Dragons, Dogs & Amadillos?

[rikforto]

@rikforto Post #170
Nice examples. If the cosmic boundary interpretation of the nebuly line is accepted, then the question is what type of animal would have been associated with a cosmic boundary? Possibilities would include the Agnus Dei or animals from the zodiac. The differentiation here is based on the third part of the critter diagram, the short vertical strokes under the nebuly lines. These match with the Agnus Dei interpretation but make no sense with zodiac animals.

I just pulled them out of a link; all credit to R. Sale for knowing this tradition and where to find it.

The only animals I saw in the example set were some horses that were part of a battle, and the rest of the page made it clear to me that it was the subject of a prayer. The way the nymphs and beast on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. appear on clouds (and this is very subjective) is more like the way saints and Jesus appear when manifesting on Earth in contemporary examples, which seems to be the more common interpretation. From what I've seen, my intuition is that whatever is going on in You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. is some kind of heavenly apparition or other divine manifestation or imagining, though I don't know my intuition on this particular topic is worth very much! That would give some credence to the Agnus Dei interpretation, though it's hardly definitive.

The question I think we can ask without assuming too much about the status is why would a beast of any stripe appear to have a similar status to two of the nymphs? (I half recall a variation of this was asked earlier, but a quick skim did not turn it up.) It's quite possible to argue that they simply have different statuses, but that would be very strange in my view!