There is some divided speculation about the existence and usage of pigs in
ancient Egypt. Was the
Set-animal a pig, and therefore was the creature
considered taboo since Set was thought to be an "evil" god? Was the
pig connected with trichinosis and therefore thought unfit to eat? Was it
simply considered unclean because of its particular habits? Did it exist at
all in Egypt?
It is very unlikely that the ancients knew of any connection between
trichinosis and eating undercooked pork. There is no evidence they had any
taboo against more toxic materials or that they even knew of the existence of
such dangers. Pigs were herded, raised, and occasionally eaten, throughout
Egypt from the Predynastic period into the
Late Period and
Graeco-Roman times.
The local breed of domestic pig in ancient Egypt descended from an
indigenous ancestor, sus scrofa, the Wild Boar. It was once abundant in
the country and had a fairly extensive range throughout the Nile Valley, in
the Delta, the Faiyum and the Wadi
Natrun. The species only became locally
extinct around the turn of the 20th century ACE, due to
over-hunting and loss of its prime habitat.
The oldest domestic pig remains presently known in Egypt come from the
large Predynastic settlement site of Merimda Beni Salama in the western Delta,
dated to the fifth millennium BCE. Pig remains have been found throughout
Egypt at sites such as Hierakonpolis, Maadi,
Abydos, and Armant, near graves
belonging to the poorer classes, indicating that pork was an element in their
diet, at least at the Predynastic period. Cattle bones were found in graves
belonging to more elite burials.
If there was a prohibition against eating pigs among the upper classes,
there was none against raising them. In the early Fourth Dynasty tomb-chapel
of Metjen at Saqqara, the deceased states that he received a bequest from his
father that included "people, small livestock and pigs." The
Eleventh Dynasty tomb of the nomarch Khety at Beni Hasan depicts a herd of
pigs, the first in Egyptian art since the First
Dynasty. Yet, while
pig-farming continued on during the Old and
Middle Kingdom periods, swine are
conspicuously absent from the scenes of daily life that cover the walls of
tomb-chapels of the upper classes and do not appear in the somewhat extensive
offering lists. The explanation may be as simple as the fact that pigs are
associated with grubbing in the dirt and rolling in the muck, perhaps
considered unclean activities.
Pig-farming expanded during the New
Kingdom. Inscriptions indicate that
temples and wealthy citizens maintained large numbers of them on their country
estates, and tomb-chapels of several nobles from the early 18th
dynasty illustrate swine as well as other farmyard animals. The mayor of
el-Kab relates that he owned a herd of fifteen hundred pigs. A temple of
Amenhotep III at Memphis was endowed with some 1000 pigs and 1000 piglets, and
the mortuary temple of
Seti I at Abydos held large herds of swine on its
domains.
Pigs are also shown in use for farming itself, as they tread seed into the
soil, even into the time of Herodotus. Inscriptions on ostraca and other
findings indicate that the workers at Deir el-Medina occasionally indulged in
meals of pork.
So pigs were bred, raised and occasionally eaten in different places. What
of the religious connection? Votive faience pig figurines dating to the first
dynasty have been recovered
from
Abydos, Hierakonpolis, and Elephantine
Island. The figurines from Abydos were
found by Petrie inside what he considered to be the sacred compound of the god
Osiris.
The Egyptian Museum in Berlin also holds a ceramic statue, dated to the
Naqada I period, of what has been called a pig deity, indicating at least that
swine formed a part of religious life at this time. The Brooklyn Museum also
possesses a cylinder seal dated to the First Dynasty that displays figures of
bristling pigs carved on it, and other seals from this period also depict
pigs.
According to some traditions, the god Min, most associated with the city of
Coptos in Upper Egypt, was born of a white sow. In a charm against snake bite,
he is described as son "of the white sow of Heliopolis/Iunu" which
is a form of the goddess Isis.
The
god Set appears as a pig with erect bristles in the Annals of King Sahure of
the fifth Dynasty on the Palermo
Stone. The passage is translated in Marshall
Clagett’s volume as follows: …"The first occurrence of going to the
South and Inventorying the House of Horus-Set." The accompanying note
indicates that this is not a certain rendering, since instead of a falcon-sign
for Horus, there is an owl, and the sign for Set is presumably a pig, though
it also resembles an anteater. If the translation does refer to a House of
Horus-Set, perhaps at this time Set was not considered "evil."
Beginning in the Third Intermediate
Period, statuettes and amulets of a
rooting sow nursing her litter were popular, representing the sky goddess Nut.
Conversely, spells in the Coffin Texts and in the Book of Going Forth By Day
(Book of the Dead)
show Set turning himself into a boar, leading some scholars to speculate that
the pig’s connection with "evil" forms the true basis of its small
use in food consumption and temple offerings.
The god Set, associated with the pig in iconography, was by the Late Period
and the Hellenistic age in Egypt to be the "evil" murderer of the
god Osiris, and the adversary of the god Horus. Yet, Seti I had been perhaps a
priest of Set—certainly his name meant "Man of Set," and he was
not considered an evil king. Set also continued to be worshiped at Ombos and
Tanis and other locations.
The question as to whether or not the pig was taboo becomes murkier perhaps
when it is considered that the animal played a part in medicine. The Ebers
Papyrus lists humor of "pig’s eyes" to be injected into the ear to
cure blindness. Another prescription for the eyes included the blood of pigs.
Pig’s tooth and other ingredients were crushed and bandaged onto infected
parts of the body to expel exudations, perhaps a reference to pus or eczema.
Pig’s viscera, including the brain, was an ingredient in another cure to
combat a form of cancer.
As in today’s western culture, where "Pork" is getting a
face-lift being called "the second white meat" in order to boost its
consumption, perhaps more study of the place of the pig in ancient Egyptian
society will uncover new information.
Sources:
- Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt
- Animals in Ancient Egypt by Patrick Houlihan
- Dictionary of Ancient Egyptian Gods and Goddesses by George Hart
- Ancient Egyptian Science, Vol I, by Marshall Clagett
- Food: the Gift of Osiris by William J. Darby, Paul Ghalioungui and Louis
Grivetti
Marie Parsons is an ardent student of Egyptian archaeology, ancient history and its
religion. To learn about the earliest civilization is to learn about ourselves. Marie
welcomes comments to marieparsons@prodigy.net.
