Porkopolis

It is easy to see why in the warm lands, which were the cradles of the infant races, the hog, with its sagacity, its quickness to learn, and its attachment for man, should have furnished the theme for a totemic demigod; indeed, it is highly probable that this totem has yet many followers.

Benjamin A. Botkin (1901–1975)
Curator of the Library of Congress Archive of American Folk Song and folklore editor of the Federal Writers’ Project.A Treasury of American Folklore (1944).

As a jewel of gold in a swine’s snout,
so is a fair woman who is without discretion.

King James Bible
Proverbs 11:22.

Piety, n.: reverence for the Supreme Being, based upon His supposed resemblance to man.
   The pig is taught by sermons and epistles
   To think the God of Swine has snout and bristles.

Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914?)
U.S. writer and journalist. The Devil’s Dictionary (1906).

Do not give what is holy to dogs —
they will only turn and attack you.

Do not throw your pearls in front of swine —
they will only trample them underfoot.

Jesus Christ (c. 3 BC–33 AD)
From the “Sermon on the Mount.” King James Bible, Matthew 7:6.

St Anthony is universally known for the patron of hogs, having a pig for a page in all pictures, though for what reason is unknown, except, because being a hermit, and having a cell or hole digged in the earth, and having his general repast on roots, he and hogs did in some sort enter–common both in their diet and in their lodging.

Thomas Fuller (1608–1661)
History of the Worthies of England (1662).

But for one piece they found it hard
   From the whole hog to be debar’d;
And set their wit at work to find
   What joint the prophet had in mind…
Thus, conscience freed from every clog,
   Mahometans eat up the hog.

William Cowper (1731–1800)
English poet and hymnodist. “The Love of the World Reproved; or Hypocrisy Revisited” (1779).

Forbidden to you is that which dies of itself, and blood, and flesh of swine, and that on which any other name than that of Allah has been invoked, and the strangled (animal) and that beaten to death, and that killed by a fall and that killed by being smitten with the horn, and that which wild beasts have eaten, except what you slaughter, and what is sacrificed on stones set up (for idols) and that you divide by the arrows; that is a transgression.

The literal word of God as revealed to Muhammad (570–632 AD)
The Holy Qur’an, 5.3, translated by M.H. Shakir and published by Tahrike Tarsile Qur’an, Inc., in 1983.

And the swine, because it divideth the hoof, yet cheweth not the cud, it is unclean unto you: ye shall not eat of their flesh, nor touch their dead carcase.

King James Bible
Deuteronomy, 14:8, — discourses attributed to Moses and given to the Israelites, in the plains of Moab just before his death at the age of 120.

If fruit was the first temptation,
PORK was probably the second.

National Pork Producers Council
A U.S. Trade Organization. Print Advertisement in THE NEW YORKER, May 27, 1996. It included is a recipe for Peach–Mustard Glazed Pork Chops.

O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you…
And sometime comes she with a tithe–pig’s tail
Tickling a parson’s nose as a’ lies asleep,
Then dreams he of another benefice.

William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
English dramatist and poet. Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 4.

   (for Jaqueline)
If only sweet little pig babies
Need not grow up at all!
Oh, butcher mills grind swiftly
And they grind exceedingly small!

Isabel Vallè
Epitaphs of Some Dear Dumb Beasts (1916).

Oh, pig… So close to the earth, so far from God.

Attributed to St. Anthony (250?–356? AD)
Founder of Christian monasticism and patron saint of pigs and swineherds.