeus, who was determined to counteract the blessing of fire stolen by Prometheous, created Pandora and sent her to marry Epimetheus. Pandora opened the jar and many evils flew out over the earth. Hope alone remained inside, the lid having been shut down before she could escape. In a later story the jar contained not evils but blessings, which would have been preserved for the human race had they not been lost through the opening of the jar out of curiosity. [32] These stories emphasize the dangers of being curious rather than the marvels that sometimes appear.

Things can worsen for the goat because of its inability to stay in line. The goat who saved the village from diseases, curses or sins as its scapegoat and who did not do anything evil or reprehensible except that it did not do everything for its god, was transformed into an unworthy being by the King of heaven in the famous 'sheep to the right; goats to the left speech'.

45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

-–  Matthew 24: 31-46 The Sermon on the End. The Last Judgment[34]

The goat's curious nature was part and parcel of humanity's entrance into civilization but was also why

it was never included in the leadership as king because the goat was always curious and could not be counted on to toe the line. A goat prancing down the aisle to be crowned as leader would be as likely to veer away to sniff and munch on some nearby tender nearby grass as he would be to march solemnly to the altar. He could lose the crown but discover parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.

LESSON 5: RUMINATE!

After a goat has eaten its fill of grass it lies down and ruminates. This is the amazing, if somewhat gross, process of chewing grass, swallowing it into one stomach, regurgitating it as cud, chewing it again and sending it into another stomach for final processing into milk. [35] Humans often nap after dinner and sometimes ruminate. But they are doing something completely different from the goat. Rumination is the last lesson.

Even the great Oxford English Dictionary can not decide which is the 'first' meaning of ruminate! 'Ruminant' is (a) an animal who chews cud first, (b) a contemplative person. 'Rumination' is (a) contemplation and (b) the action of chewing cud. [36] This dual meaning links the goat's ability to provide milk with human imagination. The word is the same yet it is different. [37] When humans ruminate they think deeply about something. Thinking can be worrying, problem solving, envisioning new possibilities, explaining different perspectives, or imagining new ideas. Imagination, however, is more than curiosity because it surpasses the real. [38]

When imagination enters the frame, storytelling changes away from the mere recitation of facts The 'Queen' goat identifies and communicates information about a new and unpleasant grass to the herd. She does not tell a story. Animals can 'lie' when they communicate with each other. For example, when the possum pretends to be dead it is acting out of instinct not creativity [39] This is where the student (humanity) surpasses Campbell's tutor (animals).

In human tales, the goat often becomes a character or vehicle of the imagination. Some wonderful ruminations, better referred to as stories, include goats or part-goat/part-something else creatures. In these tales the 'perfect livestock' is a figure within the trickster mythology: stories that make others see something in a new and different way. The servant goat becomes a doorway between the wilds of nature and the elegance of civilization. He is the character in myth who threatens to take the myth apart. [40]

For example a Greek and Roman mythic character is Pan, [41] the god of the wild, nature, sexuality and shepherds, who is a half-man/half-goat creature. He teases, deceives, tricks and pushes the other gods, humans and even plants and animals out of their traditional selves and roles. He could transform objects into different forms. He causes the sudden, irrational fear in humans, known as 'panic'.
Some myths say that Pan was a son of the god Hermes; others name Zeus as the father. In either case they created an offspring who is both ugly and attractive; not all human but not all animal, but with some magical powers.

Pan is usually introduced as an odd, but attractive, benign creature who frolics in the woods, dances with glee and plays music on a reed pipe in a grand Bacchanalia, or party. But the story does not end there. The pipe he uses was made from reeds which were formed by several water nymphs to hide their sister wood nymph Syrnix from rape by Pan. He then cut the reeds into pieces to form the pipe which he used to lure others into the woods. Pan changes from a sweet faun into a monster and recasts the myth from something charming into a horror story.

Peter Pan is a fictional character created by J.M. Barrie in 1902. The first illustration in Peter Pan is of the naked child riding on a goat. [42]

'If you ask your mother whether she knew about Peter Pan when she was a little girl, she will say “Why, of course I did, child”; and if you ask her whether he rode a goat in those days, she will say, “What a foolish question to ask; certainly he did.” [43]

The book regularly links Peter to the god Pan. They both bring children into the wild forest and Kensington Garden to frolic and have scary adventures. Peter himself, made the pipes from reeds to sing 'just as the birds sing for joy' But he did not simply entertain the birds, he played the pipes to confuse the birds and to cheat the trees into blooming early.

'Peter’s heart was so glad that he felt he must sing all day long, just as the birds sing for joy, but, being partly human, he needed an instrument, so he made a pipe of reeds, and he used to sit by the shore of the island of an evening, practicing the sound of the wind and the ripple of the water, and catching handfuls of the shine of the moon, and he put them all in his pipe and played them so beautifully that even the birds were deceived, and they would say to each other, ‘Was that a fish leaping in the water or was it Peter playing leaping fish on his pipe?’ And sometimes he played the birth of birds, and then the mothers would turn round in their nests to see whether they had laid an egg. If you are a child of the Gardens ,you must know the chestnut-tree near the bridge, which comes out in flower first of all the chestnuts, but perhaps you have not heard why this tree leads the way. It is because Peter wearies for summer and plays that it has come, and the chestnut being so near, hears him and is cheated.' [44]

Peter has many daring adventures in the 1904 play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up. [45] Many of the adventures in the wild are dangerous, scary and cause panic. Peter shoots Wendy with a bow and arrow. Wendy and her brothers are captured by pirates and almost die. Captain Hook is determined to kill Peter because Peter cut off one of his arms in a duel, and fed the arm to the crocodile who found the arm to be tasty and wants to kill Hook to finish the meal. Like the great god Pan, Peter Pan initially promises fun and adventure but the fun usually turns into danger and nastiness. The children eventually want to go home to a stable, warm and loving home, but Peter remains in Neverland betwixt and between civilization and the wild...like the untamable goat.

Other well known stories include goats. The piper character in Wind in the Willows is half man and half goat. [46] Muriel, a white goat, is one of the few fully literate animals in Animal Farm. [47] Tumnus, a character in the Chronicles of Narnia, has reddish skin, curly hair, brown eyes, a short pointed beard, horns on his forehead, cloven hooves, goat legs with glossy black hair, a 'strange but pleasant little face,' a long tail, and being 'only a little taller than Lucy herself.' [48] Other tales include the Swedish Yule Goat, Krampus of the Alpine regions, and the goat figures found in the western and Chinese astrology. Even the noted author and journalist John Steinbeck changed his assignment for the Daily Express away from reporting on the airplanes of the Royal Air Force at Manston Airfield. Instead, he wrote an entire column about the mascot, Wing Commander William de Goat D.S.O who munched cigarettes, ate nearly everything in sight especially beer and glycol cooling fluid and who was considered to be the luck of his wing [49]

In these stories, the goat character changes reality within the story and makes the reader see something unexpected. This is the essence of the Trickster archetype. 'He is the archetype who attacks all archetypes. He tells the story and then threatens to tear it apart. He is an eternal state of mind that is suspicious of all eternals, dragging them from their heavenly preserves to see how they fare down here in this time-haunted world ' [50] Imagination, aka creative lying, is the one of the most important element distinguishing humanity from all of the other species. [51]

The irrepressible and curious goat is rarely given enough credit. The goat is important to humanity as the creature who tried new food when other livestock would rather die; as a creature who adapted to a wholly new situation of urban life and survived; and as a creature who is always curious. The very curiosity that helped to save humanity from extinction in the Ice Ages became the reason for its damnation to hell. The student who discovers that something can be both attractive and dangerous at the same time awakens to the 'dilemma of curiosity'. [52] This fuels imagination.

Aristotle's goat continues to be a tutor because it does not stop being relevant when its assigned jobs are done but remains curious and explores beyond its boundaries. It continues despite the dilemma of curiosity. After humanity was fed, protected and organized, and became interested in its surroundings, the goat as Trickster entered the frame teaching humanity to use its imagination to reformulate reality and forcing us to admit that there is always something else---to eat!

ENDNOTES

[1] Benton, William, publisher The Works of Aristotle Vol II (The Great Books Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc. 19th printing 1971) 99
[2] Campbell, Joseph The Hero with a Thousand Faces (New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1973), 390
[3[ Campbell 390
[4] Mendelson, Anne Spoiled, The Myth of Milk as Superfood, (New York: Columbia University Press, 2023) 20
[5] Dartnell, Louis Origins: How Earth's History Shaped Human History (New York, Hachette Book Group 2019) 88
[6] Ruminants: an animal who chews the cud Jean L. McKechine, Ed. Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary 2nd edition, (New York, Simon & Schuster, 1979) 1585 [7] Mendelson 33
[8] Dartnell 68
[9] Frankopan, Peter The Earth Transformed: An Untold Story (New York, Alfred A Knopf Co 2023) 75
[10] Demas, Jerusalem “The Invention of Agriculture” (The Atlantic AM, November, 19, 2024)
[11] Frankopan 83
[12] Frankopan 67
[13] Coulthard, Sally Fowl Play: A History of the Chicken from Dinosaur to Dinner Plate, (United Kingdom, Blumsberry Publ. 2022) 172
[14] Digital Tax Technologies History of Taxation: Sumerians, Assyrians & Babalonia (published July 27, 2023)
[15] Jones, Alexander editor The Jerusalem Bible Reader's Edition, (Doubleday & Company 1968) Genesis 30: 32-43
[16] Jones Genesis 41: 41-42
[17] Jones Genesis 47: 18-28
[18] Jones Genesis 47: 18-28
[19] Mendleson 41
[20] Jones Leviticus 1: 10-11

[21] Jones Leviticus 6: 11
[22] Frankopan page 67
[23] Guirand, Felix editor The Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology (London, Chancellor Press 1996) and Cavendish, Richard editor Legends of the World: A Cyclopedia of the Enduring Myths, Legends, and Sagas of Mankind (New York, Schocken Books 1982)

 [24] Jones Leviticus 16: 20-23
[25] Jones Genesis 22: 11-18
[26] Barzum,, Jacques A Stroll with William James 'The Masterpiece', (NYC 1983) 59
[27] Shattuck, Roger Forbidden Knowledge From Prometheus to Pornography, (New York, Harcourt Brace & Company, 1996) 35
[28] Benton 99
[29] Cornell CALS Goat Herd Behavior Eating (Ithaca NY, NYS 4-H Animal Science Program
[30] Jaynes, Julian The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, (Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1990) 193
[31] Wright, Andy No Goats Do Not Eat Tin Cans (Modern Farmer September 18, 2013) [32] Jones Genesis 3: 1-24
[33] Encyclopedia Britannica (britannica.com/topic/Pandora-Greek-Mythology) October, 2024
[34] Jones Matthew 24: 31-46
[35] Weaver, Sue The Goat: A Natural and Cultural History (Princeton NJ, Princeton University Press, 2020) 36-39
[36] The Oxford English Dictionary 2nd edition Vol XIV (Oxford UK, Clarendon Press 2004) 238-9
[37] Barzum 44-45
[38] Shattuck 130
[39] Hyde, Lewis Trickster Makes This World: Mischief, Myth and Art, (New York, Farrar, Straus and Giroux 1998) 45
[40] Hyde 14
[41] Graves, Robert The Greek Myths (New York, Penguin Classics, 1960) 78-81
[42] Barrie, J.M. Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, (New York Charles Scribner's Sons 1910) 20 KG
[43] Barrie 174 KG
[44] Barrie 33 KG
[45] Barrie, J. M. Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up (1904)
[46] Grahame, Kenneth The Wind in the Willows (1908)
[47] Orwell, George Animal Farm (1945)
[48] Lewis, C.S. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (1950) [49] John Steinbeck “William De Goat” (New York Herald Tribune) June 29, 1943
[50] Hyde 14
[51] Hyde 45
[52] Shuttuck 30