Stag: An adult male deer.
The Stag as it appears in fables, folklore, and mythology.
Greek Myth: In the work by Edith Hamilton, Mythology, she writes of the stag as one of the pieces at the centre of a conflict. When Aeneas and the Trojans disembarked in Italy, it had been prophesized that Lavinia, the daughter of the King of Latium in Italy, would marry a foreign man and from that union, a great race would be birthed and would hold great influence upon the world. The Trojan hero Aeneas was believed to be the man who should wed Lavinia. But the gods interceded, and Juno (Hera) made sure to set the native peoples of Italy, the Latins and Rutulians, against the Trojans who had just arrived. Through her powers, the goddess summoned one of the Furies known as Alecto to carry out her fell deeds and sow dissent between the peoples. The King of the Rutulians, a man named Turnus, and a suitor to Lavinia, brought war to the Trojans when he was made known of their arrival. Another calculation of Juno that came to pass through Alecto was the slaying of a prized beast of the countryside, a beloved stag. Hamilton writes how the creature's death occurred;
"Alecto's third effort was cleverly devised. There was a pet stag belonging to a Latin farmer, a beautiful creature, so tame that it would run freely by day, but at nightfall would always come to the well-known door. The farmer's daughter tended it with loving care; she would comb its coat and wreathe its horns with garlands. All the farmers far and near knew it and protected it. Anyone, even of their own number, who had harmed it would have been severely punished. But for a foreigner, to dare such a deed was to enrage the whole countryside. And that is what Aeneas's young son did under the guiding hand of Alecto. Ascanius was out hunting and he and his hounds were directed by the Fury to where the stag was lying in the forest. He shot at it and wounded it mortally, but it succeeded in reaching its home and its mistress before it died. Alecto, took care that the news should spread quickly, and fighting started at once, the furious farmers bent upon killing Ascanius and the Trojans defending him."
In the story of the Twelve Labours of Hercules, the third labour of the hero involved the slaying of the stag with golden horns which belonged to the goddess Artemis.
Celtic Myth: In the work by T.W. Rolleston, Celtic Myths and Legends, he writes of the figure known as Tuan Mac Carell, who, it was said was able to change form into different animals. The man was reportedly undying for a time, and when one life cycle neared its end, he would simply change into the body of a different animal and begin anew with a different life, while all of his previous knowledge and history were still intact. Of the many forms he assumed, one of which he was reborn as a stag.
Norse Mythology: In the Nordic Myths, there existed a great cosmic tree of the universe known as Yggdrasil. The tree was home to different creatures, an eagle and a falcon which perched at the topmost boughs of the tree and surveyed all that happened, a great dragon serpent known as Nidhoggr which coiled beneath the tree and continually gnawed at the roots. Along with the different creatures that took up abode within Yggdrasil, there were others that frequented the grounds that surrounded the tree. In the written work by H.A. Guerber, The Myths of the Norsemen From the Eddas and Sagas, written of are the stags;
"As the tree Yggdrasil was evergreen, its leaves never withering, it served as pasture-ground not only for Odin's goat Heidrun, which supplied the heavenly mead, the drink of the gods, but also for the stags Dain, Dvalin, Duneyr, and Durathor, from whose horns honey-dew dropped down upon the earth and furnished the water for all the rivers in the world."
Forest Myths: In the written work The Forest in Folklore and Mythology, by Alexander Porteous, the stag is told of in several passages. Porteous tells of an undying huntsman who was doomed to forever hunt a stag;
"Grim also relates that a Meistersong was made by Michael Beheim on Eberhart, Count of Wirtenberg, who heard in the forest a 'sudden din and an uproar vast,' then beholds a spectre, who tells him the manner of his damnation. When alive he was a lord that never had his fill of hunting, and at last made his request unto the Lord to let him hunt till the Judgment Day; the prayer was granted, and these 500 years, all but 50, he has hunted a stag that he never can overtake; his face is wrinkled as a sponge."
Porteous also writes of a passage from Grim of a prince who observed the laws of the forest soo strictly as to deal out death over a felled tree, or a wounded creature;
"In Saxony there lived in early times a rich and mighty prince, who loved hunting above all things, and sharply punished in his subjects any breach of the forest laws. Once when a boy barked a Willow to make himself a whistle, he had his body cut open and his bowels trained around the tree; a peasant having shot at a stag, he had him fast riveted to the stag."
Porteous writes of a mythical female creature in Serbian folklore;
"A female being peculiar to Serbian mythology is the Vila, who partakes of the characteristics of both the Fairy and the Elf. These Vilas represented as Mountain Nymphs, live in the forests on the hills, and love singing and dancing. They are young and beautiful, with long flowing hair, and are usually clad in white. They often mount up into the air, from whence they discharge fatal arrows at men, but they injure none except those who intrude on their revels. There is a Serbian saying-ustrielilga ga vila-meaning, the Vila has shot him with her dart. They are often seen sitting on Ash trees singing, and they converse with the stags in the forest..The Vilas ride through the forest on a seven-year-old stag, which they bridle with snakes, and their cry resembles the sound of the Woodpecker. Should a mother in anger consign her child to the Devil, it is believed that the Vila has a peculiar right to that child."
Porteous writes of the stag who almost killed King Richard;
"In the reign of King ichard II one of the keepers of Windsor Forest was known as Herne. He owned two black hounds of the St. Hubert breed, and on account of his great knowledge of woodcraft and skill in hunting King Richard held him in particular esteem. His fellow hunters consequently hated him and plotted his destruction. One day the king, when hunting, was almost slain by an infuriated stag, but was saved by Herne interposing his person and receiving the blow instead. Herne, to all appearance was dead, when suddenly a tall dark man appeared, giving the name of Philip Urswick, who, for a reward offered by the king, declared he would effect a cure. He first cut the stag's head off, and bound it upon the head of Herne, who was then conveyed to Urswick's hut on Bagshot Heath. The king announced his intention of making Herne his chief keeper if he recovered, and Urswick promised faithfully to look after him. The other keepers regretted that he had not died, and Urswick offered them revenge if they would grant the first request he made. They agreed, and Urswick told them that, though Herne would recover, he would lose all his skill. Herne duly recovered and was appointed chief keeper, but found his former skill gone from him. King Richard, annoyed at this, revoked the appointment, whereupon Herne, in despair, hanged himself upon an Oak tree, from which his body mysteriously disappeared."
Aesop's Fables: From the Signet version, edited by Jack Zipes;
The Stag at the Pool
One summer's day a stag came to a pool to quench his thirst, and as he stood drinking, he saw his form reflected in the mirror. "How beautiful and strong my horns are!" he remarked. "But how weak and unseemly these feet of mine are!"
While he was examining and criticizing the features that nature had given him, the hunters and hounds drew near. The feet, with which he had found so much fault, soon carried him out of reach of his pursuers, but the horns, which were his pride and joy, became entangled in a thicket and kept him from escaping so that the hunters caught up with him and took his life.
We tend to underestimate the small things about ourselves that are often our most valuable attributes.
The Stick Stag
A stag whose joints had become stiff with old age fell sick and decided to lie down on the rich grass of a meadow close to some woods so that he might be able to graze more easily. Since he had always been a friendly and good neighbour, many beasts came to visit him and wish him farewell. Little by little, however, they began eating up all the grass until nothing was left. So, though the stag recovered from the diseases, he had nothing to eat, and in the end, he died not so much from sickness or of old age as for sheer want of the food that his friends had eaten for him.
The Stag in an Ox Stall
Hard pressed by the hounds, a stag was driven out of his cover and bolted in terror over the fields. Blind through fear, he took refuge in a farmyard and had himself in an ox stall, which happened to be open. As he was trying to conceal himself, under some straw, an ox asked, "Don't you know that it's certain death if you stay here?"
"Just don't betray me," said the stag, "and I'll be off again at my first opportunity."
Toward evening the herdsman came to feed the cattle, but did not notice the stag. The other farm servants came in and out of the barn, and the stag remained safe. Then, after the foreman passed through, everything seemed all right. So the stag now felt quite secure and began to thank the oxen for their silence and hospitality.
"Wait awhile," said one of them. "We really wish you well, but there's another person that may give you trouble, one with a hundred eyes. If he should happen to come this way, I fear that your life will still be in jeopardy."
While he was speaking, the master, having finished his supper, made the rounds to see that everything was safe for the night, for he thought that his cattle had not been looking as well as they should be. When he went up to the rack, he asked his servants, "Why is there so little fodder here? Why isn't there more straw?" Then he added. "I wonder how long it would take to sweep out those cobwebs?"
As he began prying and looking here, there, and everywhere, he caught sight of the stag's antlers jutting out from the straw, and he immediately called in his servants, who seized the poor beast.
Nothing escapes the master's eye.