Editing Octopus (section)

===Cultural significance===
[[File:AMI - Oktopusvase.jpg| thumb|upright|[[Minoan civilization|Minoan]] clay vase with octopus decoration, c. 1500 BC|alt=An ancient nearly spherical vase with 2 handles by the top, painted all over with an octopus decoration in black]]
Ancient seafaring people were aware of the octopus, as evidenced by artworks and designs. It was depicted on coins during the [[Minoan civilization]] possibly as early as 1650 BCE and on pottery in [[Mycenaean Greece]] around between 1200 and 1100 BCE. A Hawaiian [[creation myth]] suggests that the octopus is the lone survivor of a previous age. The legendary sea monster, the [[kraken]] is conceived as octopus-like.<ref name=Courage/>{{rp|1, 4–5}} Similarly, [[Medusa]] was compared to an octopus, with her snake-hair resembling the creature's arms.<ref name=Schweid>{{cite book|last=Schweid|first=R|year=2013|title=Octopus|publisher=Reaktion Books|isbn=978-1-78023-177-8}}</ref>{{rp|133}}  The [[Akkorokamui]] is a gigantic octopus-like [[monster]] from [[Ainu people|Ainu]] folklore, worshipped in [[Shinto]].<!--<ref name="Batchelor">{{cite book |last=Batchelor |first=John |title=The Ainu and Their Folklore |url=https://archive.org/details/b29010664 |location=London |publisher=The Religious Tract Society |year=1901 |page=NEEDED; it may be there but not obvs and not in index }}</ref>--><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Srinivasan |first1=A. |title=The Sucker, the Sucker! [Review] |url=https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10024715/3/Srinivasan_Octopuses.pdf |journal=[[London Review of Books]] |volume=39 |issue=17 |pages=23–25 |date=2017}}</ref> 

In the [[Asuka period|Asuka-era]] Japanese legend ''Taishokan'', a female diver battles an octopus to recover a stolen jewel, which became the inspiration for [[woodblock printing]]s. Similarly, in the 1973 novel ''[[Gravity's Rainbow]]'' an octopus named Grigori attacks a woman on the beach. A battle with an octopus plays a significant role in [[Victor Hugo]]'s 1866 book ''Travailleurs de la mer'' (''[[Toilers of the Sea]]''). The octopus continues to be depicted as antagonistic in films such as ''[[Wake of the Red Witch]]'' (1948).<ref name=Schweid/>{{rp|129–131, 138–139, 145–147}} 

In [[political cartoon]]s, octopuses have been used to symbolise empires and large organizations, the arms representing long reach. Octopus also had an erotic appeal. Japanese erotic art, ''[[shunga]]'', includes [[ukiyo-e]] woodblock prints such as [[Katsushika Hokusai]]'s 1814 print ''Tako to ama'' (''[[The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife]]''), in which a woman is sexually intertwined with a large and a small octopus. This art style would inspire [[Pablo Picasso]]'s 1903 drawing ''An Erotic Drawing: Woman and Octopus''.<ref name=Schweid/>{{rp|126–128}} Some individual octopuses gained celebrity status, notably [[Paul the Octopus]] who predicted the winners of the [[2010 FIFA World Cup]].<ref name=Courage/>{{rp|3–4}}