Pigs

Pigs are one of the rare types of animals that people prefer dead. Who likes living, fat, dirty and stinky swines? Every one prefers a well roasted stake.

Different people tend to have different attitudes towards pigs. Some like pork chops, some hot dogs…
In different countries the word “pig” is association with different things. In Bulgaria when you say “pig” the first thing to pop to your mind is a fan of local football club “cska sofia”.

Pigs are frequently referenced in culture and are a popular topic for idioms and famous quotes.

Pigs in mythology and religion

In Judaism and Islam, pigs are the unclean and inedible animals par excellence, the animal that is central to the concepts of treif and haram. In De Specialibus Legibus, Philo of Alexandria, a first century Jewish writer, relates that pigs were lazy scavengers, the embodiment of vice. Philo also argued that since pigs will eat the flesh of human corpses, that men should abstain from eating them so as not to be contaminated.

Pork eating cultures have had a more benign view of pigs. The sign of the Pig is one of the Earthly Branches, or zodiac signs, in Chinese astrology. In Greek mythology, Demeter was the goddess of pigs. The ancient Romans practiced a sacrifice called the suovetaurilia, in which a pig, a ram, and a bull were sacrificed, as one of the most solemn acts of the Roman religion.

The Celts also had a god of swine called Moccus, who under Roman occupation was identified with Mercury. In Celtic mythology, a cauldron overflowing with cooked pork was one of the attributes of The Dagda. In the tale of Culhwch and Olwen from the Welsh Mabinogion, the Twrch Trwyth was a prince whom God turned into a boar on account of his wickedness.

Magical transformation of humans into pigs has been used as a key plot device in fantasy storytelling – for example the Ancient Greek epic The Odyssey, in which the hero’s ship’s crew is turned into pigs by Circe. Val Kilmer’s character Madmartigan in Ron Howard’s Willow is transformed into a pig along with other men.

During both the Spanish Inquisition and Portuguese Inquisition, the inquisitors sometimes referred to the targets (often Jews) as “marranos”, which literally means “pigs.” This was doubly insulting to these Jews due to the fact that pigs are not a kosher animal in the Jewish religious tradition and are forbidden to eat (see also: History of the Marranos in England).

Pigs and people

* Pigs are often used to comment on the human condition. Winston Churchill said that “Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.”
* A number of schools (elementary, middle, and high schools) and universities have adopted pig or pig-related mascots. The most notable in the USA is the University of Arkansas Razorbacks, whose mascot, the razorback (Sus scrofa) makes them the only university or major sports team in the United States with a porcine mascot.
* Zhu Bajie is a part human, part pig, literary character from the Chinese novel Journey to the West.
* Harley Davidson motorcycles are sometimes referred to as “hogs”.

source: http://wikipedia.org

My favorite pig: