Dog in Myth, Mythology and Folklore
by In Eurasia around 12,000 B.C.—or much earlier, according to some theorists—the dog became the first animal to be domesticated by human beings. Cats continue to appear wild even when raised in the family living room. Sheep and cattle generally stay together in herds, even under human direction. In the continual war between man and nature, only dogs appear to be on our side.
According to a legend of the Tehuelche Indians, after the sun god had created the first man and woman, the deity immediately created a dog to keep them company. Emotionally, dogs seem akin to human beings. Some people believe that dogs are the only animals apart from humans that can feel guilt. Others dismiss that perception as an anthropomorphic illusion or even hypocrisy. People often regard dogs as icons of either the faithful companion or the sycophant. In much the same way that the dog joins the realms of culture and nature, the mythic dog serves as a mediator between life and death.
In ancient Egypt, dogs and cats were the most beloved of pets. According to Herodotus, when the family dog died every person in the household would shave his or her entire body, including the head, in mourning. Many Egyptian pictures have been preserved through the ages of people caressing dogs, as well as using them in the hunt. While cats were associated with the sun god Ra, dogs were associated with the underworld and with death. The appearance of the Dog Star, Sirius, was a sign to people that they should prepare for the rising of the Nile River. Plutarch, however, reported in his essay “Isis and Osiris” that when the blasphemous conqueror from Persia, Cambyses, had slain the sacred bull Apis, only dogs would eat the body, and so the dog lost its status as the most honored animal among Egyptians. Throughout the ancient world, owners were interred with their dogs. Tombs with canine effigies or canine corpses alongside human bodies have been found throughout Eurasia and in parts of Africa as well as in pre-Columbian America. Just as dogs led hunters tracking game through the wilderness, they were expected to guide people through the next world. In Egypt, dogs were associated with Anubis, god of the dead, who is most often depicted with a human body and the head of a jackal or dog.
Lady Wilde has written of dogs in Ireland: “The peasants believe that the domestic animals know all about us, especially the dog and the cat. They listen to everything that is said; they watch the expression of the face and can even read the thoughts. The Irish say it is not safe to ask a question of a dog, for he may answer, and should he do so the questioner will surely die” (p. 146). The dog certainly shares the life of human society more intimately than any other animal. This, of itself, can make people feel uneasy. Human beings view dogs with a strange combination of affection and contempt, of domination and fear.
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