Dogs are a complex symbol, one with a long history with humans: as the first domesticated animal they are the very symbol of the domestication of instinct. They represent both loyalty and protection, but also dangerous aggression; the love of God, as well as the lowest filthy vermin. In Judaism and Islam dogs were seen in a generally negative light, a symbol of utter wretchedness (an example of compassion was shown by helping the lowly, reviled dog, as in the Muslim story below). This may be due to the fact that dogs were honored by the surrounding pagan cultures. In fact, the symbol of the dog has a deep connection with Goddesses, in particular with death/ the afterworld. In their attempt to distance themselves from pagans the Hebrews appear to have degraded dogs, just as they turned Cannanite gods into demons (Baal), and destroyed their holy places (the groves of Asherah). The irony, of course, is that this attitude itself is very dog-like; dogs are loyal and protective of their “pack” but aggressive towards outsiders.
Some pairs of opposites contained in the symbol of the dog are:
Protector/ destroyer
Hunts for us/ hunts us
Loving/ vicious
Loyal/ trickster
Wound healing/ eats filth
The Central American cadejo embodies the ambivalence of the dog; there are two different types of cadejos, white cadejos and black cadejos. One is a protector sent by God; the other the minion of the Devil, or the Devil himself.
While rarely negative symbols, [dogs] do have some unfavorable characteristics. Can be a depraved animal, cursed their enemies. 'Sick as a dog' came from the notion that they return to their vomit. Hated (with a few exceptions) at the end of the Bible: 'dogs, and sorcery, and whoremongers' outside New Jerusalem. Also a scavenger, envy, flattery, fury, war, greed, pitiless, bragging and folly.
There is a temple in Isin, Mesopotamia, named é-ur-gi-ra which translates as “dog house” Enlilbani, a king from the Old Babylonian First Dynasty of Isin, commemorated the temple to the goddess Ninisina. Although there is a small amount of detail known about it, there is enough information to confirm that a dog cult did exist in this area. Usually, dogs were only associated with the Gula cult, but there is some information, like Enlilbani’s commemoration, to suggest that dogs were also important to the cult of Ninisina, as Gula was another goddess who was closely associated to Ninisina. More than 30 dog burials, numerous dog sculptures, and dog drawings were discovered when the area around this Ninisina temple was excavated. In the Gula cult, the dog was used in oaths and was sometimes referred to as a divinity.
At archaeological diggings at the Philistine city of Ashkelon, a very large dog cemetery was discovered in the layer dating from when the city was part of the Persian Empire. It is believed the dogs may have had a sacred role - however, evidence for this is not conclusive.
The reason why dogs signify those who render the good of faith unclean through falsifications, is that dogs eat unclean things, and also bark at men and bite them. From this also it was that the nations outside the church who were in falsities from evil, were called dogs by the Jews, and were accounted most vile. That they were called dogs is manifest from the Lord's words to the Greek woman, the Syrophenician, whose daughter was grievously troubled with a demon…
The majority of both Sunni and Shi'a Muslim jurists consider dogs to be ritually unclean. It is uncommon for practising Muslims to have dogs as pets. They are viewed as scavengers.
------------------------------
There are a number of traditions concerning Muhammad's attitude towards dogs. He said that the company of dogs, except as helpers in hunting, herding, and home protection, voided a portion of a Muslim's good deeds. On the other hand, he advocated kindness to dogs and other animals. Abu Huraira narrated that the prophet said:
"While a man was walking he felt thirsty and went down a well, and drank water from it. On coming out of it, he saw a dog panting and eating mud because of excessive thirst. The man said, 'This (dog) is suffering from the same problem as that of mine.' So, he (went down the well), filled his shoe with water, caught hold of it with his teeth and climbed up and watered the dog. Allah thanked him for his (good) deed and forgave him. The people asked ``O Allah's Apostle! Is there a reward for us in serving (the) animals? He replied: ``Yes, there is a reward for serving any animate (living being).
Jesus told the story of the poor man Lazarus, whose sores were licked by street dogs. This has traditionally been seen as showing Lazarus's wretched situation.
The Catholic Church recognizes Saint Roch (also called Saint Rocco), who lived in the early 14th century in France, as the patron saint of dogs. It is said that he caught the plague while doing charitable work and went into the forest, expecting to die. There he was befriended by a dog which licked his sores and brought him food, and he was able to recover. The feast day of Saint Roch, August 16, is celebrated in Bolivia as the "birthday of all dogs."
When it came to depicting dogs in medieval art, the dog took on some of its classical attributes of watchfulness and fidelity. Sometimes dogs would be drawn next to a married woman, symbolizing her faithfulness. (There’s a reason one of the most common names for a pet dog through the centuries was Fido — it’s Latin for “faithful.”)
Other times dogs were seen as healers by virtue of the natural properties of their tongue. One commentary explains, “The dog’s ability to heal wounds by licking them represents how the wounds of sin can be cured by confession. The dog returning to its vomit signifies those who make confession but then return to their sinful ways.” St. Roch, a 14th-century patron invoked against the plague, is often pictured with his miracle-working dog, who healed sores by licking them.
Links:
The domesticated dog
Dogs are “man’s best friend,” valued for their loyalty and protectiveness. They were the first animal to be domesticated, possibly up to 36,000 years ago, with some evidence indicating that it may have started as far back as 140,000(!) years ago. For comparison the second animal to be domesticated was the sheep, at 11,000 years ago, the goat at 10,500 years ago, and the pig and cow both at 10,300 years ago. It would be fair to say that there’s a very good possibility that the domestication of the dog went far back enough to have influenced humanity’s evolution, as animal behaviorist Temple Grandin theorizes: No other primate hunts in packs, only humans have this very dog-like behavior. We may have learned this behavior from them. Scientists believe that a shift from a plant based diet to one with significant amounts of energy dense animal foods lead to the development of our huge prefrontal cortex (the part of the brain responsible for complex thinking); this could mean that dogs were instrumental in humans evolving into the big-brained apes that we are today.
Dogs represent the civilization of animal instinct. The dog is the tamed form of the dangerous, wild wolf. They are protective of their territory and aggressive to outsiders, but when they become dogs they are protective of their human family and aggressive towards any would be attackers. They are associated with civilization, and the bringers of fire. Like Prometheus, the trickster dog Coyote stole fire from heaven and gave it to humans. In Africa, the dog’s true name is Rukuba, guardian of fire, and Mayan codices refer to the dog as the bringer of fire to the people. In Asia (China, Japan, etc.), temples are guarded by lions, the symbol of fire and animal passions. These guardians are interchangeable with lion-dogs, “foo dogs,” and certain dog breeds like chow chows. Other images of dogs with fire is in St. Dominic’s mother’s dream (referenced above), and their association with the underground goddess Hecate, who is usually shown carrying two torches.
The philosophic school of Cynicism in ancient Greece takes its name from the Greek for `dog’ and those who followed this school were called Kynikos (dog-like) in part because of their determination to follow a single path loyally without swerving. The great Cynic philosopher Antisthenes taught in a locale known as Cynosarges (the place of the white dog) and this, perhaps, is another reason for their name.
It is really impossible to say exactly when dogs and humans first made contact. But in the words of the former Vice President of The Humane Society, Dr. Michael W. Fox, "Indeed the nature of the dog is such that it would not be an overstatement to say that the dog helped civilize the human species."
Dogs usually play the role of loyal helpers and friends of men in Native American folklore, just as they do in most other world mythology. Many Native American folktales have to do with the proper treatment of dogs – people who are kind and generous to their dogs are often rewarded, while people who abuse, disrespect, or even annoy dogs are harshly punished.
Presumably these legends reflect the high esteem that many tribes held dogs in – dogs were the only domesticated animals in most of North America and played crucial roles as pack animals, hunting companions, and camp guards. (They were also raised for food in some tribes, which is not necessarily incompatible with the theme of respect – some other animals that were regularly eaten by Native Americans, such as buffalo and bears, were highly respected and had taboos governing their treatment.) Occasionally dogs are represented in Native American folktales with negative traits such as being gullible, easily distracted, or even a tattletale, but in general, most Native Americans consider dogs a symbol of friendship and loyalty.
[B]lack and white dogs became symbols of the Dominican order or St. Dominic. This is in part due to a Latin phrase (Domini canes, “dogs of the Lord”) that closely resembles a Latin name of a Dominican friar (Dominicanus). Also, there is a story from the life of St. Dominic that said his mother had a dream that she would give birth to a dog with a torch in its mouth that would set the world on fire.
English poet Francis Thompson is well known for his poem “The Hound of Heaven,” which pictures God as a dog who continually pursues the wayward soul to bring it to redemption.
Dogs protected people not only from wild animals and thieves but also from supernatural threats. The goddess Trivia (the Roman version of the Greek Hecate) was the Queen of Ghosts, haunted crossroads and graveyards, and was associated with witchcraft. She stole upon people silently to prey on them but dogs were always aware of her first; a dog who seemed to be barking at nothing was thought to be warning one against the approach of Trivia or some other disembodied spirit.
Similar inscriptions in the surviving Mayan Codices depict the dog as the bringer of fire to the people and, in the Quiche Maya holy book, the Popol Vuh, dogs are instrumental in the destruction of the ungrateful and unknowing race of humans which the gods first produced and then repented of.
This creature also represents the often disturbing images that appear from our inner depths, just as the dog and wolf at the beginning of the path represent the tamed and the wild aspects of our minds.
The little dog represents culture, and the “taming” of the animal instinct.
Links:
Domestication timeline: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/dna-evidence-rewriting-domestication-origin-stories
Chinese temple guardians https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_Dog
The death dog
Dogs are associated with two main activities: guarding, and hunting. They are persistent and have an excellent sense of smell; they are the hunter who pursues, either for us or hunting us as prey ourselves. One of the best known of these dark hunts is the Wild Hunt of Odin. Not only are they seen as the hounds of entities who want to hunt us down and kills us (like Artemis or, in a more extreme version, Mallt-y-Nos), they are both the guardians of but also the guides of death. Dogs appear in many cultures as either psychopomps, or one’s afterlife is dependent upon how one treated dogs in life. Dogs are repeatedly shown as having a connection with death, the afterlife, and the Goddess in her dark form (Mallt-y-Nos, Hecate); Cerberus, guardian of Hades, is the offspring of the archaic, ancient serpent gods Echidna and Typhon. The symbol of the dog is connected with the deepest layers of the unconscious.
Dogs were closely associated with Hecate in the Classical world. Dogs were sacred to Artemis and Ares. Cerberus was the three-faced guard dog of the Underworld. Laelaps was a dog in Greek mythology. When Zeus was a baby, a dog, known only as the “golden hound” was charged with protecting the future King of Gods.
Xolotl, an Aztec god of death, was depicted as a dog-headed monster.
It is also believed to have a special connection with the afterlife: the Chinwad Bridge to Heaven is said to be guarded by dogs in Zoroastrian scripture, and dogs are traditionally fed in commemoration of the dead. Ihtiram-i sag, "respect for the dog", is a common injunction among Iranian Zoroastrian villagers.
Dogs were associated with Anubis, the jackal headed god of the underworld. At times throughout its period of being in use the Anubieion catacombs at Saqqara saw the burial of dogs.
The Tarascans, like the Aztecs and Maya, kept dogs as pets, for hunting, and for food and also linked them with the gods and the afterlife. The souls of those who died without proper burial, such as those who drowned or were lost in battle or died alone on a hunt, were found by spirit dogs who would ensure their safe passage to the afterlife.
In ancient India the dog was also highly regarded. The Indian Pariah Dog, which still exists today, is considered by many to be the first truly domesticated dog in history and the oldest in the world (though this has been challenged). The great cultural epic The Mahabharata (circa 400 BCE) significantly features a dog who may have been one of these Pariah Dogs. The epic relates, toward the end, the tale of King Yudisthira, many years after the Battle of Kurukshetra, making a pilgrimage to his final resting place. On the way he is accompanied by his family and his faithful dog. One by one his family members die along the path but his dog remains by his side. When, at last, Yudisthira reaches the gates of paradise he is welcomed for the good and noble life he has lived but the guardian at the gate tells him the dog is not allowed inside. Yudisthira is shocked that so loyal and noble a creature as his dog would not be allowed into heaven and so chooses to remain with his dog on earth, or even go to hell, than enter into a place which would exclude the dog. The guardian at the gate then tells Yudisthira that this was only a last test of his virtue and that, of course, the dog is welcome to enter also. In some versions of this tale the dog is then revealed to be the god Vishnu, the preserver, who has been watching over Yudisthira all his life, thus linking the figure of the dog directly to the concept of god.
Hekate was sometimes identified with Krataeis (Crataeis), the mother of the sea-monster Skylla (Scylla). She was also titled Skylakagetis (Leader of the Dogs), connecting her with the name of the monster.
As dogs were noted as great swimmers, they were thought to conduct the souls of the dead across the watery expanse to the afterlife, the netherworld of Xibalba. Once the soul had arrived in the dark realm, the dog served as a guide to help the deceased through the challenges presented by the Lords of Xibalba and to reach paradise.
Links:
Wild Hunt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Hunt
Artemis and Actaeon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actaeon
Mallt-y-Nos https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mallt-y-Nos
The Fearsome Hunt of Mallt-y-Nos https://issuu.com/premiumjoker4195/docs/141823487454888bfaf1462
Hellhound https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellhound
Hecate (“Skylakegatis” means leader of the dogs) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hecate
Links:
Posts:
No comments:
Post a Comment