Animals played a massive role in the cultural landscape of the ancient Egyptians. They were much more than pack haulers or food, they played a large part in religion. Many of the Egyptian gods were represented as part animal, mostly by their heads. Horus and Anubis, probably two of the more well-known Egyptian gods, were represented in this way. Horus had the head of a hawk and Anubis had the head of a jackal.
It is because of the large role that animals played in Egyptian society that I would like to write about their role. I specifically want to focus on the religious and mythological aspects of their significance, but I still would like to talk about other aspects of their importance to the Egyptians. Animals were included in the Egyptian hieroglyphs that decorate the ruins throughout the country. They were not on here solely as pictures of the animal, but sometimes they were included in the hieroglyphs for certain words as well.
It is often said that the Egyptians worshipped cats. While I can completely understand that since cats are amazing and adorable, I know that they did not worship them in a strict religious sense. Like a lot of animals in ancient Egypt, cats held religious and cultural significance to the Egyptian people. In some parts of Egypt people strictly worshipped one of the gods, and animal cults appeared. Normal people and cults alike sometimes built grand temples and other various structures dedicated to this one animal god. In these structures archaeologists usually discover the remains of many of the animal that the place is dedicated to. In a temple dedicated to Thoth at Saqqara, archaeologists discovered the remains of tens of thousands of ibises. Ibises are birds that are considered sacred to the Egyptian god Thoth. It is not thought that these were sacred animals that lived in the temple, but offerings made by visitors to the temple.
Animals were used in religious rituals and a lot of times they were killed and mummified to be buried along with pharaohs and other people throughout Egyptian history that had tombs large enough for these extra mummies.
“Sacred” animals were ones that resided in temples that were generally dedicated to the god the animal represented. These sacred animals were said to be oracular in nature, meaning they could see or comprehend things that normal people could not. Apparently visitors to temples could ask these oracular animals questions and actually receive answers in return. If visitors to these temples were grateful for the answer they were given they could give “payment” by burying an animal sacrifice at or near the temple. The sacrifice was always an animal related to the god the sacred animal that they just talked to represented. Although it seems like some discrepancy was allowed for sacrifices to some gods. Anubis, for example, has the head of a jackal which is a type of canine. People would sacrifice dogs to Anubis, which makes me wonder what else was allowed when it came to things like this.
I am just scratching the surface of the significance of animals in Egypt and the subject is something that I have always found very interesting.
Bibliography
Nicholson, Paul. Ikram, Salima. Mills, Steve. June 2015. The Catacombs of Anubis at North Saqqara. Cambridge University Press.
Velde, H Te. June 1980. A few remarks upon the religious significance of animals in ancient Egypt. Numen Leyden Vol 27. p 76-82.
Atherton, Stephanie. Brothwell, Don. David, Rosalie. McKnight, Lidija. March 2012. A healed femoral fracture of Threskiornis aethiopicus (Sacred Ibis) from the Animal Cemetery at Abydos, Egypt. International Journal of Paleopathology Vol 2. p 45-47.
I think your topic sounds like a great one for research and has a lot of potential questions. You said you wanted to focus most specifically on how animals held significance in a more religious aspect and there’s a lot of room for work there. It also sounds like you want to look at what each animal was meant to represent and how they connected to the mortal world for day to day life in ancient Egypt. I think as an option to be more specific, you could look at not only what the different animals represented but how the importance of each one varied in different areas and even time periods throughout ancient Egypt and what that said about the different cults that worshipped them. I think it might be interesting to look at what it says about the cults that their deities were depicted as having animal heads but human bodies. It might also be interesting to look into why those cults buried animals with their dead and what purpose that was supposed to serve and how that practice could have changed over time and from area to area. Another interesting idea might be to compare the importance of animals to the ancient Egyptians to different cultures and religions around the world. You could look at groups nearby or far away and how they differed in their worship of animals. Overall, I think you’ve got a great topic with a lot of potential to move forward with and many aspects to explore.
I think this topic is really interesting. Animals have such big roles in every culture, whether it is for consumption, travel, companionship, or protection. Each animal has their role to play and I find it quite interesting that their gods take on forms of certain animals. I wonder if it has to do with certain characteristics matching both animal and god, or if there is another factor that matches the gods to their animal equivalent. I actually just had a conversation with a professor of mine about findings of scrolls within mummified animals at Hierakonpolis. I haven’t heard or read anything about this finding, but it might be something that could be significant to your paper to add. I wonder if it would have anything to do with sacrificing to the gods or leaving messages or maybe something completely different. I’m also curious if they actually kept animals as companions. Most animals that were indigenous to the Egyptian region represents a god or goddess. Since these creatures were considered to be sacred would any of these animals be kept as pets? Would that diminish their god’s power, or would this be a huge privilege to be able to tame one of these animals? I also agree with the previous comment, it would be interesting to see how neighboring regions, that Egypt interacted with, treated their animals. Is this a common occurrence in this period? I also think it would be interesting to see, if they do have connections between god and animal, if the Egyptian god equivalent has the same animal representation as the other region. I’m interested in seeing in what your research on this topic turns up!
Your topic is something that I almost wrote about. Similar to you, I have always found the deities the connection to animals to be interesting. Specific animals in every culture always symbolize something. They are often in a lot of myths and folklore that try to teach a lesson or value. For example, lions represent power or strength in many cultures. Several of the Egyptian gods take on forms of animals. I assume the deities took on forms of animals native to Egypt, but I am not 100% sure. It would be interesting to compare their symbolic meaning to other cultures or further more if their meanings of the animals changed through out time. I think you should include some animals that were native to the Egyptians and focus on how that specific animal came to be significant. I thought it was interesting that parts of Egypt only praised one of the gods. Do you plan to talk about Egypt as a whole or do you plan on mentioning specific parts of Egypt? It would be interesting to know why some Egyptians picked one god over another. Did the Pharaohs ruling force people to follow certain gods or did Egyptians have free religion? It would also be neat to find out why throughout history do humans use animals as symbols? Why do animals represent certain traits? You talked a lot about how animals of the temples were made to sacrifices as offerings, were there any other rituals that happened besides sacrifice? Your paper I am sure will turn out great with more detail.