zoomachy

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From zoo- +‎ -machy.

Noun[edit]

zoomachy (plural zoomachies)

  1. (rare) A fight between or against animals.
    • 2008, Joan Aruz, Marks of Distinction: Seals and Cultural Exchange Between the Aegean and the Orient (ca. 2600–1360 B.C.), Mainz: Verlag Philipp von Zabern, →ISBN, page 177:
      Only the bull attacking the lion on the Ashmolean seal resembles an eastern type, its head down and limbs firmly on the ground. [] On this seal, Minoan-inspired combats, engraved in Minoan style, are set in a Near Eastern environment and arranged in a triangular composition that is proper for Syrian zoomachies.