The Symbolic Animal: Animals as Symbols in Medieval Literature with Dr Philip Line

In this Zoom session Dr Philip Line explores the characteristic use of animal figures as religious and moral allegories in the literature of the medieval period. Underlying the use of such figures is the medieval philosophical belief that allegory (allegoria) could function as truth. Because each creature ‘was established by the divine will to manifest and in some way signify the invisible wisdom of God’, every part and characteristic might have significance, especially if referred to in the Scriptures. One such example of this interpretation occurs in the writing of the theologian Dionysius the Areopagite, who enumerates the figures of animals used in the Scriptures to depict the angelic powers:

The form of a lion must be regarded as typifying their [the angels’] power of sovereignty, strength and indomitableness…. The figure of the ox signifies strength and vigour and the opening of the intellectual furrows to the reception of fertilizing showers; and the horns signify the guarding and unconquerable power. The form of the eagle signifies royalty and high soaring and swiftness of flight…the power to gaze unhindered, directly and unflinchingly upon the full and brilliant splendour of the brightness of the Divine Sun.

Speaker Dr Philip Line received his doctorate in 2003 from the Centre for Medieval Studies, Leeds University, and is now an independent researcher with a particular interest in human-animal relations.
His most recent publication Humans and Other Animals in the Middle Ages: An Introduction and Reader, Volume 27 of Explorations in medieval culture (Brill, 2025), is both an introduction and a wide-ranging reference work for human attitudes to non-human animals in Latin Europe of the period.

Tickets: £12 for an invitation on Zoom. Book using the link below.