Animals may represent Nature and/or personifications for human beings and/or Gods/Goddesses.
Explanation:
Animals in legends and mythology are something very common for they are used to express Nature relations and/or personifications for human beings and/or Gods/Goddesses as different animals. The African American mythology, for instance, believes and pay homage to Yemanja, a sea Goddess (which could easily be related to a female version of Poseidon in terms of Greek mythology, although they are very different in many other terms), and Yemanja is usually associated to the sea and its inhabitants, fishes, starfishes, mermaids, among others.
