Ancient Egyptian bestiary: Gazelles

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Gazelles

Dorcas Gazelles, gHs, a kind of antelope, were devoted to Anuket, a goddess of the cataracts. The goddess, generally depicted in human form, is shown on one ostracon in the form of a gazelle and given the titles of Mistress of the Skies and Princess of the Gods.

Dorcas gazelle

The second species of gazelle found in ancient Egypt, Soemmering's gazelle (gsA), is less frequently depicted than the Dorcas. It is a somewhat taller animal with ninety centimetres shoulder height to the Dorcas sixty.
Like other antelopes, gazelles were animals belonging to the desert god Seth–in this context the God bore the epithet "Robber of the Eye" (xnp-wDA.t)–and hunted. Reshef, a Middle Eastern god worshipped in Egypt since the 18th dynasty, had a gazelle's head on the front of his crown instead of an uraeus.

Gazelles are frequently mentioned in tomb inscriptions as part of the sacrifices, generally - words being cheap - in their thousands, just as were other sacrificial animals. Otherwise they are rarely mentioned, though Ibi in his chapel at Deir el-Gebrawi ^[1] describes the result of a successful hunt by a lion picturesquely as

The seizing of a gazelle by a lion with a terrible glance.

Footnotes:
[1] After a transliteration and German translation on the Thesaurus Linguae Aegyptiae website => Altägyptisches Wörterbuch, Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften => Grabinschriften => Deir el-Gebrawi => Südhang => Grab des Ibi => Opferkapelle => Nordwand => westlich der Nische => zentrales Bildfeld (rechter Teil) => Registerbeischriften