The Cat in Cyprus
The Cat in Cyprus
Up until the first half of the 20th century, the cats were useful for eating the rodents and snakes on the Cyprus farm and home. Tradition has it that St. Helene, mother of Constantine the Great, visited Cyprus at the end of a great drought. Out of great concern for the dramatic increase in the snake population, she had her son deliver a large number of cats to Cyprus to solve the problem.
The cat can see very well and the dog can hear very well. As the Cypriot saying goes: "One day the cat and the dog were sitting at home. A feather fell from the ceiling and hit the floor. The dog jumped up and said, (did you hear the ceiling beam just fell down?" The cat responded, "You crazy dog, all I see is a feather on the floor."
The Cypriots also have an explanation for the relationship between the dog and cat, the saying goes: "The cat and the dog were good friends until one holiday. The mistress of the house had killed a pig and hung the sausages high to dry. Later when the cat and the dog were alone in the house, the dog looked up and said to the cat, "Say, you see up there, there are sausages." As the cat looked up, the dog said, "You can jump high, why don't you jump up there and cut them down so that we can eat." So the cat agreed, jumped up, cut all the sausages and dropped them to the dog below. When the cat came down, she discovered that the dog ate all the sausages and left nothing for her. The cat was very upset, her hair rose straight up, her back curved up and she started hissing and scratching. From that time, the cat and the dog became bitter enemies and have remained so ever since.
Characteristics bestowed upon the cat include: bad, ungrateful, unkind but a necessary evil (good for killing the rodents in the house and farm), bold thieves, very clean, has better memory than the dog, and not as favored as the dog.