Deer Woman
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Deer Woman, sometimes also known as Deer Lady, is a shape-shifting woman in Native American mythology, in and around Oklahoma, The Western United States and The Pacific Northwest.
She allegedly appears at various times as an old woman, or a young maiden, or a deer. Some descriptions assign her a human female upper body and the lower body of a white-tailed deer.
The Deer Woman is said to sometimes be seen as a beautiful woman just off the trail or behind a bush, calling to men to come over. Deer Woman is often said to have all the features of a normal young woman save for her feet which are shaped like deer hooves and her brown deer's eyes. Men who are lured into her presence often notice too late that she is not a natural woman and are then stomped to death.
The Deer Woman is similar in nature to several other female figures of folklore from other regions such as La Llorona from Mexico and the Southwestern United States, The Colombian creatures La Patasola and the Tunda and the Iara of Brazil. All are females who at times, function as sirens leading men to their death.
This physical deformity marking an otherwise perfect women is a common theme among legendary siren figures. Deer woman has hooves for feet, La Patasola and the Tunda have deformed feet and La llorona is often said to have no feet by those who see her. The Iara on the other hand is a fish woman with a blow hole in her neck.
Deer Woman was featured as a character in an episode of the Showtime horror series Masters of Horror. It originally aired in North America on December 9, 2005 and was directed by John Landis.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Deer Woman And the Living Myth of the Dreamtime, article by Carolyn Dunn from the Endicott Journal of Mythic Arts 2003
[edit] External links
- Oklahoma’s Deer woman by Tonya Hacker
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