Soulful Creatures. Edward Bleiberg

encountered animals figured prominently in Egyptian mythology. The image of a cow giving birth to a calf translated into a symbol of fertility, maternal protection, and the daily birth of the sun from the sky goddess.{2} Deities in animal or combined human-animal form proliferated in official Egyptian religion, with their own temples or shrines throughout the country. On a private level, images of animals appeared on objects of worship and amulets. Scribes kept small images of seated baboons, representing their patron god, Thoth, and pregnant mothers used amulets of the hippo Taweret for protection at home (figure 17) .

      Representations of domesticated cattle, sheep, and goats emerged around 5000 b.c.e. at sites like Merimde, one of the earliest settlements in the Nile Delta. Depictions of animals as figures and on palettes, ritual combs, and knives were already common in Predynastic times.

      Images of Royal Authority

      Predynastic images of wild-animal hunts show a desire to capture and control creatures associated with the margins of creation, for use in protective temple rituals. One of the most important Predynastic settlements of Hierakonpolis, dated to Naqada II–III (circa 3500–3100 b.c.e.), revealed a variety of ritually buried animals, including cattle, hippopotami, donkeys, dogs, baboons, gazelles, crocodiles, and elephants, among others.{3} Their healed bone fractures suggest that some wild and rare animals remained in captivity for a certain time before being sacrificed.

      In the Predynastic and Early Dynastic Periods, the iconography of royal authority included lions, bulls, and other large, powerful creatures. Like these fierce animals, the early rulers subdued neighboring chiefs and kept them at bay. At the same time, the ability to capture and effectively control large wild animals served as a display of supremacy for Predynastic chiefs. Interestingly, the names of early rulers, like Narmer, whose name means “catfish,” and his likely predecessor Scorpion, refer to dangerous and aggressive, if smaller, animals.

      By the time the Egyptian state formed, the significance of certain animals was firmly established in the culture. Under a government that was newly stable and powerful, symbols of overarching control gained special importance. Although rarely depicted in the Predynastic, the falcon appeared at the pinnacle of Early Dynastic iconography, identified as the god Horus, the symbol and protector of Egyptian kingship (figure 18) . And with the development of writing and the standardization of art, the integral place of animals in the Egyptian worldview became more apparent. The Egyptian conception of creation described animals as an equal part of creation, along with humans, as a New Kingdom hymn to the god Aten emphasizes: “August God who fashioned himself, who made every land, created what is in it, all peoples, herds, and flocks, all trees that grow from soil; they live when you dawn for them.”{4} Despite this seeming equality, however, evidence points to captured wild animals kept in a zoo-like enclosure in the New Kingdom palace of Amenhotep III. Similarly, Old Kingdom and later tombs abound in images of domesticated cattle and goats, while scenes of fishing, hunting, and bird netting represent the margins of the surrounding universe in the tombs’ lower registers.

      Animals in Ritual

      Animal cults focusing on the worship of a singular, “sacred” animal persisted from the First Dynasty into the Roman Period. Each was a distinct, individual beast with special markings, revered as the chosen embodiment of a specific god. After death, such sacred animals were embalmed and buried with great pomp, becoming the earliest precursors of later animal cults. The role of each sacred animal as the earthly manifestation of a god parallels that of the king, who became Horus when crowned. Both kings and sacred animals functioned as intermediaries between humanity and the gods. At death, both were interred in designated necropolises, next to their predecessors.

      The sacred Apis bull played a part in rituals of royal renewal from early on. Coinciding with changes to the Apis cult and establishment of the Serapeum (figure 19), the veneration of more than one representative of a species associated with a god appeared in the Eighteenth Dynasty, and intensified by the Twenty-sixth Dynasty (figure 20).

      The archaeological context of Predynastic animal images points to early rituals associated with divinities and their use as votives, another practice akin to later animal mummies.{5} By the Late Period, the connection between animals and religious rituals had become more common, as more animals joined the ranks of semi-divine creatures capable of embodying a god. The gradual growth of animal cults does not have much inscriptional or archaeological evidence, likely because their initial surge took place among the popular, rather than official-temple religion. Eventually, this phenomenon picked up royal support in the reigns of Ahmose II, Nectanebo I–II, and Ptolemy I. At the same time, the taxation of cult centers and offices serving animal cults must have financially benefitted the state in a substantial way.{6}

      Mummified Animals: A Brief Bestiary

      As the popularity of animal cults grew in the Late Period of Egyptian history, more species were mummified, and in greater numbers. To better understand the phenomenon, let us examine some of the specific kinds of animals that were mummified, their roles in everyday life, and their selected religious associations from preceding periods.

      In this brief bestiary, mammals are discussed first (agricultural, then domesticated, then wild), followed by birds, reptiles, fish, and finally insects.

      Cattle

      Domesticated around 5000 b.c.e., cows and bulls were used as a food source and helped work the fields. Possession of large cattle herds indicated the status of their owner. Scenes of cattle-counting and of assisting in the birth of calves frequently appear in Old Kingdom and later tombs. Models of daily life representing cattle stables and slaughterhouses are numerous in the Middle Kingdom. Beef was part of elite menus, and haunches of beef are typically included as funerary offerings.

      Bovines were among the first animals to acquire strong associations with specific divinities, and the first large animals to be venerated and mummified after death. One of the most prominent goddesses, Hathor, depicted as a cow or a cow-headed woman, possessed the cow’s motherly qualities as a producer of milk and protector of calves. Regarded as the daughter of Re and one of the goddesses of the Eye of the Sun, Hathor represented the peaceful, protective aspect of female divinities. Such musical instruments as the sistrum are decorated with faces of Hathor because of her associations with music, love, and sexuality. She was one of the few goddesses with temples throughout Egypt. Hathor, whose name means “House of Horus,” was believed to protect and nurse the young Horus. She is the mother of Horus in Pyramid Text 303, paragraph 466: “You are Horus, son of Osiris. You, Unis, are the eldest god, the son of Hathor.”{7} Following Horus’s link with kingship, Hathor was seen as the divine mother of each king, a notion frequently evoked in scenes of the goddess suckling the king. Also known as the “Lady of the West,” she received and protected the setting sun, and by association, the deceased. Other goddesses, including Nut, Isis, and Bat, were also represented as a woman with cow horns and ears (figure 21) .

      The bull’s strength and fertility became symbolic of royal power during the early Egyptian state. Images of bulls depict the sun god, primordial time, and creation; the fore part of a bull represents a constellation in Egyptian astronomical maps. Predynastic and Early Dynastic images of charging bulls symbolized the ruler. Later pharaohs wore bull’s tails in association with the might and virility of this animal, and New Kingdom pharaohs adopted the epithet “Mighty Bull.” Nonetheless, records from the First Dynasty king Aha refer to kings spearing bulls as part of a ritual royal hunt. The choicest parts were subsequently offered to a god, and consumed, allowing the king to assimilate the animal’s strength. The bull’s fertility symbolized one of the most important features of the Egyptian landscape: the annual inundation that brought fertile soil to the Nile valley.

      Several bulls were considered to be sacred animals as offspring and representatives of a specific god. The most prominent of these was Apis, venerated since the Early Dynastic Period.{8}