Elephant
The elephant denotes vast strength joined to memory, wisdom and restraint, bearing the earth in some cosmologies and standing for unhurried dignity.
Our paraphrase of what the sources say it carries.
At a glance
- Type
- Image
- Group
- Animal World / Wild Animals
- Borne by
- 2 figures
- Traditions
- European folklore (general) (1)Japanese folklore (1)
- Same group
- BearBullCoyoteHorseRabbit/Hare and 1 more
Figures that bear it
A model judged each figure against its own description, one term at a time. Is: the figure is a kind of this thing. Bears: it carries the thing or is marked by it. What a figure does is filed under motifs and powers. Open "why" for the sentence the judgement rests on.
- Baku bears Japanese folklore
why
In Japanese mythology, Baku is a chimera with elements of a tiger, an elephant, and an ox.
- Monocerus bears European folklore (general)
why
Emerging from medieval European lore, the Monocerus is a wild and fierce beast resembling a horse, with an elephant’s feet and a boar’s tail.