Eine stehende und eine liegende Ziege 

Johann Melchior Roos sketched these goats with pen and brown ink, likely in the late 17th or early 18th century. The seemingly humble subject of Roos's work belies the rich symbolism historically associated with goats, creatures that traverse both earthly and spiritual landscapes. Goats, emblems of vitality and untamed nature, have been intertwined with human culture since antiquity. Pan, the Greek god of the wild, half-man, half-goat, embodies primal instincts and the capricious forces of nature. This image of the goat has undergone continuous symbolic transformations. Often seen as symbols of fertility and abundance, they have also become associated with darker, more chaotic forces, even symbolizing the devil himself in medieval Christian iconography. The relaxed posture of the reclining goat suggests a sense of peace, evoking a pastoral idyll, yet even here, echoes of Dionysian revelry resonate. The enduring presence of the goat in our collective consciousness, from ancient myth to modern metaphor, reminds us of the cyclical, non-linear pathways of cultural memory.