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The mystery animal on an ancient god's head

155 points · 44 comments · surprisetalk

  1. tomrod · · focus · HN ↗
    Huh. Pretty clearly a dog/jackal though, right?

    Set was the god of Libya and was at war with the "good guy gods" in Egypt, so one has to assume the civilization based in Libya would be were we could correlate the answer -- and we have the contention that the Sahara has grown since the early days of Egypt, so its possible the definitive answer remains buried.

    1. guelo · · focus · HN ↗
      They already had a jackal god in Anubis which is represented without the weird down slopping snout and squared ears.
    2. emmelaich · · focus · HN ↗
      Aardvark to me. Similar snout, long ears. They were probably in the southern reaches of Egypt.

      With regard to differences that could be explained by stylisation and the lack of familiarity due to it's rarity in most of Egypt.

    3. asdff · · focus · HN ↗
      Could be a combination of stuff too like a birds beak shoved on a cat shoved on a human body.
      1. card_zero · · focus · HN ↗
        See also: serpopards. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Serpopard" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Serpopard
    4. btilly · · focus · HN ↗
      From the article, &quot;Egypt was conquered several times by foreign nations that the Egyptians perceived as worshiping Set.&quot;

      So while the Egyptians might have seen Set as the god of Libya, the Libyan representations might not be the one that Egyptians were comparing to.

    5. __alexs · · focus · HN ↗
      If this is not a dog then we should cast doubt over the identity of the other animals we think we know too.
    6. FromTheFirstIn · · focus · HN ↗
      If experts have disagreed about it for longer than you’ve been alive it seems like arrogance to say it’s pretty clearly anything.
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