page_title: Master of Animals
section_title: Deity figures
hierarchical_section_title: Master of Animals / Deity figures
context_page_description: The Master of Animals or Lord of Animals is a motif in ancient art showing a human between and grasping two confronted animals. It is very widespread in the art of the Ancient Near East and Egypt. The figure is normally male, but not always, the animals may be realistic or fantastical, and the figure may have animal elements such as horns, or an animal upper body. Unless he is shown with specific divine attributes, he is typically described as a hero, although what the motif represented to the cultures which created the works probably varies greatly. The motif is so widespread and visually effective that many depictions were probably conceived as decoration with only a vague meaning attached to them. The Master of Animals is the "favorite motif of Achaemenian official seals", but the figures in these cases should be understood as the king.
  The human figure may be standing, found from the 4th millennium BC, or kneeling on one knee, these latter found from the 3rd millennium BC. They are usually shown looking frontally, but in Assyrian pieces typically shown from the side. Sometimes the animals are clearly alive, whether fairly passive and tamed, or still struggling or attacking.
context_section_description: Although such figures are not all, or even usually, deities, the term can also 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 may all 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 gods. Horned gods are not universal however, and in some cultures bear gods, like 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, the god of hunting. 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 God of the Hebrew Bible as Master of Animals.
caption: Single bull-man wrestling with a lion, Mesopotamia, 3rd millennium BC
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D200", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "GIMP 2.4.6", "Image DateTime": "2009:02:21 11:53:14", "Image ExifOffset": "224", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 2, 0, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "3104", "Image Tag 0x9216": "[1, 0, 0, 0]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "3216", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6996", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/15", "EXIF FNumber": "5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "800", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2009:02:14 18:18:14", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2009:02:14 18:18:14", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "3906891/1000000", "EXIF ApertureValue": "232193/50000", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "50", "EXIF SubSecTime": "57", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "57", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "57", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 1, 0, 2, 1]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "75", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "Low gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}