According to a legend of the Tehuelche Indians, after the sun god had created the first man and woman, the deity immediately created a dog to keep them company. Emotionally, dogs seem akin to human beings. Some people believe that dogs are the only animals apart from humans that can feel guilt. Others dismiss that perception as an anthropomorphic illusion or even hypocrisy. People often regard dogs as icons of either the faithful companion or the sycophant. In much the same way that the dog joins the realms of culture and nature, the mythic dog serves as a mediator between life and death.
In ancient Egypt, dogs and cats were the most beloved of pets. According to Herodotus, when the family dog died every person in the household would shave his or her entire body, including the head, in mourning. Many Egyptian pictures have been preserved through the ages of people caressing dogs, as well as using them in the hunt. While cats were associated with the sun god Ra, dogs were associated with the underworld and with death. The appearance of the Dog Star, Sirius, was a sign to people that they should prepare for the rising of the Nile River. Plutarch, however, reported in his essay “Isis and Osiris” that when the blasphemous conqueror from Persia, Cambyses, had slain the sacred bull Apis, only dogs would eat the body, and so the dog lost its status as the most honored animal among Egyptians. Throughout the ancient world, owners were interred with their dogs. Tombs with canine effigies or canine corpses alongside human bodies have been found throughout Eurasia and in parts of Africa as well as in pre-Columbian America. Just as dogs led hunters tracking game through the wilderness, they were expected to guide people through the next world. In Egypt, dogs were associated with Anubis, god of the dead, who is most often depicted with a human body and the head of a jackal or dog.
Lady Wilde has written of dogs in Ireland: “The peasants believe that the domestic animals know all about us, especially the dog and the cat. They listen to everything that is said; they watch the expression of the face and can even read the thoughts. The Irish say it is not safe to ask a question of a dog, for he may answer, and should he do so the questioner will surely die” (p. 146). The dog certainly shares the life of human society more intimately than any other animal. This, of itself, can make people feel uneasy. Human beings view dogs with a strange combination of affection and contempt, of domination and fear.
Though dogs are occasionally seen as solar animals, they are usually associated with the moon. Perhaps this is because they howl at the moon, as do their relatives, wolves, coyotes, and jackals. By extension, dogs are also associated with night and with death. In Greek mythology, they are companions of the lunar goddesses Artemis and Hecate. The association of dogs with the star Sirius reaches all the way from Mexico to China.
Their sense of smell gave dogs an ability to guide people in the hunt. A dog would know the location of game that was not even remotely visible. After the hunt, a dog guided people through the woods back to their settlement. We should remember that this was long before the use of the compass or of even remotely accurate maps. This ability must have impressed people as miraculous. It is small wonder that a vast range of cultures on every continent has regarded dogs as guides to the world after death.
Many cultures view the howling of dogs as an omen of death. According to Jewish tradition, dogs can see the angel of death. In Virgil's Aeneid, dogs howl at the approach of the goddess Hecate. Several traditions also make dogs the guardians of the underworld. The best known of such sentries is Cerberus, who keeps watch at the entrance to Hades in Greco-Roman mythology. According to Hesiod, this dog had fifty heads, though later writers reduced the number to three. In Norse mythology, the abode of the dead is watched over by the dog Garm. When the final battle at the end of the world comes, Garm will swallow the moon. This monstrous dog will finally do battle with the god Tyr, and both will be slain. In Hinduism and Buddhism, two dogs accompany Yama, the lord of the dead. They each have four eyes and serve their master by searching out those who are about to die. In Aztec mythology, the departed soul descended to the underworld and came to a river guarded by a yellow dog. In European folklore, demonic dogs accompanied the Wild Huntsman across the sky in his search for lost souls. To even hear the hounds meant that you would die soon. A black dog was a frequent omen of doom. In the lore of western England, the devil's Dandy Dogs passed over the moors during storms. They breathed fire and tore hapless strangers to pieces. The name of Cúchulainn, the popular hero of Celtic myth, literally means “hound of Ulster.” When he killed the ferocious hound of a smith, Cúchulainn had to take on the role of the creature he had killed. When roused to battle, his appearance changed. His eyes bulged or contracted. His jaw opened from ear to ear, like that of a dog, while a light like the moon rose in his head. When three witches in the form of crows tricked him into eating the flesh of a dog as well as violating other taboos, Cúchulainn was killed.
