Egyptian pig amulet in blue-glaze faience. Raised area on back is probably meant to signify erect bristles, emphasizing sow’s ferocity. 600 b.c.e. Drawing HMR.My Sow Goddess essay part 2 is now posted at Return to Mago. These essays are intended to stand on their own, but if you want to read the first Sow Goddess article it’s here.This second piece talks about Mediterranean porcine deities, including those in Egypt. The dietary prejudice against the pig that developed throughout the Middle East is touched upon here and will be explored again in a later article.
Photo Ben Salter.The Return to Mago blog is running a series of articles I have written about the Sow Goddess, entitled The Old Sow. There will be four articles, which I believe each stand on their own.The research for this series was more arduous than any I have undertaken in a long time. In my experience when research becomes time consuming it is either because there is a huge amount of information about the subject–or very little. In this case, it was both. The archeological record for worship of the sow goddess is quite large, and the information available in myth and folklore is substantial as well. However, this information is also very scattered considering the amount of it, and I had to pull data together from many sources. Robert Graves in the 1949 book The White Goddess emphasized the importance of the sow in pre-patriarchal religion. This book has always been controversial, but Graves is correct on this point. It’s quite amazing that no one has taken on an extensive study of the topic. Though my series of four short articles is hardly exhaustive, I urge everyone to follow these articles and become more familiar with the Sow Goddess. I will be posting updated links to the articles as they are published.
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