Mediterranean core cultural values, honor and shame, are reflected in their perceptions of sheep and goats. Sheep are primarily men's animals; they take care of them. Goats are primarily women's animals; goats are often kept in the house with the women. Sheep symbolize honor, goats symbolize shame.
    Women tend and milk the goats, while care and milking of sheep is the men's task. Mediterranean men normally do not drink milk; that is for women, children, the weak, and the sick. Men eat cheese (especially goats cheese), and if they drink milk it will be goat's milk (Prov 27:17)

    See: The Cultural Dictionary of The Bible, "Sheep and Goats," pp. 135-140
 

Photograph: Impression of an intaglio of a woman milking a goat. An intaglio is a design or figure carved into a hard material so that it is below the surface. This intaglio is carved into light and dark blue glass mounted in a gold ring, dated from 1st-2nd century A.D. The ring is in the Walters Art Gallery (42:452), Baltimore, MD. The photograph is provided by and printed with the permission of the Walters Art Gallery.

  Photograph of the ring in the Walters Art Gallery by Dr. Carmen Bernabe, University of Deusto, Spain.