Herodotus, the sacred animals of ancient Egypt, dedicated to Dekela in California.

Hello, this is Bertie, and I'm here with some more from Herodotus, the father of history who lived 2,500 years ago.

Herodotus was a Greek who liked to travel. He went around much of the Persian

empire, including Egypt, and wrote down what he found there. A fair bit of what we know about

life in ancient Egypt comes to us from Herodotus. In the last episode, I told you about some of the wild animals of ancient Egypt that Herodotus. In the last episode I told you about some of the wild animals of ancient

Egypt that Herodotus mentioned. In this episode I'm going to be focusing on the animals

that the Egyptians worshipped as gods. The holiest of all animals in ancient Egypt were cows and bulls.

The ancient Egyptians were not the only people to worship cattle.

For example, in ancient times, bulls were worshipped on the Greek island of Crete,

the home of the bull god, the Minator, and cattle are sacred to Hindus to this day.

And perhaps you know the story of Moses from the Bible.

He and his fellow Israelites escaped from captivity in Egypt and crossed the desert.

On the way they paused while Moses climbed up Mount Sinai to fetch a stone tablet on which were written

the Ten Commandments or laws like you shall not steal and you shall not kill. While Moses was

away up the mountain some of his followers lost faith in God and began to worship a golden calf.

So why would people worship cows?

Well, in many religions gods and animals are associated with ideas.

People might worship a bull because he represents strength and

masculinity. And they might worship a milk-giving cow because she represents

motherhood and nurturing. Perhaps they would pray to their cattle gods

for a strong, healthy family and nation.

In ancient Egypt, bulls or cows were sometimes seen as gods on earth.

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