ABSTRACT
A great deal of brutal treatment was meted out to animals in the name of sport in the ancient world. Animals were hunted, not solely for food, but for the pleasure of chase and kill; they were made to fight their own or other species as entertainment; they were kept in captivity in unsuitable or painful conditions; they were trained, often with cruelty, to perform. Of all animal-related entertainments, the hunt had the widest cross-cultural appeal. Bizarrely, in its own way hunting was less of a sport per se than an art form, for hunting was not simply a matter of killing animals. The obvious nexus between the hunt and warfare and between animal and foreigner is confidently played with by the unknown author of this remarkably hard-hitting poem. Evil and adverse forces, represented by the wild animals living beyond the borders of civilisation, were forced into submission by the elite huntsman or, of course, by the pharaoh himself.
