ass and Typho, but from the stupidity likewise and sensuality of his
disposition; and agreeably to this notion, having a more particular
hatred to Ochus than to any other of the Persian monarchs who reigned
over them, looking upon him as an execrable and abominable wretch, they
gave him the nickname of the Ass, which drew the following reply from
that prince, 'But this ass shall dine upon your ox,' and accordingly he
slew the Apis: this story is thus related by Dino."
In certain phases of his myth Set is symbolized as a black pig.
Especially is this the case when he is shown by Ra to Horus, and tears
the latter's eye out of his head.
Anubis
Anubis, or, as the Egyptians called him, An-pu, was, according to some,
the son of Osiris and Nephthys, and to others the son of Set. He had the
head of a jackal and the body of a man, and was evidently symbolical of
the animal which prowled about the tombs of the dead. His worship was of
great antiquity, and it may be that in early times he had been a totem.
He was the guide of the dead in the underworld on their way to the abode
of Osiris. In many mythologies a dog is the companion of the dead man
to the otherworld. Its remains are found in prehistoric graves; in both
Mexico and Peru dogs were sacrificed at burial, and, indeed, the custom
is a very widespread one. Now it is not improbable that Anubis may have
typified the prehistoric half-domesticated jackal, or early type of dog
that was supposed to guide the wanderer through the underworld. Plutarch
says of Anubis that the Egyptians imagine a resemblance between him and
the dog.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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