Dog Folklore

Dog Folklore:

Although humans have utilized the dogs for over 10,000 years, it has attracted very little folklore until relatively recently. In

the great trilogy of world religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, the dog is seldom mentioned and when it is, the reference is usually negative. Two out standing exceptions exist - ancient Persia and China, where early folklore and superstition abound with dogs; indeed, they were regularly used to participate in religious rituals. Not without coincidence, these are the regions where some of the earliest and most important dog breeding took place.

A good-luck talisman

There are many Chinese traditions concerning the dog in dog folklore. This 19th-century silken embroidery depicts the "Fu Dog", which was thought to bring good fortune and happiness.

A French Werewolf

The "Wild Beast of Gevaudan", a ferocious werewolf, was reputed to have killed dover 80 people in the Gavaudan region of France. Here, it appears in a medieval book of illustrations.

Biblical Dogs

Folklore, the tribal stories of our real or imagined ancestors, offers exciting clues as to how people thought and lived thousands of years ago. The Jewish Bible - the Old Testament - recounts, often in intimate detail, the tribal history of one ancient group of people.

It contains about 30 references to dogs in dog folklore, of which all but two are negative. From the Old Testament we know that dogs guarded the flocks of the tribes of Israel, but nothing suggests that a bond of affection existed between them, and dogs were undoubtedly regarded as unclean scavengers.

Ancient Jewish tradition did not allow images of animals but in nearly Egypt, where animals were worshipped, artists portrayed a variety of different breeds. However, none of these played a significant role in religion or folklore. The Egyptian god Anubis, whose responsibility was to accompany the souls of the deceased to their final judgment, is depicted with a human body and what some consider to be a dog's head. It is more likely that the head is not that of a dog, but that of the jackal. Although Herolotus wrote that the Egyptians mourned when dogs or cats died, judging from the large number of mummified cats and extremely small number of mummified dogs, as regards dogs, this practice was probably an exception rather than the rule.

Elsewhere in the region, stone carvings indicate that the Babylonians bred great warrior mastiffs. Nearby, the Assyrian nobility used dogs for hunting. A superb bas-relief in the British Museum in London shows the Assyrian King Assurbanipal hunting with great mastiff dogs. Dogs do not, however, seem to play any major role in local folklore.

Dog deity

The Egyptian jackal-headed god Anubis personifies the popular tradition of worshipping a deity that is half man and half dog (or jackal)

Greek Mythology

Dogs do participate in a number of early Greek legends.

Xanthippus, the father of Pericles, was said to have owned a dog that swam by the side of his master's galley to the city of Salamis when the Athemians were forced to abanon their city. The dog was buried beside his master at a site known ever since as

Cynossema, the dog's grave. Alexander the Great is said to have founded and named a city, Peritas, in memory of his dog.

The line between folklore and early literature is difficult to define. The Greek writer Homer used figures from Greek mythology and historical events to create his incomparable epic stores.

Homer's magnificent description of the sagacious and faithful hound Argus, recognizing Ulysses on his return, when no one else could, and his sensitive account of the dogs belonging to the swine heder Eumaeus, demonstrate that Homer understood dog behavior.

The dog's role in Greek religion was usually sacrificcial. Kennels of dogs were kept at the sanctuary of Asclepius at Epidaurus, and Asclepius was occasionally represented accompanied by a dog that could heal the sick by licking them. More frequently, however, dogs were sacrificed because they were plentiful, inexpensive, and easy to control.

The dog in Christianity

This wooden benchfinial of a dog, located in Swaffham, East Angle, England was inspired by a local myth concerning a pedlar who gave money to rebuild the churches of Saints Peter and Paul in dog folklore.

Roman Mythology

The early Romans also sacrificed dogs. For example, at the annual Roman festival of Robigalia, a dog was killed at the fifth milestone on the Via Claudia. Despite this, the Romans clearly view the dogs with great affection, and their folklore abounds with stories of dogs' courage and fidelity.

Regional Influences

Christian and Islamic cultures inherited attitudes to dogs from their ancestral religion. However, these attitudes were modified by the folklore and traditions of the regions in which these religions developed.

In Europe, Chritianity was influenced by regional and Roman folklore. Stories about the devotion of the dog developed throughout northern European folklore. The Norse Saga of Olaf.

Triggvason contains descriptions of the faithfulness of dogs, as does the story of Cavall, the favorite hound of the English King Arthur in dog folklore. The saga fo Gelert, the Welsh Prince Llewellyn's great hound, is typical. Gelert was left at home with the king's son, Owain. Llewellyn returned to find blood on the dog's face and his son missing. He killed the dog with his sword, only to discover his son safe, beside the body of a slain wolf. In honor of the valour of Gelert, he had a statue cast in his memory.

The Fu Dog

The "Fu", or "Lion Dog", an ever-recurring symbol in Chinese cultures, is representaed here in ceramic.

In Islam, however, the dog was regarded as "unclean". Islam incorporates rules about sanitation and public health. In a region where rabies was, and still is, endemic, the Islamic responsibility to undergo a cleansing after being "contaminated" by dog saliva has obvious public health mreit. Native American folklore is of more recent origin - legend says that dogs were sacrificed throughout the Americas.

Throughout history, dogs have been used to portray human characters. In this 16th-century anti-Catholic allegory, the dog is used to play the part of the clergy.

POSITIVE ROLE

It is in the most sophisticated and earliest of civilization, China, that the dog plays its greatest role in religion, folklore(dog folklore), and mythology. While black cats play a central

role in European superstitions, in ancient China black dogs filled this role. Written records from over 4,000 years ago reveal that dog trainers were held in esteem and that kennel masters controlled large groups of dogs.

The "Fu Dog", a recurring theme in Chinese culture, has the positive attribute of bringing happiness and good fortune. A great dal of the dog's early domestication took place in ancient China. It is probably here that both dwarfing and miniaturization occurred, creating companion breeds. It is here, too, that the first pack-hunting dogs were bred.

The other ancient people with an extensive mythology about dogs are the Parsees of Persia. The religion Zoroastrianism was introduced into what is now Iran by a religious figure, Zarathustra, about 2,750 years ago. One of the volumes of the Zend Avesta, the eseven sacred books of the religions, is devoted to the care and breeding of dogs, and one section describes the dogs, and one section describes the dog's many contrasting characteristics.

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