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The human skull is an obvious and frequent symbol of death, found in many cultures and religious traditions. [1] Human skeletons and sometimes non-human animal skeletons and skulls can also be used as blunt images of death; the traditional figure of the Grim Reaper – a black-hooded skeleton with a scythe – is one use of such symbolism. [2]
The Horses of Neptune, illustration by Walter Crane, 1893.. Horse symbolism is the study of the representation of the horse in mythology, religion, folklore, art, literature and psychoanalysis as a symbol, in its capacity to designate, to signify an abstract concept, beyond the physical reality of the quadruped animal.
This is because they have ancient associations with dark forces, such as death and destruction. Turtles are also often associated with darkness and coldness because of their aquatic habitats.
French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss proposed a structuralist theory that suggests the raven (like the coyote) obtained mythic status because it was a mediator animal between life and death. [1] As a carrion bird, ravens became associated with the dead and with lost souls.
In religions where a single god is the primary object of worship, the representation of death is usually that god's antagonist, and the struggle between the two is central to the folklore of the culture. In such dualistic models, the primary deity usually represents good, and the death god embodies evil.
Afflicted by this bias, comparative thanatologists have been looking for manifestations of grief in animals, exemplified by the story of Tahlequah, the orca who carried her dead baby for 17 days ...
This story makes use of folktales where black dogs symbolize death. [citation needed] Another famous ghostly black dog may be found in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series: the "Grim", a "giant, spectral dog that haunts churchyards" [108] is "the worst omen of death" [108] according to Harry Potter's divination teacher, Professor Trelawney.
The Buddha, represented by the Bodhi tree, attended by animals, Sanchi vihara. The position and treatment of animals in Buddhism is important for the light it sheds on Buddhists' perception of their own relation to the natural world, on Buddhist humanitarian concerns in general, and on the relationship between Buddhist theory and Buddhist practice.