Before he was even dressed, he learned that rats had consumed all the grain he had locked away in his barns and that ten thousand hungry rats were running his way. He fled to his mouse tower on the Rhine but the rats followed him and consumed him even as he said his rosary upon his knees. Many people believed that the rats were the embodied souls of those whose deaths he had caused either through starvation or burning. Rat tails were associated with tangles of confusion, misfortune, and rumor. To show the passage of time, Renaissance art sometimes depicted night as a black rat and day as a white one.
Chinese mythology states that the rat brought the gift of rice to humankind.
There and in other places, it is a symbol of prosperity, wisdom, and prophecy. The desert rat has been used as an emblem of British soldiers in desert campaigns such as the Gulf War. Mice are believed to be the terror of elephants and so have become a symbol of the weak triumphing over the strong. They are also associated with humility and timidity. All scripture quotes are from the NKJV Bible unless otherwise indicated.