10 Facts About Ancient Egyptian Animals That Will Baffle You
1. Harem for the bull
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For most of the history of ancient Egypt, there was always one lucky bull that was treated equally with the god: it was called "Apis". At first, the ancient Egyptians chose one special animal from all the bulls, which, as it seemed to them, differed from the rest in that it had divine marks. Then they took the bull to the temple, where they gave it all kinds of honors that any person would envy.
The life of this bull was amazing. It received a whole harem of cow concubines and ate cakes with honey. In honor of the animal's birthday, the Egyptians held feasts during which it had to choose oracles. They even made sacrifices for the bull: butchers slaughtered oxen and cows in front of it.
Women were forbidden to touch the sacred bull, except for the four-month period when it was led to the city of Nikopol. There, the women, according to tradition, exposed their bodies in front of the animal.
When the bull died, it was buried with all honors. Then the ancient Egyptians chose a new bull, and everything was repeated all over again.
2. The ancient Egyptians tamed hyenas
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Before choosing cats and dogs, people experimented with the domestication of various animals. Five thousand years ago, for example, the ancient Egyptians tried to domesticate hyenas. According to drawings found in the tombs of the pharaohs, in 2800 BC, the ancient Egyptians began to use hyenas as hunting dogs. The great Egyptian rulers pursued prey with a pack of hunting dogs and hyenas.
However, the ancient Egyptians did not really stand on ceremony with these animals. Although hyenas were considered pets, their owners could easily cook dinner out of them. When the hyena got too big, it was killed and roasted for some holiday.
Hyenas never took root as pets. After several generations, the ancient Egyptians refused to keep these wild animals in their homes.
3. The first pharaoh of a united Egypt was killed by a hippo
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King Menes was the first ruler of "Upper and Lower Egypt". He lived around 3000 BC and is considered one of the most legendary figures in ancient Egyptian history. He united the peoples and ruled them for 60 years, after which he was killed by a hippopotamus. We do not know the details of what exactly happened. The Egyptian historian Manetho writes: “Menes was the first king. He was captured and killed by a hippo." That's all we know.
This story happened 5000 years ago, so it is quite possible that it is a myth. But the strangest thing is that Menes was a hero. If the incident connected with his death was invented, this means that the ancient Egyptians considered it worthy to die in the jaws of a hippopotamus.
4. Mongooses Were Considered Sacred Animals
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The ancient Egyptians considered mongooses to be sacred animals. They saw these little furry creatures kill cobras and were impressed by the sight. In honor of the mongooses, they created bronze statues, and also wore amulets with their image as protection. Some Egyptians kept mongooses as pets. In their graves, archaeologists have discovered the mummified remains of these animals.
In addition, mongooses are mentioned in ancient Egyptian mythology. According to one of the myths, the god Ra turned into a mongoose to defeat evil.
Another, crazier story says that one legendary mongoose climbed into the open mouth of a sleeping crocodile and subsequently gnawed through the belly of a predator to get out.
5. Killing cats was punishable by death
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In Egypt, the punishment for killing cats was the death penalty. Even if you accidentally hit it with a chariot, death still awaited you. There were no exceptions.
The ancient Greek historian Diodorus Siculus wrote that once the king of Egypt tried to save a Roman who accidentally killed a cat. However, the people were against mercy; people said that even if they had to fight with Rome, they would not allow the killer to go unpunished. The Egyptian king had no choice but allow them to commit lynching. They mob beat the poor Roman to death and left his body to rot in the street.
The excessive love of the Egyptians for cats once led to disaster. In 525 BC, they invaded the territory of Persia. The Persians painted images of the goddess Bast on their shields and formed a "protection" of dogs, sheep and cats in front of their army. According to them, "The Egyptians valued these animals very much."
The Egyptians were so afraid of accidentally injuring the cats that they decided to surrender to the Persians. However, this did not help the animals. After the victory, the king of Persia reportedly traveled all over Egypt, throwing cats in people's faces.
6. When cats died, families went into mourning
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The death of a cat was considered a tragedy. It was equated with the loss of a close relative. When this happened, all family members went into mourning. In ancient Egypt, this meant that they had to shave off their eyebrows. The dead cat's body was wrapped in expensive cloth and embalmed using cedar oil and spices to give it a pleasant scent. Then the dead cat was mummified and buried in the catacombs along with milk, mice or rats. In one of these cat tombs, archaeologists discovered 80,000 dead animals.
7. They hunted with trained cheetahs
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By ancient Egyptian standards, cheetahs were "small," harmless cats, so they thought they could be kept as pets.
However, not every average Egyptian could afford to own a cheetah, unlike the pharaohs. In particular, Ramses II filled his palace with trained lions and cheetahs. As the paintings on the walls of ancient Egyptian tombs show, pharaohs often took tamed cheetahs on hunting trips with them.
8. Ancient Egypt had a city for sacred crocodiles
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The Egyptian city of Crocodilopolis was a religious center and a whole cult dedicated to the crocodile god named Sobek. Here lived the sacred crocodile, which the Egyptians called "Suchus" (from the Greek - "crocodile"). People from all over the ancient world flocked to Crocodilopolis to make a pilgrimage and see the sacred crocodile with their own eyes.
The crocodile was covered in gold and jewels. Every day a group of priests came to it and brought gifts in the form of food. They forcefully opened its mouth and forced it to eat. They also fed the animal wine. While one priest held the crocodile's mouth open, another poured wine into it.
When the sacred crocodile died, it was buried with all honors. Its body was wrapped in expensive cloth and mummified, after which they were buried in the catacombs. The ancient Egyptians then chose a new crocodile to wear jewelry and drink wine.
9. The ancient Egyptians thought scarabs were magically born from dung
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You probably know that the ancient Egyptians wore small amulets depicting scarabs. Everyone did it: both rich and poor people. The Egyptians believed that scarabs had magical powers. As a rule, this detail is omitted in historical films.
Scarabs love to roll balls of dung on the ground and hide them in their burrows. Then the females lay eggs inside these balls, from which small bugs subsequently appear. The Egyptians were able to observe most of this process, apart from oviposition; so they believed that scarabs had no mother at all. They believed that these beetles magically appear from the dung. They also thought that the Sun was a larger version of the balls that the scarabs rolled on the ground. But the ancient Egyptians did not realize that these balls were made from dung. It’s even worse, they thought they were the sperm of scarabs.
10. Pharaohs who warred over hippos
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One of the greatest wars in ancient Egypt was fought over the Pharaoh's beloved hippos. Pharaoh Taa II Seqenenra kept a pond in which his favorite hippos lived, frolicked and splashed. He simply adored these huge animals and was ready to die for them if necessary. Basically, that's what happened.
At that time, Egypt was divided. The territories inhabited by the Hyksos were ruled by the powerful pharaoh Apopi I. The less influential Taa II Sekenenra was obliged to pay tribute to Apopi I. He endured all the humiliations of the tyrant until he told him to get rid of his hippos.
Apopi I ordered to tell Taa II that his animals prevented him from sleeping with their loud cries - and this despite the fact that he lived 750 kilometers from them! Taa II considered such a request an insult and declared war on Apopi I.
Unfortunately, he died in battle fighting for his beloved pets. But the war didn't end there. It was continued by the son of Taa II. Two generations of kings fought over the hippo pond. When the war finally ended, Egypt again became a single state.
Ancient Egypt was one of the greatest civilizations on earth. The ancient Egyptians lived at the dawn of history; that period was very different from the modern world.
One of these differences concerned their gods, who had animal heads. This may seem like an insignificant detail, but it influenced the way of life of the ancient Egyptians significantly. They treated animals with reverence, unlike us - and this led to the emergence of truly strange cases that history leaves without attention, as a rule.
