Zoomorphic representation in religion • The appearance of the
Holy Spirit like a
dove in the
New Testament (The Gospel According to Luke 3: 22), "and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove..." •
Mark the Evangelist as a
lion in later Christian
iconography. • In Hinduism Vishnu's vahana Garuda is depicted as an eagle or kite or with half kite and half human body. • The
Egyptian gods were often depicted as zoomorphic or as
hybrid. • The names of the two most prominent Hebrew Bible female prophets – Deborah and Huldah – were in the Babylonian Talmud interpreted in zoomorphic terms as "wasp" and "weasel". • Zoomorphic and anthropomorphic letters were used in some religious manuscripts, such as the
Kennicott Bible.
Zoomorphic language for things, ideas, surnames and insults • A literary phrase such as "The roar of a lion". • An insult such as "You swine!" and "Feed on our flesh and blood you capitalist hyenas: it is your funeral feast!". • A simile such as "His friend is as hungry as a wolf". • A metaphor such as "He is an ugly toad". •
William Hogarth's name is a
metonym for a
swineherd. •
Waterwolf, a
Dutch terminology for the tendency of bodies of water in low-lying land to grow larger over time, causing death, loss of
livestock and loss of land. •
Sin lurking like a beast waiting to devour
Cain in
Genesis.
Humanity portrayed in evolutionary context Desmond Morris in
The Naked Ape and
The Human Zoo,
Robert Ardrey in
African Genesis and
Konrad Lorenz in
On Aggression all wrote from a
sociobiological perspective. They viewed the human species as an animal, subject to the evolutionary law of
Survival of the fittest through adaptation to the
biophysical environment.
Zoomorphic representation in Islamic art One example of a zoomorphic object is the incense burner of Amir Saif al-Dunya wa’l-Din ibn Muhammad al-Mawardi, today located at the
Metropolitan Museum in New York
. Incense burners were common objects for zoomorphic forms that served as a container for aromatic material to be burned. This particular object comes from the Seljuq period in Iran. Another example of zoomorphism in Islamic art is the bird-shaped oil lamp, located at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The oil lamp would have been used as an everyday object in a domestic space as well. The handle of the lamp is depicted by the head and neck of the bird. The body takes the form of the base of the lamp where oil can be poured in the small opening. The artist uses the form of the bird to utilize the lamp either hanging or resting. There are keyholes on either side of the body for the lamp to be hung by a chain and the flat base allows for the lamp to be placed on any smooth surface. Zoomorphism appears on objects beyond household items. An example of this is the Dagger with Zoomorphic Hilt also located at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York
. The hilt or handle of the dagger merges into the shape of a dragon attacking a lion who is performing the same act onto a deer. Each attacking animal is connected by its claws and teeth to form the handle. The inclusion of Persian and Indian symbols of power was common in zoomorphic imagery on hilts of daggers. Many of the weapons included in Islamic art served as symbols for power and wealth. •
Close-mid back unrounded vowel, the only
Latin letter in the shape of a ram's horn. ==See also==