Dogs in religion

Dogs have played a role in the religion, myths, tales, and legends of many cultures. In mythology, dogs often serve as pets or as watchdogs. Stories of dogs guarding the gates of the underworld recur throughout Indo-European mythologies and may originate from Proto-Indo-European religion. Historian Julien d'Huy has suggested three narrative lines related to dogs in mythology. One echoes the gatekeeping noted above in Indo-European mythologies—a linkage with the afterlife; a second "related to the union of humans and dogs"; a third relates to the association of dogs with the star Sirius. Evidence presented by d'Huy suggests a correlation between the mythological record from cultures and the genetic and fossil record related to dog domestication. Below entries are arranged in alphabetical order. Dogs had a major religious and symbolic significance to the Aztec peoples of central Mexico. Several ancient burial sites for dogs have been discovered in Mexico. Xolotl, an Aztec god of death, was depicted as a dog-headed monster. The dog is one of the 12 animals honoured in Chinese astrology. The second day of the Chinese New Year is considered to be the birthday of all dogs and Chinese people often take care to be kind to dogs on that day. In China, Korea and Japan, dogs are viewed as kind protectors. Panhu is a dragon-dog who transformed into a man and married a princess. In Christianity, dogs represent faithfulness. Within Roman Catholicism specifically, the iconography of Saint Dominic includes a dog, after the saint's mother dreamt of a dog springing from her womb and became pregnant shortly after that. As such, the Dominican Order (Ecclesiastical Latin: Dominicanus) sounds close to "dog of the Lord" or "hound of the Lord" (Ecclesiastical Latin: Domini canis). In Christian folklore, a church grim often takes the form of a black dog to guard Christian churches and their churchyards from sacrilege. A dog is mentioned in the deuterocanonical Book of Tobit, faithfully accompanying Tobias, Tobit's son and the angel Raphael on their journeys.