In Folklore and Mythology
- In the Ancient Greek epic The Odyssey, Circe magically transforms the hero's ship's crew into pigs. Val Kilmer's character Madmartigan in Ron Howard's film Willow is also transformed into a pig, along with other men.
- In European folklore, there is a widespread belief that pigs are intensely frightened by mirrors.
- In many European countries, a feast has formed around slaughtering a pig.
- In Germany, pigs are known as a symbol for good luck. Marzipan pigs are a popular confectionery, especially as a gift on New Year's Eve.
- In 1880's New York, a tradition developed of sharing a peppermint-flavored, hard candy pig with one's family after Christmas Dinner, with the hope that it would bring health and prosperity throughout the next year.
- Superstitious sailors consider pigs to be unlucky because they have cloven hooves like the Devil and are terrified of water. Pigs would not be carried on boats. Fishermen often regarded pigs as harbingers of bad luck: a fisherman seeing a pig on his way to work would rather turn round and go home. This even extended to a prohibition of the word "pig" on board a vessel. This is why the animals were referred to, across North East England, as "gissies".
- There is a village named Swineford in England, and the name of Schweinfurt means the same in German.
Read more about this topic: Cultural References To Pigs
Famous quotes containing the words folklore and/or mythology:
“So, too, if, to our surprise, we should meet one of these morons whose remarks are so conspicuous a part of the folklore of the world of the radio—remarks made without using either the tongue or the brain, spouted much like the spoutings of small whales—we should recognize him as below the level of nature but not as below the level of the imagination.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“The history of the genesis or the old mythology repeats itself in the experience of every child. He too is a demon or god thrown into a particular chaos, where he strives ever to lead things from disorder into order.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)