"Cry havoc. . ."

[Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker]

“. . .and let slip the dogs of war!”

Just what are the “dogs of war?”

[Abner_Normal]

All i can find is it came from Shakespear.
Source:

JULIUS CAESAR, William Shakespeare

Act 3, Scene 1

ANTONY

“… Cry ‘Havoc,’ and let slip the dogs of war ;”

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In history they will not fill their heads with battles, nor in geography with fortresses, for it becomes them just as little to reek of
gunpowder as it does the males to reek of musk.

                     - Immanuel Kant

[Zyada]

This is from one of my favorite books - the book is fiction so it may not be correct but hey, this is MPSIMS, if you want well researched answers post it in GQ.

Trust the bloodthirsty Romans to come up with a cheery turn of phrase like that. They really did have dogs of war, you know, whole packs of huge canines that they let loose before their invading armies, to soften up the enemy lines as it were.

Do you know how they got those dogs to fight like that? They starved them! That’s right. They did throw them the occasional arm or leg, to teach them that people were food.

I can see an army of bees. Geese maybe, but dogs? If they were not starving or protecting someone they love, they’d be stopping off at every bush. And I’m sorry to say this, but we have been known to fight over the same bone. Then again, one bitch in heat and your whole battalion goes to the dogs!

Why would dogs go to war anyway? Do you think the perros of Spain care whether it’s the French or the British who overrun their country, decimating the fields and forests? Between them they take every pollo and rabbit, leaving nada for man or mousito. Peon and pup will starve either way. Madre de gatos, war is hell on the hounds, too!

[APB9999]

I had always taken “let slip the dogs” to be a modification of the notion of “release the [hunting] dogs”, i.e. upon the quarry. The image, here, coming from the practice of medieval and Elizabethan nobility of keeping a pack of dogs to run down deer and the like as a form of hunting (the foxhunt is a remnant practice). Obviously, for sight hounds, you’d want to restrain the pack until the quarry was sighted or you’d have trouble keeping them all together and focused on the task at hand. When the prey is sighted, you’d slip the dogs for the chase.
The addition of “of war” creates the metaphor that the soldiers are the pack of hounds; the enemy is the hunted prey.

But I didn’t know about Roman war dogs. That may be a better explanation.

[Northern_Piper]

weren’t Phobos and Deimos the war-dogs of the war-god, Mars? (Their names mean “terror” and “darkness” if I remember correctly?)

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and the stars o’erhead were dancing heel to toe

[Boris_B]

I have heard the literal explanation for this expression, as well as the explanation that “the dogs of war” are mercenaries. The latter expression may very well have come a long time after Shakespeare, though.

Dogs aren’t uncommon in war. The British have bred the mastiff for war. Dogs are good for guarding places at night, both since they bite intruders (presumably, enemy agents) and since they bark. The U.S. military developed a quiet-shooting of the Smith & Wesson 9mm pistol specifically to shoot North Vietnamese guard dogs, who needed to be hushed if covert operations were to be … covert.

The part of the Shakespeare I’ve never understood is, “Cry havoc”. Does this mean, you cry havoc to create it, as in, “I am bringing havoc to my enemies,” or is it more like you are announcing its introduction by someone else, i.e. “Aww fiddlesticks, havoc is being wreaked upon me”…?

[Bluepony]

Originally posted by jti:
**weren’t Phobos and Deimos the war-dogs of the war-god, Mars? (Their names mean “terror” and “darkness” if I remember correctly?)

**

They were attendants to the Roman God of War. Phobos was Fear and Deimos was Terror. Oddly enough, that was out of my college astronomy class.

The Dogs of War were probably named Scoobeious and Astros.

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…send lawyers, guns, and money…

       Warren Zevon

[Johnny_L.A]

weren’t Phobos and Deimos the war-dogs of the war-god, Mars? (Their names mean “terror” and “darkness” if I remember correctly?)

Taken as a metaphor, you wouldn’t literally be releasing dogs. Rather, you would be releasing terror and darkness. Havoc, IOW.

Crying “Havoc!” is like yelling, “Death to the enemy!”

And Caesar’s spirit, ranging for revenge,
With Ate by his side come hot from hell,
Shall in these confines with a monarch’s voice
Cry ‘Havoc,’ and let slip the dogs of war;
That this foul deed shall smell above the earth
With carrion men, groaning for burial.

“Cry havoc, and release the dogs of war” = “Death to our foes! Visit destruction upon them!”

[tomndebb]

From Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
http://www.bibliomania.com/Reference/PhraseAndFable/data/587.html

Havock A military cry to general massacre without quarter. This cry was forbidden in the ninth year of Richard II. on pain of death. Probably it was originally used in hunting wild beasts, such as wolves, lions, etc., that fell on sheep-folds, and Shakespeare favours this suggestion in his Julius Caesar, where he says Até shall “cry havock! and let slip the dogs of war.” (Welsh, hafog, devastation; Irish, arvach; compare Anglo-Saxon havoc, a hawk.)

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Tom~

[lvick]

Marc Antony has just dupped the conspirators into letting him speak at Ceasars’ funeral, where he plans to incite the crowd against them. This is from the speech he makes over Ceasars’ body which begins with him explaining why he sucked up to the conspirators and ends with his vision of their destruction:
“blood and destruction shall be so in use,
and dreadful objects so familiar,
that mothers will but smile when they behold their infants quart’d by the hands of war”

The dude is pissed

[GrammarNinja]

Originally posted by Bluepony:
** They were attendants to the Roman God of War. Phobos was Fear and Deimos was Terror. Oddly enough, that was out of my college astronomy class.**

My astronomy text sez Phobos=fear and Deimos=Panic. They’re the two moons of Mars, visible through a not-too-large telescope.
I’d always thought the quote was some kinda half-assed reference to Cerberus, the two-headed guardian of Hades. But then I don’t get out much.

[Bluepony]

Originally posted by GrammarNinja:

My astronomy text sez Phobos=fear and Deimos=Panic. They’re the two moons of Mars, visible through a not-too-large telescope.
I’d always thought the quote was some kinda half-assed reference to Cerberus, the two-headed guardian of Hades. But then I don’t get out much.

**

OK, OK, I guess Deimos meant fear, panic, anxiety, or nausea, I forget. College was a long time ago and I took the damn course to satisfy the science requirements and not to become the next Carl Sagan. Plus, I caught a lot of Zs during the planetarium sessions.

…send lawyers, guns, and money…

       Warren Zevon