BLACK AND WHITE DOGS

 “The Tarot de Marseille is descended from a particular type of design for popular Tarot cards used in Milan from the late fifteenth century, but acquired some of its features in France. The crayfish on the Moon card is found in the Milanese prototype, but the dogs are not; to my mind, the idea of dogs baying the moon is so commonplace that no resort to arcane pseudo-Egyptian symbolism, such as Dame Frances suggests, is needed to explain their presence.”

Michael Dummett, Origins of Tarot.  Letter., In response to In the Cards (February 19, 1981) The New York Times, Volume 28, Number 8 · May 14, 1981.

SARAMA VEDIC BITCH GODDESS

 The Bitch Goddess of antiquity was known in all the Indo European cultures, beginning with the Great Bitch Sarama who led the Vedic dogs of death. Artemis-Diana, leader of the Scythian alani or "hunting dogs" was another such Bitch Goddess. Harlots or "bitches" were identified in the ancient Roman cult of the Goddess Lupa, the Wolf Bitch, whose priestesses the lupae gave their name to prostitutes in general

http://www.goddessworld.com/darkone.html

 SARAMA

 Saramā is the name of a female dog belonging to Indra and the other devas in early Hinduism's Vedic mythology. She is mentioned in Rigveda 10.14.10 as the mother of the four-eyed brindled dogs of Yama. She is said to have gone in search of cattle, stolen and hidden in the Vala by an evil people called Paṇis, as described in Rigveda 10.108, a part of which she (with the title of devashunī, ie., divine female dog) is also said to be the authoress of. In general, Saramā also came to mean any female dog or bitch. It is interesting to note here that like the early Iranian people, the early Indo-Aryans also, in some form, respected the dog. Whereas in later Hinduism, the dog became one of the most degraded animal.

 Further reading:

 Debroy, Bibek (2008). Sarama and Her Children: The Dog in Indian Myth, New Delhi:Penguin, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarama

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedic_mythology

 http://www.hinduwebsite.com/hinduism/essays/animals.asp

DOG BIBLIOGRAPHY

Burriss, Eli Edward. 1935. The Place of the Dog in Superstition as Revealed in Latin Literature,  Classical Philology, Vol. 30, No. 1 (Jan., 1935), pp. 32-42

Day, Leslie Preston, Dog Burials in the Greek World, American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 88, No. 1 (Jan., 1984), pp. 21-32

James Hillman, You Dirty Dog!, In: Animal Presences: Uniform Edition of The Writing of James Hillman, Vol. 9,  Spring Publications, Inc.

Karouzou, Semni,  An Underworld Scene on a Black-Figured Lekythos, The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. 92 (1972), pp. 64-73  [demonic dogs of Hekate].

Hopkins, Edward Washburn, The Dog in the Rig-Veda, The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 15, No. 2 (1894), pp. 154-163 

Karouzou, Semni,  An Underworld Scene on a Black-Figured Lekythos, The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. 92 (1972), pp. 64-73  [demonic dogs of Hekate].

White, David Gordon, "Dogs Die," History of Religions, 28, May, 1989, 283-303

Bloomfield, Maurice. 1891. The Two Dogs of Yama in a New Role, Journal of the American Oriental Society 15: 163-175.

Burrow, T. 1983. A Note on the Indo-Iranian Root kan 'small' and on the Etymology of the Latin canis 'dog', Transactions of the Philological Society 155-164.

Savage, John J. 1949-51. The Medieval Tradition of Cerberus, Traditio 7: .

Schlam, Carl. 1984. Diana and Actaeon, California Studies in Classical Antiquity 82-110.