Editing Hare (section)

===In mythology and folklore===
The hare in African folk tales is a [[trickster]]; some of the stories about the hare were retold among enslaved Africans in America and are the basis of the [[Br'er Rabbit]] stories. The hare appears in [[English folklore]] in the saying "[[Mad as a March hare|as mad as a March hare]]" and in the legend of the White Hare that alternatively tells of a witch who takes the form of a white hare and goes out looking for prey at night or of the spirit of a broken-hearted maiden who cannot rest and who haunts her unfaithful lover.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://folk-this.tripod.com/thewhitehare.html |title=The White Hare |publisher=Folk-this.tripod.com |date=1969-05-13 |access-date=2013-01-12}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.britannia.com/history/legend/collection/legcol06.html |title=Legends of Britain: The White Hare |publisher=Britannia.com |access-date=2013-01-12}}</ref>

The constellation [[Lepus (constellation)|Lepus]] is taken to represent a hare.

The hare was once regarded as an animal sacred to Aphrodite and Eros because of its high libido. Live hares were often presented as a gift of love.<ref>John Layard, ''The Lady of the Hare'', "The Hare in Classical Antiquity", [https://books.google.com/books?id=RuIhnnVzk-0C&q=Hare+in+classical+&pg=PA208 pp.208 - 21]</ref> In [[European witchcraft]], hares were either witches' familiars or a witch who had transformed themself into a hare. Now pop mythology associates the hare with the [[Anglo-Saxon polytheism|Anglo-Saxon]] goddess [[Ēostre]] as an explanation for the [[Easter Bunny]], but is wholly modern in origin and has no authentic basis.{{citation needed|date=March 2024}}

In European tradition, the hare symbolises the two qualities of swiftness<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.englishdaily626.com/similes.php?006|title=Similes|website=www.englishdaily626.com}}</ref> and timidity.<ref>Ebenezer Cobham Brewer, ''Dictionary of Phrase and Fable'', Cambridge University 2014, [https://books.google.com/books?id=0DPeAgAAQBAJ&dq=hare+timidity&pg=PA32 p.32]</ref> The latter once gave the European hare the [[Linnaean taxonomy|Linnaean name]] ''Lepus timidus''<ref>''The Popular Encyclopaedia'' 3.2., Glasgow 1836, [https://books.google.com/books?id=96amePyJ_7wC&dq=hare+timidity&pg=PA634 p.634]</ref> that is now limited to the mountain hare. Several ancient fables depict [[the Hare in flight]]: In one, [[The Frightened Hares|The Hares and the Frogs]], they decide to commit mass suicide to relieve the angst of constantly fleeing threats, but reconsider when they startle frogs on the way to throwing themselves into the river. Conversely, in [[The Tortoise and the Hare]], perhaps the best-known among [[Aesop's Fables]], the hare loses a race through being too confident in its swiftness. In [[Irish mythology|Irish]] folklore, the hare is often associated with the [[Aos sí]] or other pagan elements. In these stories, characters who harm hares often suffer dreadful consequences.