The chicken we are familiar with today as a farm animal originally descended from wild breeds in South Asia. Via India and China, the domestic chicken spread to the Near East in the region of present-day Iran around 1200 BC. Cultural contacts of the Greeks with the population groups living in Anatolia led to the chicken also becoming native to Greece and Sicily in the 6th century BC.
Animal dedications have been a well-known phenomenon since the second half of the 5th century BC. They were popular as offerings to the gods or even as burial offerings. The cock was the sacrificial animal for Dionysus and Asclepius. (AVS)
Former Erhart Kästner Collection, Wolfenbüttel
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