Animals of the Mythologies S-Z

S T U V W X Y Z

S

Serpent

• The serpent is symbolical of:
  • Deity, because it feeds upon its own body.
  • Eternity, as it is represented as forming a circle, holding its tail in its mouth.
  • Renovation and the healing art. It is said that when old it has the power of growing young again, by shedding its skin. It was sacred to Aesculapius, and was supposed to have the power of discovering healing herbs.
  • Guardian spirit. It was thus employed by the ancient Greeks and Romans, and often the figure of a serpent was shown on their altars. In the temple of Athena at Athens, a serpent, supposed to be animated by the soul of Erichthonius, was kept in a cage, and called "the Guardian Spirit of the Temple".
  • Wisdom.
  • Subtlety.
• The Egyptian cobra, represented supreme divine and royal power and wisdom, while the coluber depicted Set in his aspect as the serpent of the mist, the demon of darkness, also the malefic aspect of the midday sun.
• Sumero-Semitic myth depicts Tiamat as the serpent of darkness who can also be portrayed as a dragon.
• Ishtar, the Great Goddess, has a serpent as an attribute, as had Sabazius, it being his chief emblem. The Great Goddess is frequently depicted with serpents, particularly in Crete where she holds a serpent in each hand as protectors of the household and as a phallic symbol, the snake being "the husband of all women". The corn goddess Nidaba had snakes rising from her shoulders.
• Pet snakes were kept in Greece, Rome and Crete as guardians and as connected with fertility and healing.
• The serpent is of great importance in Hindu mythology; it represents creative power and is a manifestation of the Vedic Agni as fire. The cobra is the mount of Vishnu as the cosmic ocean and he sleeps on the coiled serpent of the waters, but the serpent has also an evil aspect which is portrayed as Kaliya, vanquished by Krishna who dances on its head. Ahi is a three-headed snake killed by Indra.
• Celtic tradition connects the serpent with the healing waters and with the Great Mother Bridget, while the horned serpent is associated with the horned god Cernunnos as fertility.
• In Scandinavian myth Nidhogg, the evil serpent is living at the root of the Yggdrasil and is trying to destroy it. The Midgard serpent encircles the world as the all-embracing ocean.
• In China the serpent and dragon are largely indistinguishable and have the same symbolism as rain-bringers and creators and the fertilizing power of the waters.
• As dwelling underground the snake is traditionally at enmity with birds and is found in AmerIndian lore as the enemy of the Thunder Bird, but snakes can act as messengers between the people and the underworld.
• The Great Manitou takes the form of a serpent with horns. In Aztec legend the plumed serpent is an attribute of Quetzalcoatl. The snake woman Coatlicue wears a skirt of woven snakes.
• The serpent as the thirst-quenching rainbow occurs in Indian, AmerIndian, Australian and African legend; it is also a sky-hero and creator. In African tribes the snake can be a royal emblem, an incarnation of the dead, or a mythical ancestor.
• Cambodia was founded on the marriage of a prince to a serpent.

Shark

• Polynesian. It represents sacred beings who can appear as humans or sharks, or it can be the incarnation of important people such as tribal chiefs; it can also be a sorcerer's familiar. Sometimes the shark is addressed as "Grandfather".
• Hawaiian. Hawaii has shark gods and, also, ancestral spirits can manifest themselves in shark form.
• West Africa. Some parts hold the shark as sacred, and if one is accidentally killed rites of propitiation must be performed.
• Greece. In ancient Greece shark flesh was forbidden food at women's festivals.

Spider

The spider has a world-wide mythology; as the Great Weaver it is an attribute of all Great Mother goddesses who spin the web of destiny.
• In Egypt the spider was an emblem of Neith.
• In Babylon of Ishtar; also of Atargatis.
• In Greece of Athena and the Moirai.
• The Norse Norns are also associated with the spinning of fate.
• Hindu and Buddhist myth depicts the spider as weaver of the web of illusion (maya).
• The Old Spider holds an important place in Oceanic tradition as the Creator Goddess of the South Pacific. Her son, Young Spider, created fire.
• The Australian Aboriginal Great Spider is a sky hero.
• In Japan Spider Women can ensnare the unwary and the Goblin Spider is a shape-shifter who appears in different forms to harm people. The huge spider Tsuchi-Gumo caused trouble in the world until it was trapped in a cave and smoked to death (steel could not kill it).
• Spider is the creative feminine power in AmerIndian myth. She wove the dream of the world of phenomena and the web of fate; she was herself created to bring life to the earth, she created plants and animals, giving them all names, and lastly created humans. There is also a trickster spider who is a shape-shifter and who brought culture to the people. Old Spider escaped the Flood and was a member of the Animal Council which helped the people "Recover the Light".
• The Trickster spider also appears in Africa among the Ashanti, but is also the Wise One and a divinity.
• In Jamaica the Trickster spider is represented as taking on animals, humans and the gods and sometimes being able to outwit even the gods.
• There are many old wives' tales about spiders, the most widespread being that they are venomous. There are few spiders poisonous to man, but the American Black Widow spider is a notable exception. Other tales were that fever could be cured by wearing a spider in a nutshell round the neck, and a common cure for jaundice was to swallow a large live house-spider rolled up in butter. In Ireland this was a remedy for ague. A spider on one's clothes was a sign of good luck or that money was coming and the very small spider is still called a money-spider.

Squirrel

• The squirrel appears in Norse mythology as the Ratatosk, a bringer of rain and snow.
• In Celtic lore the squirrel is an emblem of the Irish goddess Medb.
• In Central America the squirrel was a sacrificial animal for the Mayan gods. Among Amazonian Indians it is one of the forms that can be taken by Desana, Master of Animals. Southern Amerindian women may not eat squirrels while planting ground-nuts as this would cause the crops to dry up. The coming of winter is heralded by catching the first squirrel seen.

Swallow

The mythology of the swallow is ancient, dating back to Babylonian times and the Flood legend, in which the swallow was sent out with the dove and the raven and the swallow returned with the dove.
• In Egypt it was sacred to Isis.
• Greek myth associated the swallow with the Nightingale in the escape from Tereus. The swallow was sacred to Aphrodite/Venus. In Greek folklore spirits of dead children could visit their homes again in the form of a swallow, hence it was unlucky to kill one.
• Aelian says that the swallow was sacred to the Penates or household gods, and therefore to injure one would be to bring bad luck upon your house. It is still considered a sign of good luck if a swallow or martin builds under the eaves of one's house.

Swan

• In Greek mythology Zeus took the form of a swan to seduce Leda. The swan has erotic associations as an emblem of Aphrodite/Venus. The chariot of Venus can be drawn by swans.
• In Hinduism the swan and goose are interchangeable in myth and legend. It is the Ham Sa, "that pair of swans", who depict perfect union, they also portray breath and spirit. Brahma has the swan or goose as an attribute and can have one as his mount. It was the bird that laid the Cosmic Egg on the waters. Brahma sprang from this Golden Egg. The swan can also be the vehicle of his wife Saraswati, goddess of wisdom, learning and music.
• Swan deities are prominent in Celtic tradition, they are associated with the healing waters and sun. Swans can also be shape-shifters, as creatures of water, earth and air they can command all three elements; they can also assume human form but can always be recognized by having a gold or silver chain round the neck. Swans, like storks, can take human form on migration.
• In Norse myth the Valkyries could take swan shapes. The nymphs of Serbian legend (the Vila) could become either swans or serpents.
• Swans appear in AmerIndian lore as workers of the will of the Great Spirit and there is a great white swan which calls up the four winds.
• The black swan of Australia represents the two sister-wives of the All- Father of the Aboriginals of the Lake Victoria region.
• Swans used as figureheads on ships brought good luck since swans do not plunge themselves below the waves.

T

Tiger

The tiger often took the place of the lion as King of Beasts in Eastern mythology. It always represents royalty, power, and fearlessness.
• In China the tiger is Lord of the Land Animals. It is the emblem of some military officers, typifying war, might and courage.
  Representations:
  • The White Tiger represents the earth, the West, the region of death, and is guardian of graves.
  • The Blue Tiger represents the East and plant life.
  • The Red Tiger represents the South and fire.
  • The Black Tiger represents the North and winter.
  • The Yellow Tiger represents the sun.
  • Various deities ride tigers.
    • Chang Tao-ling, the first Pope of popular Taoism, rides a tiger.
    • The god of wealth and gamblers rides a tiger.
    • The goddess of the wind has a tiger as her mount.
    • The tiger represents Orion (the constellation) in Chinese legend.
• In Japan, although it is a mythical animal only, it is said to live a thousand years and was adopted as an emblem of the warrior class.
• In Malaysia, Sumatra, and Java there are myths of "were-tigers" (in the latter two countries they are friendly creatures). The Batek tribe of Malaysia has Raja Yah as the mystical king of tigers.
• In India, Durga rides a tiger, and Siva is often shown wearing a tiger skin.
• In Thailand if several people were suspected of committing the same serious crime, they were all thrown in a pit to a tiger. The one killed by the tiger was guilty.

Toad

The toad was believed to be venomous, being able to spit out poison; Pliny and Aelian maintain this, but there was also a tradition that, like the serpent, it carried in its head a precious stone, the Borax, which could act as an antidote to poison. The toad is generally a creature of loathing and can depict evil.
• In Chinese myth it is the Three-legged Toad who lives in the moon, its legs depicting the three lunar phases. At lunar eclipses the toad swallows the moon.
• The Japanese Sennin(Genii) Garna is a wizard toad.
• Celtic myth attributes evil power to the toad and in this aspect it can take the place of a devil. It was also regarded as a witch's familiar and its poison was part of a witch's brew.
• AmerIndian legend connects the toad with the Dark Manitou and the powers of darkness which are overcome by the Great Manitou.
• In Mexico the toad and the toad-stool are associated with the sacred mushroom which brings knowledge and insight.

Tortoise (Turtle)

• In Hindu myth, the tortoise Chukwa supports the elephant Maha-pudma, which in its turn supports the world.
• The name tortoise (Lat. testuoo) is given to the ancient Roman protective shelter formed by soldiers with shields overlapping above their heads when attacking a fort.
• As the feminine power of the waters the tortoise was an emblem of Aphrodite/Venus; also of Hermes/Mercury in Graeco-Roman myth. Pausanias says that it was also sacred to Pan among the Arcadians and that it was prohibited to kill it.
• In Chinese myth the tortoise also supports the world, its four feet being the four corners of the earth. It is one of the Four Spiritually Endowed, or Auspicious Creatures, and represents the northern regions, the yin principle and the element of water.
• It is the Black Warrior, depicting strength and endurance; it was credited with a great life-span and was therefore a symbol of longevity. In its warrior aspect the tortoise joined the dragon on the banners of the imperial army, both represented indestructibility as neither can destroy the other, the tortoise cannot be crushed and the dragon cannot be reached. The tortoise also appears with the crane as longevity. The Queen of Heaven, Hsi Wang-mu, was called the Golden Mother of the Tortoise. It also represents the Great Triad, with the dome of its back as the sky, the body as the earth and the lower shell as the waters.
• In Japan the Cosmic Mountain and the abode of the Sennin (the Genii or Immortals of Taoism) are supported by a tortoise.
• The tortoise and turtle both appear in AmerIndian traditions. For the Sioux the world is a huge tortoise floating on the waters, a myth which also occurs among the Tatars. Another fable is that the earth is supported by four turtles, but a single tortoise supports the world in Huron tradition; for others the tortoise saved the people from the flood and then carried the new earth on its back. There are various turtle clans and the Pueblos have Turtle Dances in spring and autumn. The animal is associated with both the earth and the waters and is thus a feminine power. The tortoise and turtle can be tricksters, being able to appear and disappear, as a trickster he leads the animals on the war path. Turtles appear on Mayan stelae. For the Aztecs they were a symbol of cowardice and boastfuiness, hard outwardly but soft inwardly.
• Again representing the feminine to the serpent's masculine power, the tortoise is one of the oldest animals of West African mythology. It originated ju-ju and appears in fertility rites. Tortoise also takes on the trickster role but is always outwitted.
• The second incarnation of Vishnu (Kurma), was a tortoise who helped the gods recover the Amrita from the deluge.

U

V

Vulture

• In Egypt the bird is an emblem of Isis, who once took this form, and is also sacred to Mat as goddess of maternity; she can be depicted as vulture-headed or with a vulture headdress. Hathor can also be vulture-headed and Nekhabet of Southern Egypt sometimes appears as a vulture. The bird was known as "Pharaoh's Hen", representing the feminine principle associated with the Scarab as the male.
• In Graeco-Roman myth the vulture is associated with Pallas, Ares/Mars and Apollo and is the mount of Kronos/Saturn. Hercules slew the vulture which tore the liver of Prometheus and the bird was sacred to him. Harpies were represented as having the body of a vulture with the head and breast of a woman. There was a legend that the vulture, like the eagle, did not lay eggs but gave birth to fully-fledged live young. Aelian says that sweet perfume kills vultures and that myrrh and pomegranates are also fatal. The claw of a vulture, like the horn of a unicorn, detects the presence of poison in food or drink.
• The Griffin Vulture was a royal emblem on the standards of Assyrian and Persian armies.
• There was an Arabian vulture god Nasr.
• In West Africa the vulture Fene-Ma-So is the Bird of the Sky, the King of the Birds.

W

Whale

The whale, like the Tortoise, is one of the animals said to support the earth.
• Arabic tradition says that the earth rests on the back of a whale and that earthquakes are caused by its movements.
• Russia has the same myth. In Slav lore four whales support the world. There is also a legend that the back of the whale could be mistaken for an island and that sailors would land on it and light fires to cook food; feeling the heat the whale would plunge under the waves and the sailors would drown.
• The Belly-of-the-Whale myth of Jonah in the Bible is typical of the initiation rites of death and rebirth. The jaws of the whale are the Gates of Hell.
• Origen says that great whales represent violent passions and criminal impulses. The belly theme occurs among the Innuits (Eskimos) in the myth of Raven as trickster. There are northern whale festivals and there is a Killer Whale clan.
• In Norse legend whales have magic powers and can be the mount of witches.

Wolf

The wolf can appear in either an evil or beneficent guise in mythology; in its malefic form it is associated with destruction, death and gods of the dead: as a totem animal or protector it is venerated and worshipped.
• The Egyptian god Upuat or Ap-uat is depicted either as a wolf or with a wolf or jackal head. It is associated with Osiris as Lord of the Dead.
• There was a cult of the wolf in Arcadia and Plato and Pausanias speak of the rites of Zeus Lycaeus in which the animal was sacrificed and eaten and its essence absorbed by the devotees who became with it and called themselves "Lukoi". Aelian says that the wolf was worshipped by the Delphans and associated with Apollo and there was a bronze image of a wolf at Delphi. The animal was also sacred to Ares/Mars and Silvanus.
• In the legend of the founding of Rome, the twins Romulus and Remus were suckled by a wolf and the animal appeared prominently in Roman art and gave its name to the Lupercalia. The Latin "lupa", the she-wolf, represented a prostitute and the wolf's lair, the '"upanar", was a brothel. Pliny and Plato recount the myth that if a wolf is seen by a man with its mouth shut it loses the power of opening it again, but if the wolf sees the man first with his mouth shut he loses his voice.
• Both Hinduism and Zoroastrianism hold the wolf as evil. In the former it represents darkness and evil and in the latter it depicts the evil in human nature.
• Celtic and Irish legend portray the wolf as a helpful animal, having much in common with the dog. Deities and heroes could manifest as wolves and in Celtic art Cernunnos, as Lord of the Animals, is accompanied by a wolf among other animals. An Irish tribe claimed descent from a wolf and Cormac, King of Ireland, like Romulus and Remus, was suckled by a wolf.
• The wolf appears in a dual role in Teutonic and Norse myth, it is a bringer of victory as ridden by Odin/Woden, but Fenris (Fenrir), the giant wolf, is the epitome of evil and one of the monsters created by Loki. He was captured but will return at Ragnarok and will be vanquished ultimately by Vidar. Two wolves, Sköll and Hati, accompanying Odin, depict repulsion and hatred and they incessantly pursue the sun and moon in an attempt to plunge the world into darkness. Wolves are ridden across the sky by the Valkyries. Wolf-headed men appear in Norse art.
• AmerIndian culture has numerous wolf tribes and clans; the animal is associated with Sirius, the Dog Star, the home of the gods, and is a path-finder and teacher. It is an ally of the moon and has psychic powers. The soul of a hunter can pass into the realm of wolves and some tribes claim descent from wolves who are culture heroes or brothers of the hero, while the Innuits (Eskimos) have a Great Wolf Amarok.
• Wolves can appear as were-animals (Werewolf or Werwolf); a 'man-wolf, i.e. a man who, according to ancient superstition, was turned or could at will turn himself into a wolf (the "loupgarou" of France). It had the appetite of a wolf, and roamed about at night devouring infants and sometimes exhuming corpses. Ovid tells the story of Lycaon, King of Arcadia, turned into a wolf because he tested the divinity of Jupiter by serving up to him a "hash of human flesh"; Herodotus describes the Neuri as having the power of assuming once a year the shape of wolves; Pliny relates that one of the family of Antaeus was chosen annually, by lot, to be transformed into a wolf, in which shape he continued for nine years. In Armenian legend it was a form taken by witches and warlocks who can also ride wolves.

Woodpecker

• (Greco-Roman) The woodpecker can be a form taken by Zeus/Jupiter and was also sacred to Ares/Mars as representing war; it was also an attribute of Silvanus, Tiora and Triptolemus. A woodpecker watched over and fed the infants Romulus and Remus while the wolf suckled them.
• The red mark on the bird signifies fire in Indo-European myth, as does its tapping and striking on wood. It is the Aryan bird of the storm clouds and depicts war and sudden attack.
• The war association also occurs in AmerIndian tradition and the woodpecker is the totem animal of the Omaha tribe.

Worm

The word was formerly used of dragons and great serpents, especially those of Teutonic and old Norse legend.

Wren

The wren is known as the King of the Birds, a title which, according to Teutonic legend, it gained by deceit in a contest. It was decided that the bird which flew nearest the sun should be king. The eagle naturally reached the highest point but the wren had hidden itself on the eagle's back and so was nearer the sun.
• In Celtic lore the wren is prophetic and omens were read from the direction from which it called. It is the Druidic King of the Birds and was sacred to Taliesin as it was also to the Greek Triptolemus.
• In Japan the wren is considered lucky. The Ainus, when out hunting, salute it as a tiny god which brought fire from heaven.

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