The monkey is a symbol in art: the darling of the East or the outcast of Medieval Europe. Mythological Encyclopedia: Animals in Mythology: Monkey

What is the largest ape? Gorilla is the largest ape. Its males reach two meters in height and weigh up to 250 kg. Although their only food is grass and leaves. However, its size does not make this African monkey dangerous:

Monkey with a Grenade It is hardly enough consolation for a dead man to know that the dynamite that tore him to pieces was of poor quality. Mark Twain The better armed a stupid and careless person is, the greater the danger he poses to himself and others.

A large, tailless monkey is an animal highly revered in Ancient Egypt, Africa, India and China. The small monkey with a tail, like the large tailless monkey, has a higher symbolic status in the East than in the West.

Monkey ability; to imitation and the variety of forms of behavior make its symbolism generally contradictory. She personifies both positive and negative sides person.

According to the ancient mysteries, the monkey represents the state of man before the soul entered him. The monkey also represents the return of man, deprived of his divine nature, to an animal state.

Most often, the monkey serves as the personification of sin, in particular physical sin. She also symbolizes cunning, deceit, desire for luxury, malice, laziness and, due to her angular movements, drunkenness. The ability of apes to imitate human behavior is used to ridicule vanity and stupidity.

Sometimes monkeys serve as a symbol of learning. The image of a cynocephalus (a dog-headed monkey, or baboon) served in Eshpta as a hieroglyph meaning writing. The baboon is a symbol of the Moon, and Thoth is the symbol of the planet Mercury. Because the ancients believed that the Moon accompanied Mercury through the heavens, the dog-headed monkey is described as Thoth's faithful companion. The baboon in Egyptian iconography symbolizes wisdom.

In the Tibetan tradition, the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara (incarnated in the Dalai Lama) originally appeared in the form of a sacred monkey who showed compassion for the giantess, from whose marriage the six ancestors of the people of Tibet descended.

IN Indian epic monkey Hanuman, indian god monkeys, has a noble soul, an extraordinary mind, great physical strength; he is a warrior and faithful companion of the god Rama. It is a symbol of courage, perseverance and self-sacrifice. It was thanks to the monkeys that the god Rama defeated the terrible and evil giant (Rama entered into an alliance with Hanuman, and he sent numerous troops of monkeys and bears to help the god).

The monkey (along with the white elephant and cow) is the third sacred animal in India. There are still temples where monkeys are sovereign masters, where they receive daily a large number of food (at a time when hundreds of people in the country are starving). There are hospitals for monkeys (when thousands of people die without medical care). Moreover, despite the colossal damage that monkeys cause agriculture, devastating huge areas of fields, they enjoy complete immunity, they cannot even be driven away. At one time in India, killing a monkey was severely punished; Europeans who committed such a crime were forced to leave the country. Now Hindus are more tolerant, but even now the act of insulting a monkey causes great discontent among religious people.

Stories about monkey kings are also found in Chinese myths, where they act as dexterous and smart heroes. IN Chinese art The gibbon symbolizes maternal care.

In Japan, a monkey's cry is a symbol of deep melancholy;

Along with this, toy monkeys are considered in Japan as mascots that protect children. The famous symbolic figure of "kochin" is the three monkeys who see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil (carved wood sculpture located in the temple of the first Tokugawa shogun in Nikko), symbolizes wise caution. These carvings have always been considered in the East as a talisman that protects against slander.

Christian tradition regards the monkey with great suspicion, identifying it with vice, passions, idolatry and diabolical heresies.

IN Western art the monkey personifies hypocrisy, sinfulness, deceit, laziness, desire for luxury, criminal intentions, lust, greed. In the Middle Ages, the devil was often depicted as a monkey. The image of a monkey with an apple in its mouth symbolized the fall of Adam and Eve. A monkey in chains means victory over sin. Monkeys often caricature minor flaws in human nature or are an allegory of imitative art.

Since ancient times, the monkey has been considered the embodiment of agility, cunning and shamelessness. In various cultures it symbolic meanings vary. In China and Tibet, many noble families trace their ancestry to the monkey and are proud of such a totemic ancestor. It is believed that the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara came into the world in the form of a monkey who saved the giantess. Six first ancestors of all Tibetans descended from her marriage. The Chinese associate the monkey with playfulness and ambition.

Monkey Hanuman Divine.
God in Hinduism and the hero of the epic Ramayana.
Patron of sciences, healing and agriculture.

In Buddhism, the monkey is considered one of the three senseless creatures, along with the deer and the tiger. These animals personify the passions that take possession of the soul and make it immune to true spirituality. The doe here acts as a symbol of erotic passion, the tiger - rage and anger, and the monkey - greed, insatiability, attachment to the material world, goods, and satisfaction of sensual desires.

The Japanese revere monkeys, believing that small figurines of these animals are able to protect children and bring happiness. A play on words in the Japanese language, in which the expression "do nothing" sounds the same as "monkey", led to the creation of the image of the three magical monkeys of Cochin. Three monkeys are depicted with eyes closed, ears and clamped mouths. These monkey gestures mean that they refuse to see evil, hear evil, or speak evil. Therefore, the figures of the three Cochin monkeys are considered a talisman and protect, in particular, from slander.

In Hinduism, the monkey is also a sacred animal; it personifies loyalty, the willingness to sacrifice oneself to save the life of another. The monkey god Hanuman, who, according to legend, is the son of the wind god Vayu, is revered as a close associate of the god Rama. A courageous warrior and wise advisor, Hanuman protects Rama, symbolizes fertility and the gift of healing.

In Christianity, the meaning of the monkey is negative; here it appears as the embodiment of numerous vices. She is credited with coquetry, recklessness, greed, maliciousness, debauchery, frivolity and vanity. The Monkey became a symbol of heresy, in it the church fathers saw a caricature of a person, an ensemble of all possible human shortcomings.

Monkey Day
In the sacred Aztec calendar, the tonalpoguali called the eleventh day of each of the twenty months ozomagtli, or monkey. Pharmacies believed that on this day it was good to engage in creation, creativity, or just play, organize celebrations and holidays. It should have been carried out lightly and cheerfully, without attaching much importance to what was happening and without starting any serious matters. On this day, noble people were advised to reflect on this. how easy it is to get carried away by the tinsel of public fame and pay for it with honor and dignity. The patron of the Ozomagtli day was Xochipilli, the god of spring vegetation, love, flowers, fun, ball games and corn. This deity also patronized hallucinogenic plants and mushrooms, which the Aztecs used to achieve divine ecstasy.

Year of the Monkey
According to the Chinese horoscope, the monkey is the ninth animal of the twelve earthly branches. It is associated with the metal element and summer. This animal is a universal symbol of enterprise, determination, and readiness to go to all sorts of tricks in order to achieve what you want. The monkey, according to the Chinese, is also diplomatic, full of optimism, and stubborn. The Year of the Monkey is a period of active development, conducive to initiative and new beginnings.

Text messaging is very popular among young people. What can we say, almost any social network has internal mail. With it you can not only type messages, but also attach images, music or even videos. Mail functionality depends on the resource you are on. An excellent example of messengers is the Skype or Viber program. These two apps are available for both PC and mobile devices.

Purpose of emoticons

Whatever the text correspondence, it deprives users of one thing - the accurate expression of emotions. Of course, you can endlessly use punctuation marks or words with bright emotional coloring, but you won’t be able to convey exactly your feelings or joy to your interlocutor. This is exactly why emoticons were invented. Initially, they were made up of simple printed characters such as colons and parentheses, and then they were banal yellow faces, which depicted one or another emotion.

Now the emoticon has found its expression in the system - a group of various images of people, animals, food, cars, signs or other things that users can insert into text correspondence. Of course, there is no need to explain the meaning of simple “smiling”, “crying” or “screaming” emoticons, but often we use this or that pictogram without even knowing what it means. But some emoticons have a certain meaning and even their own history.

For example, the “monkey with closed eyes” emoticon. Some people see here simply an image of an animal, while others notice a secret subtext. Which? Let's figure it out together and find out "a monkey with his eyes closed."

Types of emoticons

In the Emoji system you can find many different emoticons. These are classic yellow cartoon faces, various vehicles with which we can talk about interesting travels, or food emoticons. There are so many of the latter that you can even convey entire recipes using them. Small pictograms are designed not only to show emotions or share interesting news. Psychologists say that information rich in such pictures is better remembered and stored in a person’s memory. The principle is the same as with children's books, which have a lot of illustrations. The child associates the necessary information with the image and remembers it more easily. So if you want someone to remember to go to the store, walk the dog, or, for example, water the flowers, remind them about it in a message with the appropriate emoticon.

Animal emoticons

Animal emoticons represent a separate category. They are needed not only to show the interlocutor an image of the beast. Each animal expresses a certain mood. Thus, with the help of a “dog” you can express devotion, with the help of a “fox” you can express cunning, and with the help of a “snail” you can express slowness. But many of us have noticed three icons with images of monkeys standing in a row. Why monkeys, and what is the point? What does the emoji “monkey with closed eyes” and its “comrades” mean? Read on.

The meaning of the "monkey with closed eyes" emoticon

In order to understand the meaning of this smiley, you need to delve into history. The three monkey emojis are placed together for a reason. Three monkeys, one covering its eyes, another covering its ears, and the third covering its mouth, symbolize an ancient Buddhist idea. The teaching tells us not to commit evil, and was spread in Ancient India, Japan and China. Primates indicate "see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil." Many people have repeatedly asked the question: why monkeys? Historians say that these animals were used as an image of the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe non-action of evil, because in Japanese There's a funny play on words going on. "I don't see, I don't hear, I don't speak" in Japanese means "Mizaru, Iwazaru, Kikazaru". And the word “monkey” is translated as “dzaru”. Perhaps the ancient Buddhists put another meaning into the image of monkeys, but you and I can only guess about it. And now when we already understand what “monkey with closed eyes” (emoticon) means, we can discuss how to apply it in correspondence. By the way, monkey emojis may look slightly different in different applications.

When to use the "monkey with eyes closed" emoji

A cute primate covering its eyes promises us to “see no evil.” Therefore, the direct purpose of such a pictogram is to show the interlocutor that what he is saying or showing you is bad. For example, he tells you a story where you judge someone or him directly. Perhaps he sent you an image or some materials depicting something that you consider “evil” or disgusting.

When should I use the “monkey with closed eyes” emoticon? You can show the person with whom you are having a conversation that you categorically do not like the course of your dialogue. That you simply do not want to see, read and tolerate what he writes to you.

Another way to use an emoticon is to show that you are hiding from something or have already hidden. Like, they are showing you something or they want something from you, but you, as they said in childhood, are “in the house.”

"Monkeys" on Skype

We figured out what the “monkey with closed eyes” emoticon means. Interestingly, the Skype program has several more varieties of similar emoticons. A monkey wearing Chinese clothing may symbolize the Year of the Monkey. eastern calendar. There is also a small primate lying on the snow. You can send it to your interlocutor, for example, when the first snow falls, and you are very happy about it. There is also an emoticon with the image of a dancing monkey on Skype. It is the most versatile. This way you can show that you are so happy that you are ready to start dancing. Some users call this the "victory dance." For example, you can send an emoticon when you succeeded in something or what you wished for came true.

Finally

I would like to note that if you are tired of the built-in “emoji”, then there are a lot of applications and add-ons for your computer or gadget that allow you to use other emoticons.

Now you know what the “monkey with closed eyes” emoji means. Use it wisely.