Master of Animals

The Master of (the) Animals or Lord of the 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.Ross, Micah (ed), From the Banks of the Euphrates: Studies in Honor of Alice Louise Slotsky, pp. 174-177, 2008, Eisenbrauns, ISBN 1575061449, 9781575061443, Google books The motif is so widespread and visually effective that many depictions were probably conceived as decoration with only a vague meaning attached to them.Frankfort, 75 The Master of Animals is the "favorite motif of Achaemenian official seals", but the figures in these cases should be understood as the king.Teissier, Beatrice, Ancient Near Eastern Cylinder Seals from the Marcopolic Collection, p. 46, 1984, University of California Press, ISBN 0520049276, 9780520049277, google books
The human figure may be standing, found from the 4th millennium BCE, or kneeling on one knee, these latter found from the 3rd millennium BCE. He is 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. In other pieces they may represent dead hunter's prey."Horse Cheekpiece" by "OWM", in Notable Acquisitions, 1980-1981, pp. 7-8, 1981, Metropolitan Museum of Art, ISBN 0870992848, 9780870992841, google books
Other associated representations show a figure controlling or "taming" a single animal, usually to the right of the figure. But the many representations of heroes or kings killing an animal are distinguished from these.Arruz, 308
==Art==
The motif takes pride of place at the top of the famous Gebel el-Arak Knife in the Louvre, an ivory and flint knife dating from the Naqada II d period of Egyptian prehistory, which began c.3450 BCE. Here a figure in Mesopotamian dress, often taken to be a god, grapples with two lions. It has been connected to the famous Pashupati seal from the Indus Valley Civilization (2500-1500 BCE), showing a figure seated in a yoga-like posture, with a horned headress (or horns), and surrounded by animals.Werness, 270 This in turn is related to a figure on the Gundestrup cauldron, who sits with legs part-crossed, has antlers, is surrounded by animals and grasps a snake in one hand and a torc in the other. This famous and puzzling object probably dates to 200 BCE, or possibly as late as 300 CE, and though found in Denmark was perhaps made in Thrace. The purse cover from the Sutton Hoo burial of about 620 CE has two plaques with a man between two wolves, and the motif is common in Anglo-Saxon art and related Early Medieval styles, where the animals generally remain aggressive.
In the art of Mesopotamia the motif appears very early, usually with a "naked hero", for example at Uruk in the Uruk period (c. 4000 to 3100 BCE), but was "outmoded in Mesopotamia" by the seventh century BCE.Frankfort, 30-31 (Uruk), 75, 78-79, 347 (2nd quote) In Luristan bronzes the motif is extremely common, and often highly stylized.Frankfort, 343-347 In terms of its composition the Master of Animals motif compares with another very common motif in the art of the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean, that of two confronted animals flanking and grazing on a Tree of Life.
File:Ancient Levantine God.jpg|Gebel el-Arak Knife with Master of Animals motif at the top of the handle
File:SumerianBulls.jpg|Protective Master from the Lyres of Ur|harp found at Ur
File:Finial in the form of 'Master of Animals' LACMA M.76.97.89.jpg|Luristan bronze finial in the form of the 'Master of Animals'
File:Cylinder Seal, Achaemenid, modern impression 05.jpg|Achaemenid seal impression with the Persian king subduing two Mesopotamian lamassu
File:Tronconical vase Tepe Giyan Louvre AO31918.jpg|Iranian Master of Animals with two snakes
File:Yogi. Mold of Seal, Indus valley civilization.jpg|Impression from the Pashupati seal, Indus Valley Civilization
File:Gundestrup antlered figure.jpg|Detail of the Gundestrup Cauldron antlered figure
File:Relief plaque with confronted ibexes, Iran, Sasanian period, 5th or 6th century AD, stucco originally with polychrome painting - Cincinnati Art Museum - DSC03952.JPG|Confronted animals, here ibexes, flank a Tree of Life
==Deity figures==
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.Garfinkel They sometimes also have female equivalents, the so-called Mistress of the Animals.Arruz, 303-304 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'.
Potnia Theron, a phrase used by Homer meaning "Mistress of the Animals" is used for early Greek depictions of goddesses, usually Artemis, holding animals. The Greek god shown as "Master of Animals" is usually Apollo, the god of hunting.Arruz, 303-304, 308 Shiva has the epithet Pashupati meaning the "Lord of cattle", and these figures may derive from a Proto-Indo-European deity or archetype.Werness, 270 Chapter 39 of the Book of Job has been interpreted as an assertion of the God of the Hebrew Bible as Master of Animals.Doak, Brian R., Consider Leviathan: Narratives of Nature and the Self in Job, 2014, Fortress Press, ISBN 145148951X, 9781451489514, google books; Job:39, NIV
==Notes==
==References==
*Aruz, Joan, et al., Assyria to Iberia at the Dawn of the Classical Age, 2014, Metropolitan Museum of Art, ISBN 0300208081, 9780300208085, google books
*Frankfort, Henri, The Art and Architecture of the Ancient Orient, Pelican History of Art, 4th ed 1970, Penguin (now Yale History of Art), ISBN 0140561072
*Garfinkel, Alan P., Donald R. Austin, David Earle, and Harold Williams, 2009, "Myth, Ritual and Rock Art: Coso Decorated Animal-Humans and the Animal Master". Rock Art Research 26(2):179-197. Section "The Animal Master", The Journal of the Australian Rock Art Research Association (AURA) and of the International Federation of Rock Art Organizations (IFRAO)]
*Werness, Hope B., Continuum Encyclopedia of Animal Symbolism in World Art, 2006, A&C Black, ISBN 0826419135, 9780826419132, google books
== Further reading ==
*Hinks, Roger (1938). The Master of Animals, Journal of the Warburg Institute, Vol. 1, No. 4 (Apr., 1938), pp. 263–265
*Chittenden, Jacqueline (1947). The Master of Animals, Hesperia, Vol. 16, No. 2 (Apr. - Jun., 1947), pp. 89–114 
*Slotten, Ralph L. (1965). The Master of Animals: A study in the symbolism of ultimacy in primitive religion, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 1965, XXXIII(4): 293-302
*Bernhard Lang (2002). The Hebrew God: Portrait of an Ancient Deity, New Haven: Yale University Press, pp. 75–108
*Yamada, Hitoshi (2013). "The "Master of Animals" Concept of the Ainu", Cosmos: The Journal of the Traditional Cosmology Society, 29: 127–140
*Garfinkel, Alan P. and Steve Waller, 2012, Sounds and Symbolism from the Netherworld: Acoustic Archaeology at the Animal Master's Portal. Pacific Coast Archaeological Society Quarterly 46(4):37-60
==External links==
Category:Animal gods
Category:Nature goddesses
Category:Nature gods
Category:Fertility