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Sunday, December 27, 2009

Dogs in Myth and Legend

In addition to what I've previously posted about the close association of dogs and the Goddess (do a site search under "dog" using our search feature) I came across the following today in Barbara Walker's The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets:

Keres
Dog-faced Furies of the Earth Mother Demeter, giving rise to the Latin name of the same Goddess, Ceres. Like most other versions of the Great Goddess's death-hounds, the Keres visited battlefields and ate the dead to carry their souls to glory. They were another aspect of the frightening female psychopomps otherwise called Valkyries, dakins, harpies, Nekhbet-vultures, she-wolves, or sacred bitches.(1)

Notes:
(1) Larousse, 166.

Managarm
"Moon-Dog," firstborn wolf-son of Angurboda, the Danish death-goddess called Hag of the Iron Wood, mother of Hel. Managarm and his brother wolves carried the bodies of the dead to Valhalla - by eating them.

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