Gazelle : The Palestinian Biological Bulletin (ISSN 0178 – 6288) . Number 125, May 2015, pp. 19-37. | Page 10

28

Arabian Baboon (Papio hamadryas makkah, Khalaf 2015) on Jabal Al-Noor in Makkah AlMukarramah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Photo by: Prof. Dr. Sc. Norman Ali Bassam
Khalaf-von Jaffa. https://www.flickr.com/photos/50022881@N00/12064616595/

Human Interaction
Cultural Depictions
Hamadryas baboons often appear in ancient Egyptian art, as they were
considered sacred to Thoth, a major and powerful deity with many roles that
included being the scribe of the gods. Astennu, attendant to Thoth, is represented
as a hamadryas in his roles as recorder of the result of the Weighing of the
Heart and as one of the four hamadryas baboons guarding the lake of fire
in Duat, the ancient Egyptian underworld. A pre-dynastic precursor to Astennu
was Babi, or 'Bull of the Baboons', a bloodthirsty god said to eat the entrails of the
unrighteous dead. Babi was also said to give the righteous dead continued
virility, and to use his penis as the mast of a boat to convey them to the Egyptian
paradise (Wikipedia).
Sometimes Thoth himself appears in the form of a hamadryas (often shown
carrying the moon on his head), as an alternative to his more common
representation as an ibis-headed figure. Hapi, one of the Four Sons of Horus that
guarded the organs of the deceased in ancient Egyptian religion, is also
represented as hamadryas-headed: Hapi protected the lungs, hence the common
Gazelle : The Palestinian Biological Bulletin – Number 125 – May 2015