Omul și animalele în tradiția mitologică. Simbolistica animalieră
Man and animals in mythological tradition. Animal symbolism

Summary/Abstract: The relationship of civilizations with the animal and plant kingdom has been pervasive, complex and difficult, involving diverse cultural and spiritual eras. In every historical moment and in every geographical space, the relationship between man and animal has given rise to varied, often contradictory feelings and mental representations, generated by the spiritual need for a profound social pedagogy.The trajectory of these relationships involved in ancient, medieval and modern times the symbolic inclusion of animals in myths, rites, legends, heraldic, armorial, serigraphic and artistic representations. Animals were given a wide variety of allegorical meanings, which reflected the need for social education in values, ethics and morals. These venerable cultural forms, as well as popular traditions, did not refer strictly to the zoological nature of the animal kingdom, but anthropologized it, presenting it symbolically and moralistically in different social situations.Modernity and postmodernity have abandoned traditional animal symbolism, preferring—under the pressure of rationalism – simplifying, materialistic and deterministic explanations. Animal imagery is used to support only ideas of fictional creativity, not for the mental construction of deeper meanings of human and social life and existence.

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