page_title: Pysanka
section_title: Zoomorphic (animal) motifs
hierarchical_section_title: Pysanka / Symbolism in pysanky / Zoomorphic (animal) motifs
context_page_description: A pysanka is a Ukrainian Easter egg, decorated with traditional Ukrainian folk designs using a wax-resist method. The word pysanka comes from the verb pysaty, "to write" or "to inscribe", as the designs are not painted on, but written with beeswax.
  Many other Central and Eastern European ethnic groups decorate eggs using wax resist for Easter. These include the Belarusians, Bulgarians, Carpatho-Rusyns, Croats, Czechs, Hungarians, Lithuanians, Poles, Romanians, Serbs, Slovaks, Slovenes and Sorbs.
context_section_description: Although animal motifs are not as popular as plant motifs, they are nevertheless found on pysanky, especially those of the people of the Carpathian Mountains. Animal depicted on pysanky include both wild animals (deer, birds, fish) and domesticated ones (rams, horses, poultry).  As with plants, animals were depicted in the abstract, highly stylized, and not with realistic detail.
  Horses were popular ornaments because they symbolized strength and endurance, as well as wealth and prosperity. They also had a second meaning as a sun symbol: in some versions of pagan mythology, the sun was drawn across the sky by the steeds of Dazhboh, the sun god. Similarly, deer designs were fairly common as they were intended to bring prosperity and long life; in other versions of the myth, it was the stag who carried the sun across the sky on his antlers.  Rams are symbols of leadership, strength, dignity, and perseverance.
  Sometime women simply drew parts of animals; these symbols were probably a sort of shorthand, endowed with all the attributes of the animal represented. Ducks’ necks, goose feet, rabbits’ ears, rams’ horns, wolves’ teeth, bear claws, and bulls’ eyes can all be found on pysanky.  One cannot be sure, however, if these symbols were actually meant to represent animals, or were renamed centuries later because of their appearance.
caption: Wolf's teeth Odessa