Animals Considered Evil and Opposed to the Gods in Ancient Egypt

H. Moses H. Moses

Animals in Ancient Egypt: From Sacred Symbols to Emblems of Evil


For thousands of years, the ancient Egyptians viewed animals not just as creatures that lived next to them, but as symbols that held deep religious and cultural secrets.

Some were elevated to the status of gods, while others became symbols of evil, the enemy, or even the unwanted stranger.

In this article, we delve into the animal world of ancient Egypt, revealing which creatures were expelled from the sacred list and became symbols of chaos and threat... Were these creatures really worthy of such a view, or is there more to the story than we realize?

Animals-in-Ancient-Egypt
Animals in Ancient Egypt



The Camel: Enemy of the Gods and Symbol of Set


One of the animals that the ancient Egyptians never used as a symbol of idolatry, although they were known in the Egyptian civilization, was the camel.

The camel was a well-known animal in ancient Egypt, but this animal did not appear in ancient Egyptian scenes at all throughout the Pharaonic era. The earliest depiction of it is a fragment of a statue from the third Naqadah civilization, an inscription found in the tomb of Petosiris in Tuna al-Jabal at the end of the 30th Dynasty and the beginning of the Ptolemaic era.

During the Pharaonic era, the camel was not depicted at all in Egyptian scenes, and this is due to the fact that the camel was not a desirable animal in the Egyptian environment, this animal was associated with the Bedouin and associated with the desert, and the Bedouins were enemies of society in ancient Egypt and considered that they were not of God's creation.

The camel was expressed in the ancient Egyptian language by the word (k3mr). Evil gods such as Set were expressed by the word (bꜥr). It is a word that refers to the camel, and also refers to the camel's waste, so the word (bꜥr) refers to the god Set as one of the symbols of evil in ancient Egypt.

The Donkey: Noisy Foe of the Gods and Emblem of the Hyksos


Another animal that was not associated with the gods in ancient Egypt was the donkey, despite the donkey being the most hardworking animal in the Egyptian environment throughout prehistoric times to the early modern state.

Ancient Egyptians were completely dependent on donkeys in their daily lives, in travel, in transportation, in the field, in business, and in the transportation of stones and goods.

However, the donkey was not sanctified at all, and this is due to the fact that the ancient Egyptians believed that the sound of the donkey was a disturbing sound to the gods, and therefore was a symbol of evil, it was always mentioned in religious books as a symbol of evil, and one of the symbols of the god Set in ancient Egypt, and religious books always refer to the process of donkey sacrifice.

It later became a symbol of the enemies of the ancient Egyptians when the Hyksos entered Egypt and the Hyksos worshipped the donkey. Hence, this animal also became a symbol of the enemies that occupied the Egyptian land for the first time in ancient Egyptian history.


The-Donkey-Noisy-Foe-of-the-Gods
The Donkey Noisy Foe of the Gods

The Mysterious Gods of the Western Desert


Some of the strange creatures depicted by the ancient Egyptians, which are still being studied, are symbols that refer to the animals of the Western Desert or the goddesses of the Western Desert.

They appeared in the form of strangely shaped animals, sometimes a tiger or a lion with the head of a tiger or the head of a falcon, and sometimes this tiger or lion is winged. Sometimes it has a human head. These symbols are still somewhat mysterious in ancient Egyptian doctrine, but they were among the sacred symbols in ancient Egypt that were directly associated with the Western Desert specifically, and with the gods of the Western Desert.

The-Mysterious-Gods-of-the-Western-Desert
The Mysterious Gods of the Western Desert


The Gazelle: Enemy of the Sun


Gazelles were in ancient Egypt, and still until now in Egypt, there are three species that live in the Egyptian land, and we can distinguish between gazelles and some of them by horns, the gazelle is characterized as an animal that when the sun rises in the morning, it starts to jump up strongly, then runs away to the west, and therefore the ancient Egyptians considered the gazelle afraid of sunlight, and therefore the ancient Egyptians considered the gazelle afraid of sunlight. Thus, they considered it to be an enemy of the sun.

The Egyptians did not worship the gazelle, but always considered it a symbol of evil that must be sacrificed, and there was a specific type of gazelle known as the Arabian oryx that lived in Egyptian territory until the early 20th century, characterized by very long and pointed horns.

This gazelle was the sacrificial offering made to the god Min, the god of fertility and reproduction, the god of the Eastern Desert. Therefore, any military expedition or expedition to bring stones, minerals or precious stones from the Eastern Desert, before entering the desert, had to sacrifice an Arabian oryx to satisfy the god Min in order to give good fortune to the expedition entering the desert.

conclusion


At the end of the article, we realize that the ancient Egyptian's view was not always neutral towards the creatures around him.

From the camel to the donkey, from the gazelle to the symbols of the Western Desert, each animal had a story to tell...

Perhaps the “enemy” was not so much an animal as a symbol of the incomprehensible... and what is not meant to be understood.
H. Moses
H. Moses
I’m an independent academic scholar with a focus on Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. I create well-researched, engaging content that explores the myths, gods, and forgotten stories of ancient civilizations — from Egypt and Mesopotamia to the world of Greek mythology. My mission is to make ancient history fascinating, meaningful, and accessible to all. Mythology and History