The Pig in Ancient Egypt: A Commentary on Two Passages of Herodotus

Warren R. Dawson

doi:10.1017/S0035869X00060883

The Pig in Ancient Egypt: A Commentary on Two Passages of Herodotus

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011

Warren R. Dawson

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The tomb-scenes of Egypt of all periods are particularly rich in pictures of various phases of agricultural life: so complete is our material that it is possible to reconstruct every episode of the farmer's year. The newly sown seed was turned into the ground by various methods, sometimes by means of the hoe and human labour, sometimes by means of the plough drawn by oxen, and sometimes, again, it was trodden in by animals. From Herodotus' statement, it might appear that the only method of treading-in corn was by means of swine, but actually this method is very rarely met with. So far as I know, there is no instance of this procedure earlier than the eighteenth dynasty. In two Theban tombs (Nos. 24 and 146), each of which belonged to a different person bearing the name Nebamun, amongst the agricultural scenes, pigs are seen following the sower to tread in the grain. Both these tombs date from the reign of Tuthmosis III.

Type: Articles
Information: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 60 , Issue 3 , July 1928 , pp. 597 - 608

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0035869X00060883 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1928

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^{page 597 note 1} Herodotus, ii, 14 (Carey's translation).

^{page 597 note 2} Northampton-Spiegelberg-Newberry, , Theban Necropolis, p. 14Google Scholar, textfig. 15 (from Tomb 24), and pl. xiii (from Tomb 146). The plate is coloured and is reproduced from a charming water-colour copy of the original by Howard Carter.

^{page 598 note 1} Lepsius, , Denkmäler, ii, 3Google Scholar, and Maspero, , Études Égyptiennes, ii, p. 120Google Scholar.

^{page 598 note 2} Maspero, , Mém. Mission Arch., i, p. 191Google Scholar.

^{page 598 note 3} Petrie, , Medum, pl. xxiGoogle Scholar. The form of the animal here is clearly that of the wild-boar.

^{page 598 note 4} Peasant, B ii, 138. Cf. Gardiner, , Journal of Eg. Archælogy, ix, pp. 22, 25Google Scholar.

^{page 598 note 5} Leiden Papyrus, I, 344, Recto, 6, 2.

^{page 598 note 6} Tylor, and Griffith, , Tomb of Renni, pl. iiGoogle Scholar, idem.Tomb of Paheri, pl. iii, lowest register, left.

^{page 599 note 1} Wilkinson, , Manners and Customs, iii, 34Google Scholar. The third picture is also given by Maspero, , Dawn of Civilization, p. 64Google Scholar, but neither author states from which tomb it was copied. Maspero merely says “from a Theban tomb of the XVIIIth Dynasty”.

^{page 599 note 2} Sethe, , Urkunden, iv, 75Google Scholar.

^{page 599 note 3} Boulaq Papyrus, xvii, 6, 4.

^{page 600 note 1} Herodotus, ii, 47, 48 (Carey's translation).

^{page 600 note 2} In the following quotations the letters B, E, H, and L refer to the Berlin, Ebers, Hearst, and London medical papyri respectively. The numbers in brackets are those of Wreszinski's edition.

^{page 601 note 1} Dawson, , Zeitsckrift fur ägyptische Sprache, Bd. lx, p. 21Google Scholar.

^{page 601 note 2} It may be mentioned that the pig appears in Coptic medicine. In the papyrus published by Chassinat, Un Papyrus Médical Copte, pig's grease occurs in six prescriptions, and in one of them, No. 197, it is specified as “unsalted”; this prescription is for open ulcers. In No. 70 the snout and trotter of a pig are recommended as light food for a bilious subject. The dung, flesh, and fat of the pig are used in Syriac medicine (see Budge, , Syrian Anatomy, Pathology, and Therapeutics, vol. ii)Google Scholar. Pig's gall, blood, and dung occur in the Assyrian medical texts (see Thompson, R. Campbell, Proc. Royal Soc. of Medicine (Hist. Sect.), vol. xvii, 5Google Scholar, 12, 27, etc.

^{page 602 note 1} The Leiden Papyri, I, 343 and 345, are parts of one and the same manuscript. The pig is mentioned in 343, recto, i, 1, and i, 11, and verso ii, 9.

^{page 602 note 2} Harris Magical Papyrus, v, 4.

^{page 602 note 3} For jackals towing the solar barque see plate in Rossi, Una Papiro Funerario.

^{page 602 note 4} Newberry, , Beni Hasan, iiGoogle Scholar, pl. iv.

^{page 602 note 5} Daressy, , Bull, de l'Inst. Franc., t. xxii, p. 175Google Scholar.

^{page 603 note 1} Lacau, Textes Religieux, No. 60.

^{page 603 note 2} Peet, , Rhind Mathematical Papyrus, p. 25Google Scholar.

^{page 603 note 3} For some unknown reason the cynocephalus of Thoth is almost always spoken of as an ape by Egyptologists.

^{page 603 note 4} Davis, The Tombs of Harmhabi, etc, pls. liii–lv.

^{page 604 note 1} Bonomi-Sharpe, The Alabaster Sarcophagus, pl. v.

^{page 604 note 2} Lefebure, Les Hypogées Royaux, part iii, pl. lxiv.

^{page 604 note 3} Rosellini, Mon. Culto, pl. lxvi; Champollion, Monuments, pl. cclxxvii, and Notices, ii, pp. 495–6.

^{page 604 note 4} Sharpe, , Egyptian Inscriptions, II, ix–xGoogle Scholar.

^{page 604 note 5} Unpublished. It is “sarcophagus of Qem-hap. XXXth Dyn. No. 1504.”

^{page 604 note 6} Bibl. Nat. Papyri, Nos. 177 and 178. Unpublished: I quote from photographs of them. I have mentioned these papyri in connexion with the significance of the number seven in Æyptus, vol. viii, p. 104.

^{page 605 note 1} British Museum Papyrus, No. 10,471.

^{page 605 note 2} Naville, Papyrus Funéraires de la XXIe. Dynastie, ii, Le Papyrus de Katseshni au Musée du Caire, pl. xxxii, line 16; so also the Greenfield Papyrus (B.M. 10,554), xvii, 8. In pl. xxii, line 14, the same spell occurs with the original reading

^{page 605 note 3} So the papyri Brit. Mus. No. 9905; Louvre No. 3074, etc.

^{page 605 note 4} So the Papyrus of Nu and many others.

^{page 605 note 5} So the Papyrus of Iouyia; Brit. Mus. 10,009; Louvre 3097, etc.

^{page 605 note 6} Petrie, , Amulets, p. 47Google Scholar, and pl. xxxii.

^{page 605 note 7} Maspero, , Guide du Musée du Boulaq, 1884, p. 274Google Scholar.

^{page 605 note 8} Reisner, , Amulets (Cat. Gen. Musée du Caire), pp. 162–4, and pl. xxGoogle Scholar.

^{page 606 note 1} Petrie, Abydos, ii, pl. vi.

^{page 606 note 2} Brugsch, , Monumens de l'Egypte (1857), pls. ix, xGoogle Scholar.

^{page 606 note 3} Brugsch, op. cit., pls. v, vi.

^{page 606 note 4} The latter form is frequently found in papyri and coffins of the twentyfirst dynasty. Examples: Pap. Shrine, No. II (= Blackman, Journ. Egyptian Arch., vol. v, pl. iv, No. 7); Pap. of Queen Henttōwē (= Mariette, Papyrus du Musée de Boulaq, t. iii, pl. xix); Pap. Louvre 3287 (twice), etc. The association of the pig in late times with the Feast of Rokeh may perhaps account for the entry on fragment 14 of the Tanis Geographical Papyrus (Two Hieroglyphic Papyri from Tanis, pl. x), in which the pig and the crocodile are mentioned under the date i.e. the month of the “Little Heat”.

^{page 606 note 5} In this connexion see Gardiner, , Tomb of Amenemhēt, pp. 28–30Google Scholar.

^{page 606 note 6} The constellation rrt is often represented as a hippopotamus from the nineteenth dynasty onward. In the Hood Papyrus (B.M. 10,202, p. 1, line 5) the constellation is called .

^{page 607 note 1} First explained by Goodwin, , Zeitschr. für äg. Sprache, Bd. vi, p. 17Google Scholar, who showed that the word as thus graphically written means “stop-pig”.

^{page 607 note 2} Champollion, Monuments, pl. cccxlix, bis; Daressy, , Bull, de l'Inst. Franç. d'Arch. Orient., t. xii (1916), p. 5Google Scholar.

^{page 607 note 3} Dümichen, , Tempelinschriften, II, xix, 9Google Scholar (Dendereh).

^{page 607 note 4} Rochmonteix, , Le Temple d'Edfou, i, 388Google Scholar (Edfu).

^{page 607 note 5} Plutaroh, , De Iside et Osiride, viiiGoogle Scholar: Sextus Empiricus (Pyrrh. iii, 223) says that an Egyptian priest would rather die than eat pork.

^{page 608 note 1} Paheri also had priestly as well as civil titles, and the Nebamun of Tomb 146 at Thebes was attached to the temple of Amun.

^{page 608 note 2} In addition to the earlier studies of this section of the Book of the Dead, see the recent articles by Sethe, , Zeitschr. fur dg. Sprache, Bd. lviii, pp. 1–24Google Scholar, and Naville, , Revue de l'Egypte Ancienne, t. i, pp. 245–9Google Scholar.

^{page 608 note 3} Book ii, cap. 69.

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