CHAP. XIV. DOG. — ITS WORSHIP. 139 



dog; but by reason of Iiis eating of the flesh of Apis, 

 after Cambyses had slain it and thrown it out, when 

 no other animal would taste or even come near it, 

 lie lost the first rank he had hitherto held amongst 

 the sacred animals." 



Such is the opinion of Plutarch ; but it may be 

 doubted if the dog ever enjoyed the same exalted 

 rank among the sacred animals as the cat and 

 many others, however much it was esteemed by the 

 Egyptians for its fidelity. It was sacred *, but not 

 universally worshipped. It was not held in the 

 same repute in every part of Egypt, as we have 

 already seen from the disputes between the Cyno- 

 polites and Oxyrhinchites ; nor was it looked upon 

 as one of those " which were worshipped by the 

 whole nation, as were the Ibis, the hawk, the Cy- 

 nocephalus, and the Apis."t 



The assertion of Plutarch respecting the disgrace 

 into which the dog fell may be justly doubted ; and 

 Herodotus, whose authority is to be preferred, 

 in his account of Apis's death, and the care taken 

 by the priests to bury its body, disproves his state- 

 ment, and stamps it with the fabulous character 

 which belongs to so many of the stories contained 

 in the treatise of Isis and Osiris. Indeed, the idea 

 seems so nearly connected with the group of the 

 God Mithras, where the dog is represented feeding 

 on the blood of the slaughtered ox, that there is 

 reason to believe the story derived its origin from 

 the Persian idol. 



* Plato (Gorgias. p. 398. trausl.) calls it " one of the Deities of 

 Egypt." Vide Plut. s. 72. 75. 

 •f Plut. s. 73. ^ 



