Goat
The goat denotes untamed lust and fertility, sacred to Pan and Dionysus, nurturing as milk-giver and driven out as bearer of a people's sins.
Our paraphrase of what the sources say it carries.
At a glance
- Type
- Image
- Group
- Animal World / Domestic Animals
- Borne by
- 6 figures (4 are this, 2 carry it)
- Traditions
- Dutch folklore (1)Greek mythology (1)Manx folklore (1)Moroccan folklore (1) and 2 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.
- Amalthaea is Greek mythology
why
Amalthaea is the goat who suckled the infant Zeus hidden in a Cretan cave, and whose broken horn became the cornucopia that pours out whatever its holder wishes.
- Faun is Roman mythology
why
In Roman mythology, Fauns are half-human, half-goat creatures.
- Goayr Heddagh is Manx folklore
why
A vast goat that haunts the lonely roads of the Isle of Man and waits for travellers caught out after dark.
- Urisk is Scottish folklore
why
The urisk is a half-goat, half-human solitary fairy of Highland waterfalls — hideous enough to frighten mortals away, and desperately lonely because of it.
- Aisha Qandisha bears Moroccan folklore
why
In Moroccan and Amazigh (Berber) folklore, Aisha Qandisha is a shapeshifting jinniya who appears as a beautiful woman but conceals goat or camel hooves beneath her skirts, luring and dominating the men she encounters.
- Bokkenrijders bears Dutch folklore
why
From Dutch folklore, Bokkenrijders are ghostly bandits that ride on flying goats.