Master of Animals

, Iran, 5000-4000 BCE. The earliest known depiction of such a motif may be the Seated Woman of Çatalhöyük (c. 6000 BC). More examples appear on stamp seals of the Ubaid period in Mesopotamia. The motif appears on a terracotta stamp seal from Tell Telloh, ancient Girsu, at the end of the prehistoric Ubaid period of Mesopotamia, . , Egypt The motif also was given the topmost location of the famous Gebel el-Arak Knife in the Louvre, an ivory and flint knife dating from the Naqada II d period of Egyptian prehistory, which began c. 3450 BC. Here a figure in Mesopotamian dress, often interpreted to be a god, grapples with two lions. It has been connected to the famous Pashupati seal from the Indus Valley civilization (2500-1500 BC), showing a figure seated in a yoga-like posture, with a horned headress (or horns), and surrounded by animals. This in turn is related to a figure on the Gundestrup cauldron, who sits with legs part-crossed, has antlers, is surrounded by animals, and grasps a snake in one hand and a torc in the other. This famous and puzzling object probably dates to 200 BC, or possibly as late as 300 AD, and although found in Denmark, it may have been made in Thrace. A form of the motif appears on a belt buckle of the Early Middle Ages from Kanton Wallis, Switzerland, which depicts the biblical figure of Daniel between two lions. The purse-lid from the Sutton Hoo burial of about 620 AD has two plaques with a human between two wolves, and the motif is common in Anglo-Saxon art and related Early Medieval styles, where the animals generally remain aggressive. Other notable examples of the motif in Germanic art include one of the Torslunda plates, and helmets from Vendel and Valsgärde. In the art of Mesopotamia the motif appears very early, usually with a "naked hero", for example at Uruk in the Uruk period (c. 4000 to 3100 BC), but was "outmoded in Mesopotamia by the seventh century BC". In Luristan bronzes the motif is extremely common, and often highly stylized. In terms of its composition this motif compares with another very common motif in the art of the ancient Near East and Mediterranean, that of two confronted animals flanking and grazing on a Tree of Life, interpreted as representing an earth deity. File:Master of animals, Susa I.jpg|Master of animals, Susa I (4200-3800 BC), Louvre Museum File:Stamp seal with Master of Animals motif, Tello, ancient Girsu, End of Ubaid period, Louvre Museum AO14165 (detail).jpg|Terracotta stamp seal with Master of Animals motif, Tell Telloh, ancient Girsu, End of Ubaid period, File:Gebel_el-Arak_Knife_ivory_handle_(front).jpg|Gebel el-Arak Knife ivory handle (front), after c. 3450 BC File:Cachet maitre animaux Lorestan AO 22919.jpg|Soapstone stamp with, depicting an ibex-headed character taming snakes. Lorestan, 4th millennium BCE, Louvre Museum File:SumerianBulls.jpg|Protective Master from the Bull Headed Lyre of Ur, dated circa 2600 BCE, Penn Museum File:Chlorite object Jiroft, Kerman ca. 2500 BCE, Bronze Age I, National Museum of Iran.jpg|Chlorite, Jiroft culture Iran, ca. 2500 BC, Bronze Age I a cloven-footed human flanked by scorpions and lionesses File:Finial in the form of 'Master of Animals' LACMA M.76.97.89.jpg|Luristan bronze finial in the form of the 'Master of Animals' File:Cylinder Seal, Achaemenid, modern impression 05.jpg|Achaemenid seal impression with the Persian king subduing two Mesopotamian lamassu File:Tronconical vase Tepe Giyan Louvre AO31918.jpg|Iranian Master of Animals with two snakes File:Indus valley civilization "Gilgamesh" seal (2500-1500 BC).jpg|Indus valley civilization seal, with human flanked by two lions (2500–1500 BC). File:Yogi. Mold of Seal, Indus valley civilization.jpg|Impression from the Pashupati seal, Indus Valley civilization File:Θεά των Όφεων 6393 (cropped).JPG|One of the Minoan snake goddess figurines, about 1600 BC File:Gundestrup antlered figure.jpg|Detail of the Gundestrup Cauldron antlered figure File:Relief plaque with confronted ibexes, Iran, Sasanian period, 5th or 6th century AD, stucco originally with polychrome painting - Cincinnati Art Museum - DSC03952.JPG|Confronted animals, here ibexes flank a Tree of Life, from Sasanian Iran (fifth or sixth-century AD) (Cincinnati Art Museum) File:Ancient Collection MfA Boston 0751.JPG|Ptolemaic period (305–30 BC) Egyptian cippus of Horus Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) File:Cheekpiece from a Horse Bit LACMA M.76.97.106 (2 of 2).jpg|Luristan bronze horse bit cheekpiece with "Master of Animals" motif, about 700 BC ==Deity figures==

grasping a lion and a snake , 3rd millennium BC Although such figures are not all, or even usually, deities, the term may be a generic name for a number of deities from a variety of cultures with close relationships to the animal kingdom or in part animal form (in cultures where that is not the norm). These figures control animals, usually wild ones, and are responsible for their continued reproduction and availability for hunters. They sometimes also have female equivalents, the so-called Mistress of the Animals. Many Mesopotamian examples may represent Enkidu, a central figure in the Ancient Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh. They all may have a Stone Age precursor who was probably a hunter's deity. Many relate to the horned deity of the hunt, another common type, typified by Cernunnos, and a variety of stag, bull, ram, and goat deities. Horned deities are not universal however, and in some cultures bear deities, such as Arktos, might take the role, or even the more anthropomorphic deities who lead the Wild Hunt. Such figures are also often referred to as 'Lord of the forest' or 'Lord of the mountain'. The Greek god shown as "Master of Animals" is usually Apollo as a hunting deity. Shiva has the epithet Pashupati meaning the "Lord of animals", and these figures may derive from an archetype. Chapter 39 of the Book of Job has been interpreted as an assertion of the deity of the Hebrew Bible as Master of Animals. ==See also==