pigs in Ancient Egypt

PIGS IN ANCIENT EGYPT

Domesticated in the Delta since pre-dynastic times - although some traces already appear in the Neolithic cultures - from the wild pig, a species which easily becomes tame (Brunner-Traut, 1975: 1123), the Egyptian pig has a back covered with hard, bristly silks, the slender legs and a very elongated snout. Its breed seems to be between that of the boar and that of the present pig. It lived either in wild herds in the human environment, or in tame herds, or in small standard groups "pig farm" owned by families.

Even though it is represented to a small degree on the walls of chapels, some tombs in Beni Hassan, in El Kab (Renni and Setau and in Thebes, it is completely absent of the vestiges of funerary meals which are found there. It is, nevertheless, considered as an animal for slaughter, and it is indeed found mentioned in numerous sources from the Middle Kingdom along with other livestock. It is even a fundamental animal in Ancient Egypt, because it was one of the important sources of food protein since the Old kingdom (as shown by archaeology). The fact that the Egyptians had established in the current, magic, medical and literary language a sexual differentiation for the animal, by giving a name for the male and for the female, is proof of its proximity with humans. It is also known under several names adapted to several contexts, supplementary proof that its life shared the human environment.

A herd of pigs and their swineherd, tomb of Renni, El Kab

In medicine, it was very helpful : the teeth - crushed -, the eyes, blood, the fat, the tripe, was used by the physicians for various affections.
Small amulets of colourful stones in the shape of pigs, are lucky charms.

Two mythological uses are known, one negative because of its association with Seth, and a positive one through the sow, the Egyptians having noticed that the sow could eat its young (a form of auto-regulation dependent on the quantity of milk available) and had associated it with Nut swallowing the sun.
Nevertheless, in spite of this, its legendary spitefulness and gluttony make it an animal also associated with Seth. Indeed, Seth, to steal and to devour the moon, the left eye of Horus (son of Osiris) would have changed into a black pig (Meeks et al., 1993 : 86).

It is in this myth that it is necessary to find probably, the origin of the taboo which weighs on swineherds (they are the only ones to not allowed to penetrate within a temple, according to Herodotus) and the reason for which, by analogy with Osiris, a pig, - as well as a goat (Helck, 1982 : 595), another Sethien animal -, is sacrificed at the time of the Memphite festivals of Ptah-Sokar-Osiris, the 24th day of the 4th month of akhet.

This association with the god Seth created a religious taboo whose unpopularity followed that of the god. In the beginning, the god Seth carrying negative values only, the image of the pig became very negative also, its behaviour has been turned into derision and in particular its fertility and its method of eating (which persist nowadays in every day language !).

Bibliographie

• Contribution de Jocelyne Theaudin , forum Thotweb
• Bommas M. "Die Mythisierung der Zeit" . Die beiden Bücher über die altägyptischen Schalttage des magischen p Leiden I 346, Wiesbaden, 1999
• Gutbud A. "Textes fondamentaux de la théologie de Kom Ombo", 1973
• Newberry P. "The pig and the cult-animal of Seth", JEA, 14, 211-225, 1928
• Te Velde H. "Some egyptian deities and their pigishness" 1992 pages 571-578
• Rushdy "Le dépiquage du blé par les porcs", ASAE 11, 161, 1911
• Catalogue d'exposition, "Pain et bière en Egypte Ancienne : de la table à l'offrande", Musée du Malgré-Tout, 2004
• Meeks, M et Favard-Meeks, C. "La vie quotidienne des dieux égyptiens", Hachette, Paris, 1993
• Brunner-Traut, E. "Altägyptische tiergeschichte und fabel, gestalt und strahlkraft", Wissenschaftliche buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt, 1970.
• "No pork ban in Ancient Egypt" - Ansa It

And finally a work entirely in Spanish dedicated to the topic: "El cerdo en el antiguo Egipto", by Pr Fransico Perez Vazquez, Ediciones Tecnicas of Calidad, 2005.
I thank the author for sending this reference reference material.