As a fluffy little animal wearing a floral skirt, the deputy mayor of Sheep in "Zootopia" has become a typical image of weakness and kindness. Like other images in the film, Deputy Mayor Sheep The image of the mayor is more or less given by the author to the stereotype and professional image of a "sheep" in people's minds.
The image of sheep, which has always been docile and cute, has always been common in children's literature and artistic works. In the classic work "The Little Prince", the little prince always wanted a sheep to eat the baobab trees that were raging on the planet for him. The lamb described in the book can be put in a box, tied up, and can destroy plants with harmful flowers... In the eyes of the little prince, the sheep is obviously a kind of animal that can help him. A kind and tamable species.
It is precisely because the setting of this soft sheep is so natural and deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. When the truth of the incident is revealed at the end of the film, it turns out that everything was a conspiracy planned by her and other sheep friends. The audience exclaimed for the unexpected dramatic effect - the scene of the cute little sheep standing gloomily at the edge of the pit to reveal his crimes was really impressive.
In the Bible, God calls his people sheep. Jesus called himself a shepherd and told his followers: “The shepherd rejoices more when he finds one lost sheep than over the ninety-nine sheep that are not lost.” Generally speaking, this sentence is interpreted to mean that if he can reform one sinner, he can bring greater joy than taming ninety-nine people who need no repentance. Therefore, in the English context, the lost sheep is often seen as a metaphor for "people who have done something wrong because of going astray" or "people who have lost their way", in which sheep represent kind and good people.
The "sheep" are blessed by God's mercy, but the "goats" are not so lucky. In English, "the sheep and the goats" are commonly used to mean good guys and bad guys. The division of sheep and goats into "good guys and bad guys" originally comes from the last judgment in the Bible: At the end of the world, God is sitting on the throne of glory, Put the sheep on the right side and the goats on the left. Those on the right will be blessed by God and go to eternal life, while those on the left will suffer eternal hellfire and go to eternal punishment.
The "sheep" are blessed by God's mercy, but the "goats" are not so lucky.
Goat’s inner OS: Blame me
It is said that in order to test the loyalty of the believer Abraham, God asked him to kill his eldest son as a sacrifice. Abraham did not hesitate to raise his knife to kill his son. God sent The angel stopped him and asked him to use a goat instead, which was the first "scapegoat" in history.
Later, on the Day of Atonement every year, the high priest took a goat, put his hands on the goat's head, and counted the sins of the Jews. The sins were transferred to the goat, and then everyone drove the goat into the wilderness. Among them, the goat took away everyone's sins, so the goat was called scapegoat, scape means "to drive away". The goat is guilty to this day, and there are many expressions in the English language that illustrate this.
They are all sheep, and this kind of different treatment is simply unbearable. So far, there is still no conclusion as to why there is such a big gap between the images represented by goats and sheep. There is a relatively reasonable guess that this may be because for the ancient Jews who were mainly nomadic, sheep have a gentle temperament, good wool quality, delicious meat, and can be exchanged for wealth. They are an indispensable part of life, so they are considered It gives a positive and positive image; in comparison, the goat with long horns is ferocious in nature, with protruding eyes, the male tail emits a peculiar smell, and the estrus is extremely intense. Therefore, although people also drink its milk, eat its meat and take its skin, the goat still becomes a symbol of lust and evil.
The Decline of Religion and the Stigmatized Goat
By the Middle Ages, the Christian stigmatization of goats reached its peak. Among them is the evil satyr demon figure, Baphomet. The origin of this name is still uncertain. It first appeared in a Proven?al poem related to Muhammad in the late 12th century. In the early 14th century, it appeared as a name for a pagan idol in the transcripts of the Inquisition's trial of the Templars. Baphomet was originally unknown until 1854, when the French occultist Eliphas Levi included illustrations in his book "The Dogma and Rituals of Advanced Magic" and used The Sabbatic Goat as its symbol. The image quickly became popular and spawned some famous logos and patterns. Nowadays, goat heads, inverted five-pointed stars, etc. have become standard symbols of evil in the minds of most Westerners.
In addition to being related to the biblical texts that use sheep as a metaphor for the saved and goats as a metaphor for the fallen, this phenomenon is also very likely related to Christianity's vilification of the goat pagan god of the classical era.
Due to the worship of fertility and animal husbandry, many local gods in ancient times were related to goats. In Greece, Italy and Egypt, the goat was worshiped in its archetypal or phallic form. This worship may be due to the strong sexual prowess of goats. One male goat can have 150 female goats.
In Greek mythology, Zeus, the god of gods, would transform into a goat.
Legend has it that when Zeus was born, a female goat provided him with milk, so Zeus sometimes appeared as a goat with horns. His favorite sacrifices were female goats and white bulls whose horns were painted gold.
In Greek mythology, there is also a god with horns, hooves and a tail. He looks like half man and half beast. He is the god Pan. Pan, the son of Hermes, the messenger of the gods, was the god in charge of woods, fields and sheep, and was believed to help lone voyagers ward off terror. In addition, he is also lustful by nature and often hides in the bushes, waiting for beautiful women to pass by, and then approaches to woo her. There are so many similarities between the appearance of the god Pan and many demon legends in later generations that it makes people suspect that the demons in Christian culture refer to this mythical image to a certain extent.
It can be said that the images of goats and sheep passed down in contemporary civilization are exactly the historical legacy of Christianity as the main religion in the West. This affirmation of sheep and the vilification of goats, in addition to showing the In addition to the influence and competition between religions, it also represents to a certain extent the formation of the cultural divide from "savagery" to "civilization" at that time: support for tame, gentle sheep and opposition to goats, which represent nature and fertility.
Interestingly, in modern life, the story of sheep and goats continues to have various new ramifications in our artwork. Even in some stories, like in "Zootopia", the cute image of sheep is deliberately subverted in order to create a bizarre and dramatic effect. For example, the 2006 horror comedy "Crazy Sheep" tells the story of two brothers who live in a New Zealand ranch and raise sheep. The lazy brother wants to make the sheep "eugenic and healthy" so that they can sell them at a good price, so he hides the story. The younger brother injected a genetically modified agent into the sheep.
Since then, the docile sheep have turned into ferocious carnivores...