Symbols of a sort : the hyena and the vulture in pre-Islamic Arabic poetry

Abstract EN

The hyena and the vulture figure prominently within the general context of animal motifs in Pre-Islamie battle and battle-related poetry, As beasts of battle, they enjoy a distinctive symbolic status.

In self-praise poetry in particular, they acquire the symbolic value of the co-destrovers; collaborating with the hero-poet to disrupt the life-death cycle of the enemy and cause utter physical and spiritual destruction to them even after death.

In elegies and self-elegizing poems these beasts are employed in reflecting on the human condition and expressingprimitive man’s existentialist fear of the destructive forces of nature, This special symbolic status is probably due to the strong mythical associations the hyena and the vulture had with the life-death cycle in popular beliefs, associations based on realistic observation of their respective natures and behaviours, Pre-ls’amic poets often highlight the special significance of the two beasts in the context of the life - death cycle by presenting them, especially the hyena, in sex-loaded imagery.