Stupid Animals in Ancient Natural Histories

Over the centuries since antiquity, nature writers have evaluated different animal species. One criterion for such an evaluation has been intellect. At the lowest point on the scale of intellectual abilities was stupidity. Ancient authors often attributed inadequate intellect to various animal species by using pejorative expressions. The aim of this study is to determine which animal species Greek and Roman writers considered as inferior in the hierarchy of intellectual abilities, and why these species were chosen in particular. Furthermore, the paper attempts to verify the evaluations formulated in antiquity in light of contemporary observations of nature.