Ancient Egyptian animals
The ancient ... were very
fond of animals. They had animals that were sacred, some were pets and other
were used in ... article is courtesy of ... home of handmade craft
The ancient Egyptians were very fond of
animals. They had animals that were sacred, some were pets and other were used
in farming.
This article is courtesy of www.kingtutshop.com home of handmade crafts and
educational kits.
Sacred Animals.
Animals were thought to be sacred to the Egyptians because they believed that
when one of their gods or goddesses came down to earth, they would represent
themselves as a specific species. The Egyptians thought by honoring them, they
would be pleasing the god. They also thought that animals shared an afterlife
with their humans so it resulted in animals being buried within its family
tomb.
The animals that were considered especially sacred:
·cat- The male cat had religious connections with Ra. Kittens were specifically
reared for sacrificial/worship uses .
·cattle- Beef was often used as a sacrificial offering to various deities.
·scarab beetle- The emblem of a specific goddess, the scarab beetle was
associated with the daily birth of the sun, and credited with spontaneous
generation of its young. Because of its sacred status, it was widely
represented in art.
·Jackel- it was considered a protector of royal tombs from robbers and helped
in the afterlife journey.
Cats and Kittens.
One of the most common animal mummies in Egypt was the cat. Cats were believed
to represent the goddess Bastet. Consequently, they were raised in and around
temples devoted to Bastet. When they died, they were mummified and buried in huge
cemeteries, often in large communal graves.
From about 332 B.C. to 30 B.C., animals began to be raised for the specific
purpose of being turned into mummies. The mummies were sold to people on their
way to worship a god and left at the temple as offerings. Scientists have
uncovered a gruesome fact: many cats died quite premature and unnatural deaths.
Two- to four-month-old kittens seemed to have been sacrificed in huge numbers.
So many cat mummies were made that researchers can only guess that there were
millions of them.
Bastet: Cats are very useful animals in a country that depends on grain. The
cat's hunting instincts were honoured by the Ancient Egyptians, but so was the
cat's gentler side as a warm and loving mother to her kittens. Bastet can be
shown as a woman with a feline head. There are disagreements among zoologists
as to when these animals first began to live with humans along the Nile, and
about which feline became the Egyptian pet. Cats do not appear as household
pets during the Age of the Pyramids, though they were very popular animal
companions in later times.
Cattle were thought to be sacred and beef was often used for offerings to the
gods or goddesses. A bull represented power, aggression, masculinity,
fertility; these could be the attributes of kingship. . The cow's large eyes
with long lashes, and her generally quiet demeanor suggested a gentle aspect of
feminine beauty. Her gift of milk, which could sustain a human child, became of
symbol of love and sustenance.
Hathor: Hathor as the royal goddess. Her name means 'House of Horus." Her
image could take the form of a cow, a woman with a cow's head, or a woman
wearing the horns of a cow. As a motherly cow, she gave the king her divine
milk, and protected him as a cow protects her calf. She was the goddess of
love, music, singing, and dance. She was one of the most important deities in
the Age of the Pyramids, and her popularity continued to the end of Egyptian
civilization. In the early economy of Egypt, cows were wealth. A herd of cattle
was a beautiful sight because it represented wealth in the form of food, milk,
hides, and work, as oxen pulled the ploughs of farmers. Cattle dung was a
valuable fertilizer and had many uses in building. The Egyptians admired many
qualities in cows, besides their economic benefits. The cow's careful tending
of her calf was a model for motherhood. In a time when many women died in
childbirth, the ability of cow's milk to sustain a human baby was deeply
appreciated. Cows, like people, love music and will happily listen to a human
singing, thus it made sense for Hathor to be goddess of music. The big, gentle
brown eyes of cows set a standard for beauty.
The Hawk
A hawk, who soars high above the world of humans, seeming to expend no energy
in his long hours aloft, and who - far seeing, -can swoop in an instant to
capture his prey in sharp talons, became a symbol of kingship.
Anty: Anty was a hawk god of Upper Egypt. He is shown as a hawk sitting on a
crescent moon, or in a boat. He became associated with other hawk-gods, such as
Sokar
Horus: This god is shown as a falcon, or as a man with the head of a falcon. In
Egyptian, his name is Her - the distant one. Like the good king who sees
everything in his kingdom, the hawk is noted for his sharp vision. The sudden
stoop of the hawk, as he leaves the distant sky to attack and capture his prey,
is like the quick and decisive action of a king in defense of his country.
Horus is one of the oldest gods of the Egyptians. In the days when powerful
leaders were fighting to make one nation out of smaller settlements, the early
rulers were called Followers of Horus. On the Narmer palette, the King is shown
with a falcon whose one human arm holds a rope that passes through the nose of
a defeated rival. The earliest way of distinguishing the name of a king from
the names of others was the serekh, which was a rectangle representing the
palace of the king, with a hawk on the top. Originally, there were at least two
gods called Horus. One is the fifth child of Nut and Geb, Horus the Elder, and
the other is the son of Isis and Osiris. Over time, their stories and
attributes came together. An old story tells of how Osiris, king of Egypt, was
murdered by his brother, Seth. Seth was very strong and powerful. He took over
the country, and ruled well. Isis, the wife of Osiris, hid the child she had
born, and raised him in secret. When Horus grew up, he claimed his father's
throne. Seth and Horus struggled for the kingship, but in the end Horus' claim,
as son of the previous king, was recognized by a court of all the gods, and
Horus became king. In Ancient Egypt, each king was Horus. When a king died,
Egyptians said that the falcon had flown to Heaven and united with the Sun
Disk. The next king then became Horus. Like the Hawk, the king was a fighter, a
warrior. This is why Horus, when shown as a hawk-headed man, wears an armored
breast-plate.
Anubis: This jackal-headed god looked after the dead, and was in charge of the
important task of mummification. Anubis can appear as either a black canine
with long sharp ears, or as a man with a canine head. The black colour of
Anubis is not natural to jackals or to the wild dogs of Egypt; it may refer to
the discoloration of a body after death and during mummification. The black
colour also refers to the rich dark soil of Egypt, from which new growth came
every year; in similar manner, the dead would come to new life after burial.
Dogs, as animal companions, were present in Egypt from the very beginning.
Sometimes dogs were buried with their masters. It may have given the Egyptians
comfort to think of such an animal as guarding the cemeteries, protecting the
dead.
There are other minor animals that were held sacred by the Egyptians so because
they were beneficial others because they were considered evil. Examples of
these animals are:-
The mongoose was respected because of its skill and power of robbing nests and
eating snakes.
The snakes were thought to be evil. Because the snake's poisonous bite, it
killed many people.
The crocodile was known for its silent attacks on people near the Nile water.
The hippopotamus was considered evil and very dangerous. They were killed to
protect the people. At night the hippopotamus would trample the fields.
The locusts were considered evil because they would destroy and damage crops.
Frogs and toads were the sign of fertility. The number one hundred thousandths
is a sign of a tadpole. Heket: Frog-headed goddess of childbirth. Frogs, who
produce vast numbers of tadpoles, were popular as amulets to ensure fertility.
Babi is a deity shown in Baboon form, and it's from his name that we get our
word for these animals. Babi is ferocious, even blood-thirsty, unlike the
usually calm and reasonable Thoth who also appears as a baboon.
Other animals represented by a god/goddess or sacred were ibises, dogs, rams,
baboons, shrews, fishes, gazelles, and lions.
Farm Animals
Animals were one of the most important things about farming. Animals helped
ancient Egyptians with jobs like trampling in the seeds, pulling the plow,
eating unwanted grain or wheat and providing them with food and drink. But
having these animals may have caused misfortune like if a donkey nibbled on
someone else's crops the farmer could threaten to take its owner to court. Also
if animals were sick the Egyptians had to do all the work that they did. If
animals were not marked they may have been stolen. Some of the farm animals
were goats, pigs, ducks, cows
, and
geese.
