Pygarg

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Pygarg

The pygarg (/ˈpɡɑːɡ/[1]) is an animal mentioned in the Bible in Deuteronomy 14:5 as one of the animals permitted for food. The Septuagint translates the Hebrew yachmur (יחמור) as pygargos in Koiné Greek ("white-rumped", from pyge "buttocks" and argo "white"),[1] and the King James Version takes from there its term pygarg.

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The addax (Addax nasomaculatus), possibly the original dishon/pygarg.

Henry Baker Tristram (1867) proposed that the pygarg was the Saharan antelope addax and described it as "a large animal, over 3+12 feet [1 m] high at the shoulder, and, with its gently-twisted horns, 2+12 feet [80 cm] feet long. Its colour is pure white, with the exception of a short black mane, and a tinge of tawny on the shoulders and back".[2]

Outside the biblical use, the term was also applied to the Siberian roe deer in the 18th century,[3] whose specific name is pygargus in scientific Latin. This deer, like other roe deer, has a white rump, which is consistent with the Septuagint translation while the addax is all-white during the summer (rather than just having a white rump).

References

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