The stag, enemy of serpents and thirsting for living water
In the bestiaries the stag draws serpents out with its breath and runs to the spring: from Psalm 41 to Ravenna's mosaics, a symbol of baptism and faith.
‘Quemadmodum desiderat cervus ad fontes aquarum’, as the hart longs for the water brooks: the opening of Psalm 41 in the Vulgate numbering is one of the best-known images in the Bible, and it made the stag one of the best-loved symbols of Christian art. The medieval bestiaries explained its meaning by joining the verse to an ancient piece of natural history, according to which the stag is the great enemy of serpents. From this meeting came a portrait rich in meanings, linked to baptism, to conversion and to victory over evil.
The breath that draws out serpents
Pliny the Elder already reported that stags fight serpents and force them out of their holes by drawing them out with their breath. Isidore of Seville takes up the report and links it to the etymology, now discredited, of the name cervus, which he connects with the Greek kerata, horns. The bestiaries tell the scene in detail: the stag finds the crack in the rock where the serpent hides, pours into it the water or breath of its nostrils, draws it out and kills or devours it.
Some versions add a sequel. After eating the serpent, the stag feels the venom burning its entrails and runs to the nearest spring, where it drinks for a long time until it is free of it. This second part of the story made it possible to connect the natural report with the Psalm: the animal that longs for water is the one that has fought evil and seeks the remedy.
From the struggle to the spring
The Christological interpretation sees in the stag Christ himself, who drew out and defeated the devil, the ancient serpent. But the most widespread reading concerns the believer. Whoever has taken in the venom of sin must run to the spring of grace, that is to the sacraments and the Word, to be cleansed of it. The verse of the Psalm was sung during the baptismal liturgy of the Easter vigil, and the stag thus became the image of the catechumen approaching the font.
It is no surprise that stags often appear in baptisteries and in early Christian decoration. In the so-called mausoleum of Galla Placidia in Ravenna, from the fifth century, two stags drink at a fountain among plant scrolls, in a mosaic that turns that very verse into an image. The same iconography recurs in many floor mosaics and sarcophagi of the early Christian centuries.
Other traits of the stag
The bestiaries also give the stag other natures with moral value. When they cross a river or an arm of the sea, stags swim in single file and each rests its head on the back of the one in front; when the first tires, it moves to the rear. This is the image of brotherly charity, in which the strong support the weak. It was also said that the stag lived very long and renewed its youth by eating serpents and shedding its antlers.
The figure finally entered the legends of the saints. Tradition tells that Saint Eustace, a Roman officer who was still a pagan, saw during a hunt a stag with a shining crucifix between its antlers and was converted. Later a similar story was attributed to Saint Hubert, the patron of hunters. These are hagiographical tales, but they show how closely the stag had become associated with Christ.
The stag of the bestiaries thus sums up many of the functions of the animal symbol in the Middle Ages. It is a figure of the victorious Christ, a model of the believer seeking grace, an image of solidarity among brothers. And the simple gesture of an animal bending to drink at a spring, seen in a mosaic in Ravenna, carries with it centuries of meditation on the thirst of the soul.