page_title: Animal worship
section_title: Deer
hierarchical_section_title: Animal worship / Wild mammals / Deer
caption_attribution_description: English: Artemis with a hind, better known as "Diana of Versailles". Marble, Roman artwork, Imperial Era (1st-2nd centuries CE). Found in Italy. Français&#160;: Statue d'Artémis à la biche, dite Diane de Versailles, peut-être inspirée d'un original grec du IVe siècle av. J.-C. par Léocharès. Marbre, œuvre romaine d'époque impériale. Provenance&#160;: Italie. Son nom Diane de Versailles lui vient du fait que Louis XIV fait transférer la statue dans le château de Versailles, lieu qu'elle occupera jusqu'à son retour au Louvre en 1798.
context_page_description: Animal worship is rituals involving animals, such as the glorification of animal deities or animal sacrifice. When a god is respected or worshipped by means of a representative animal, an animal cult is formed. Animal cults may be classified according to their outward form or according to their inward meaning, which may of course undergo transformations.
  The classical author Diodorus explained the origin of animal worship by recalling the myth in which the gods, supposedly threatened by giants, hid under the guise of animals. The people then naturally began to worship the animals that their gods had disguised themselves as and continued this act even after the gods returned to their normal state. In 1906, Weissenborn suggested that animal worship resulted from man's natural curiosity. Primitive man would observe an animal that had a unique trait and the inexplicability of this trait would appeal to man's curiosity. Wonder resulted from primitive man's observations of this distinctive trait and this wonder eventually induced adoration. Thus, primitive man worshipped animals that had inimitable traits. Lubbock put forward a more recent view.
context_section_description: The deer is important in the mythology of many peoples. To the Greeks it was sacred to the goddess Artemis, while in Hinduism it is linked to the goddess Saraswati. The deer also held spiritual significance to the pastoralist cultures of the Eurasian Steppe. The golden stag figurine found in the Pazyryk burials is one of the most famous pieces of Scythian art.
caption: Artemis with a deer, the Diana of Versailles in the Louvre Galerie des Caryatides that was designed for it
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