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into water to parify themselves. In syria, the boar was a taboo and
in the Highlands the black boar is identified with the devil. In Egypt
both the good and the evil spirits were represented by the boar.
Osiris was a boar and so was set his enemy. The suggested
explanation is that the boar might be either the friend or enemy of
the Corn-god. At the sowing time it rendered service by cleaning
thesoil of abnoxious roots and weeds, which retard the growth of
crops. When the crops were grown the boar which damaged the corn
was identified with set, the enemy of Osiris the boar hunt then
ensued as a matter of course. Often times tribal jealous may be at
the root of different estimations. A particular animal might be look
upon by one tribe as an incarnation of their Satan. 124
The association of the boar with the storm god is noted in
Hindu, Germanic, celestial myths. So also the cosmic boar of the
Tantras as the source of all sacrificial rites which control the wind
and the weather giving rise to varied crops finds a parallel in the
Yule-Boar and its sacrifice in the scandinavian countries. Similarly
the association of the boar with the celestial love-God Angus and its
identification with Greek Ares may bear Him.
In Greek mythology the Var膩ha was sacred to Demeter. In art
she was portrayed carrying or accompanied by a Var膩ha and it was
regularly sacrificed in her mysteries. In the Thesmophoria, it was
customary to throw Var膩ha, cakes of dough and branches of pine tree
124. Mackenzie, Egyptian Myth and Legend, p-64.