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Ever since the Stone Age, when elephants were represented by ancient petroglyphs and cave art, they have been portrayed in various forms of art, including pictures, sculptures, music, film, and even architecture. Elephant scalp worn by Demetrius I of Bactria (205–171 BC), founder of the Indo-Greek Kingdom, as a symbol of his conquest.
The existence of elephants in ancient China is attested both by archaeological evidence and by depictions in Chinese artwork. Long thought to belong to an extinct subspecies of the Asian elephant named Elephas maximus rubridens , they lived in Central and Southern China before the 14th century BC.
Animals had a variety of roles and functions in ancient Greece and Rome. Fish and birds were served as food. Species such as donkeys and horses served as work animals. The military used elephants. It was common to keep animals such as parrots, cats, or dogs as pets. Many animals held important places in the Graeco-Roman religion or culture.
Gajasura, an elephant demon from Hindu mythology; Gajendra, from the Sanskrit text Gajendra Moksha; Girimekhala, the elephant that carries Mara in Theravada Buddhism; Kasogonagá, a Toba deity described as either an elephant or an anteater. Supratika, a name for several elephants in Hindu mythology; Behemoth, a demon depicted as a round-bellied ...
The Pictish Beast (sometimes Pictish Dragon or Pictish Elephant) is an artistic representation of an animal, distinct to the early medieval culture of the Picts of Scotland. The great majority of surviving examples are on Pictish stones. The Pictish Beast accounts for about 40% of all Pictish animal depictions, and so was likely of great ...
The Syrian or Western Asiatic elephant (sometimes given the subspecies designation Elephas maximus asurus) was the westernmost population of the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus), which went extinct in ancient times, with early human civilizations in the area utilizing the animals for their ivory, and possibly for warfare. [2]
Abul-Abbas (c. 770s or 780s – 810) was an Asian elephant brought back to the Carolingian emperor Charlemagne by his diplomat Isaac the Jew.The gift was from the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid and symbolizes the beginning of Abbasid–Carolingian relations.
The elephants in this imagery possess significant symbolic meaning. [1] The elephants are often interpreted as symbols of fertilising rains, drawing from an ancient Hindu belief that associates them with clouds. Mythological narratives suggest that the original elephants had wings and traversed the skies, bestowing rain upon the earth.