The jumping of sacred deer

This article reviews several variants of deer image iconography in Scythian time art from the position of reproduction of animal poses, “standard” for the viewer as usually considered. The last ones are connected with the nature of represented object behavioral norms. Special attention is paid to very specific position of an animal body which is usually characterized as “a deer on tiptoe” or “a pose of a sudden stop” by the experts. Authors managed to observe behavior of an alarmed deer who has been overtaken unawares and has shown jumping reaction which is very close to a standard pose “deer on tiptoe”. The authors suppose that in art compositions where figures of deer in a similar pose are located one above another, it is not just about the geared-up “multiplication” of the imagined properties of an animal but also can be the representation of the movement dynamics reflecting in total fragments a stage of the sacred animal movement up to heavenly spheres.