Power Beyond the Human

Abstract This chapter shifts the book’s focus from how animals figure in interhuman power dynamics to the power of animals themselves. It begins by theorizing animal agency (i.e., their capacity to act upon the world according to their own interests) and then, while acknowledging that this may be minimally represented by the text, it sets out to examine possible examples of such agency in the books of Samuel. It considers the mice, cows, and oxen of the Ark Narrative; the donkeys of Kish; and the lamb and equids of the Succession Narrative. It employs a hermeneutic of retrieval to imaginatively explore hints of their power. In almost every instance, though, this agency is made subordinate to human or divine control. Only Absalom’s mule (2 Sam 18) avoids this fate, successful in his rebellion against his human master.