Animal Motifs / Mythology

• Norse Mythology:
  • Loki is associated with fish. In the Faroese ballad Loka Táttur, he transforms a boy into a grain in the middle of a flounder's roe to hide him from a jötunn who wanted to murder the child, and Loki uses fishing as part of his ruse against the giant.^note Fish is the main staple of the Faroese diet, and it's deemed to be Loki's domain (in the story, Odin's sphere of influence is grain/crops, while Hœnir's is swans/seabirds). The vital importance of fish in Faroese life is most likely the reason why Loki is the Hero Protagonist. He's also the inventor of the fishing net, and he once shape-shifted into a salmon to evade the Æsir.
    • Some people will claim that Loki also has a connection with serpents, but this doesn't exist in the Eddas - it's a later addition to make him seem more like a Satan figure.
  • Odin is associated with ravens. He has two ravens called Huginn and Muninn. ^note  Both names are old Norse. Huginn means "thought" and Muninn means "memory" or "mind" He's also titled "Raven-God" by The Prose Edda. He's also associated with wolves, he has two wolves by his side called Geri and Freki. ^note  Old Norse for "the ravenous" or "greedy one" In The Prose Edda he's destined to be killed by Fenrir, a colossal wolf. Odin is also the one who set the wolves Hati and Skoll on the sun and moon when they refused to move. ^note  Both names are old Norse. Hati means “One Who Hates” or "Hater" and Skoll means “One Who Mocks” or "treachery"
  • Heimdall is associated with sheep, specifically rams. His hearing is said to be so acute that he could hear the wool on sheep growing. His horn is depicted as a large ram horn and he is often depicted wearing a helmet with ram horns ^note  a common myth with Vikings is that they wore helmets decorated with horns, something that didn't really exist in the modern world..
• Greek Mythology:
  • Heracles (popularly known by the Roman name Hercules) is associated with lions. His most famous act was slaying The Nemean Lion by strangulation and then wearing its hide as a cloak. He's also famous for his divine strength and courage. Heracles is also responsible for the creation of the Leo constellation as Zeus commemorated this labor by placing the Lion in the sky. In the mythology of Theseus, Heracles and Theseus met and befriended each other after a young Theseus mistook his cloak for an actual lion and bravely attacked it, earning Heracles's respect.
  • The Greek pantheon is filled with these.
    • Zeus, the king of the heavens, is heavily associated with eagles, as well as bulls to represent his virility.
    • Hera's sacred animal was the peacock, though she was also given the epithet "cow-eyed", giving her an association with cows as well—both complimenting her husband's eagle and bull motifs
    • Poseidon, the god of the sea, was heavily associated with horses and even fathered the winged horse Pegasus with Medusa.
    • Hades, lord of the Underworld and ruler of the dead was associated with dogs, tawny owls, and serpents.
    • Demeter, the goddess of the harvest, was strongly associated with lizards and snakes.
    • Hestia, goddess of the hearth, home, and family was associated with pigs.
    • Aphrodite, the goddess of love, sex, and beauty, was associated with doves and swans.
    • Athena, the goddess of wisdom and war strategy, had an obvious owl motif that, unlike most of the others listed here, has persisted even now.
    • Ares, the god of war, was associated with vultures, dragons, and much more sinister owls.
    • Hephaestus, the god of the forge, was associated with donkeys.
    • Artemis, the goddess of the hunt, had deer while her brother Apollo, god of music and art, had swans.
    • Hermes, the god of trickery and messenger to the Olympians, had many animal motifs, but his most notable were hawks, hares, and tortoises.
    • Dionysus, the god of hedonistic madness, had bulls (sometimes to the point of being depicted with horns), leopards and dolphins.
  • The Thebaid: Prophecy tells the Argives that their princes will come in the guise of a lion and a boar. It is no coincidence that Polynices and Tydeus are fighting while wearing the skins of those two beasts. Even when they ditch the skins for armor, the two are still consistently compared to a carnivorous lion and a wild boar and sometimes the comparisons are swapped to show the new brothers influence on each other.
• In Celtic Mythology, the Morrigan has crows, which is her preferred animal form. Badb, a goddess whose name means "crow," is either one of her titles, her sister, or an aspect of her, depending on the source.
• Modern Arthuriana often connects Morgan le Fay with crows/ravens, such as having her change into one to spy on people. It's not really a thing in the medieval legends, however, and may come from the (disputed) academic theory that she developed from the Morrigan.
• Christianity:
  • God:
    • Jesus has dual symbolism with lambs and lions. His title as the Lamb of God represents his status as a flawless, perfect sacrifice in atonement for mankind. His title as the Lion of Judah symbolizes his royal power as the Son of David and the King of Kings.
    • The Holy Spirit is most often represented as a dove, based on his description in The Bible as descending like a dove.
  • The Four Evangelists have symbols assigned to them in the Book of Revelation; a lion for St. Mark, an ox for St. Luke, an eagle for St. John, and St. Matthew gets a human.
  • Satan is most frequently associated with snakes and dragons, taking the form of both creatures throughout the Bible. In ancient times snakes and dragons were often lumped together as the same creature.

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