Mouse

The Mouse in Ancient Egypt


 * Egyptian Name:**

//Pn'w// or //Penu//


 * Hieroglyphics:**

Three species of mice were known in ancient Egypt - the House Mouse, the Cairo Spiny Mouse, and the Golden Spiny Mouse. Often despised for the harm they did to grain, in the Book of the Dead mice were referred to as "Ra's abomination." Mice issuing from flooded fields gave rise to the belief that they were produced from mud. This belief was later adopted by the Greeks.

Mice, being proverbially small and weak, figured frequently in animal fables, such as the Egyptian tale of "The Mouse as //Tjaty// (Vizier)" in which a mouse rose to greatness, proved itself to be morally inept, and was condemned to live in holes underground ever after. In another Egyptian story a mouse saved a lion by gnawing through the net in which he had been trapped. In a third Herodotus recounts how a huge throng of mice saved Egypt by gnawing the bowstrings of an enemy army about to attack the country.

Mice were also a very popular subject in ancient "cartoons" and were often depicted ruling over or attacking cats, similar to our modern "Tom and Jerry." These satirical sketches may have had a much wider political significance, reflecting the common man's own criticism of the social order, and their awareness of their own importance.

The Rodents of Ancient Egypt