The execution of pigs served multiple purposes: it delivered justice to grieving families, restored communal order, and offered moral instruction to the populace. A pig dressed in human clothing being executed was a grotesque performance of justice, but also a warning—both against negligence and against the chaos that lurked within the city’s own household animals.
Symbolism of the Swine: Between Order and Chaos
The image of a pig as a house demon or devil-in-disguise was not purely legal. In medieval art and literature, pigs were often associated with gluttony, sin, and the grotesque. They were considered unclean in both religious and physical terms. Yet, paradoxically, they were also part of everyday domestic life.
This duality made pigs a potent symbol. When a pig turned on a child—innocence embodied—it was interpreted as more than an accident. It became a sign of divine wrath, or a manifestation of disorder breaching the fragile veneer of urban Christian civilization.
Pigs were frequently used in morality plays, sermons, and fables as symbols of untamed desire and carnal danger. The killer pig, then, was not merely a beast; it was a metaphor for human vice, unchecked appetite, or even the demonic. shutdown123