Pigs: symbolism, significance and references

Spam glorious spam

There are some connections involving spam - the food not the unwanted emails.

First, spam is a tinned luncheon meat made from pork. It has been around for more than 80 years. Some suggestions for the origin of the name are, "spiced ham", "specially Processed American Meat, "spare meat", or "shoulders of pork and ham".

Most people are familiar with the tins, old or new style, even if they never touch the stuff. Note the knight in armour on the modern tins:



There is even a spam museum in the US, with statues of pigs outside:

Spam on the Python menu

The spam menu and a special collector’s edition tin of spam, created in honour of the Pythons:

Bavarian bronze pigs

These public art pigs are in Amberg:

George III and a very big Irish pig

aletheia I missed this very interesting remark by Prince Charles.

There is a long-standing relationship between the royals and pigs, as some of the pictures on here show. I thought that it started with Prince Albert and his big sow Betty, but George III, ’Farmer George’, took an interest in farm animals and was given an enormous hog as a peace offering by the Irish.

This event was a gift to the cartoonists. The King is the man in the blue coat and red sash:

Pigs in ancient Egypt: conflicting evidence of attitudes

Some authorities say that pigs were widely cultivated and sometimes eaten by the lower classes. The one on the following picture seems to be a pampered pet:

“Another servant, seated in a strange kind of basket, weans a young pig to which he seems to regurgitate milk into its mouth. Note (as an aside) the pig, which is known from excavations to have been abundantly preserved, is hardly ever represented in tombs, probably considered as an impure animal. Besides, it will later become an animal connected to the god Seth.“



www.osirisnet.net/mastabas/kagemni/e_kagemni_02.htm

"Why the Egyptians did not eat pork a reason from mythology.
O Batit of the evening, you swamp-dwellers, you of Mendes, ye of Buto, you of the shade of Re which knows not praise, you who brew stoppered beer---do you know why Rekhyt [Lower Egypt] was given to Horus? It was Re who gave it to him in recompense for the injury in his eye. It was Re--he said to Horus: "Pray, let me see your eye since this has happened to it" [injured in the fight with Seth]. Then Re saw it. Re said: "Pray, look at that injury in your eye, while your hand is a covering over the good eye which is there." Then Horus looked at that injury. It assumed the form of a black pig. Thereupon Horus shrieked because of the state of his eye, which was stormy [inflamed]. Horus said: "Behold, my eye is as at that first blow which Seth made against my eye!" Thereupon Horus swallowed his heart before him [lost consciousness].

Then Re said: "Put him upon his bed until he has recovered." It was Seth---he has assumed form against him as a black pig; thereupon he shot a blow into his eye. Then Re said: "The pig is an abomination to Horus." "Would that he might recover," said the gods. That is how the pig became an abomination to the gods, as well as men, for Horus' sake...."

legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/1900horuspig.asp

Elsa the baby micro pig

This tiny black piggy is very cute:





www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3208969/Scoffing-banana-splashing-pool-collapsing-ground-tickled-Meet-baby-micro-pig-one-happy-life.html

Pigs on fire

As we see from this unpleasant piece of classical history, 'War Pigs' is not just a song by Black Sabbath:

“War pigs are pigs reported to have been used in ancient warfare as a military animal, mostly as a countermeasure against war elephants...the Romans exploited squealing pigs (and rams) to repel the war elephants of Pyrrhus in 275 BC … siege of Megara in 266 BC was broken when the Megarians doused some pigs with combustible pitch, crude oil or resin, set them alight, and drove them towards the enemy's massed war elephants. The elephants bolted in terror from the flaming, squealing pigs, often killing great numbers of their own soldiers by trampling them to death.“

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_pig