Some time ago we offered you a post of 10 amazing medieval beasts, but the medieval bestiaries are that, a continuous astonishment for our modern minds, so accustomed to the rational and the logical.
Coming of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, medieval bestiaries used to be, as their name implies, a compendium of beasts , real or imaginary, and presented as enlightened volumes; accompanied by the drawings of a moral teaching.
They were, in fact, beautiful metaphorical books where animals had a symbolic meaning in the total creation of God and constituted a reference of Western Christian art and literature.
7 fascinating creatures of medieval bestiaries
1.The salamander
It is a completely real animal, but in medieval imagination it was attributed the ability to survive the fire.San Agustin, one of the first to write about this reptile, said of her that it was the embodiment of the soul's resistance to hellfire ; and that his power over the flames was proof that something mundane could cope with the infernal rigors and survive.
While the salamanders of ancient Persia were a symbol of divinity, those of medieval bestiaries, in addition of enduring the fire, they were poisonous.It was thought that if a fall in a well could poison it and kill an entire town or the one that nested in a tree, not only killed it, but that any person or animal that ate of its fruits would die poisoned.
This idea that salamanders resisted fire came from Pliny , who claimed they could extinguish flames.
2.Caladrius
This story has been presented in numerous medieval bestiaries.Caladrius is a completely white bird-or according to certain stories of the time of Alexander the Great, yellow-, which has an extraordinary healing power .
It was said of his manure that he cured blindness if applied directly to the eyes.Pliny the Elder also called it icterus and, according to him, it was effective in curing jaundice.
According to myths, the caladrius could predict if a sick person would recover: if he appeared in the patient's bed, it would be seen immediately if the person was going to die; and if he looked directly at the patient's face, he would take the disease and fly with it, healing the sick.
3.Dipsa, the thirsty snake
Lucano said of the dipsa that was one of the 17 different types of snakes created when Perseus cut off Medusa's head: as the hero walked, the head dripped blood, and where the drops fell the snakes were born.
The Dipsa was born in the Lebanese deserts; his venom was so potent that the victims not only went crazy, but their skin burned and looked crispy, but their real curse was to cause an inextinguishable thirst .
4.Anfisbena
This is another venomous snake that appears in medieval bestiaries; They usually describe it with two heads, one at each end, which allows it to move with extreme ease.Later illustrations added wings, legs and horns.
While they claimed that their skin was an extraordinary cure for various diseases, Greek folklore He pointed out that if a pregnant woman passed over a live amphisbena, she would have an abortion.And to counteract the evil, the pregnant woman had to carry a dead woman in a jar.
Isidoro de Sevilla , in his famous Etimologias –th century VII–, he gave the amphibious bright eyes that dissipated the darkness “like lanterns” and wrote that it was the only snake that could hunt in the cold.
5.Muscaliet
This strange creature belongs to a bestiary written by Pierre de Beauvais (of whom they said he was a translator, although there are no other works that he has translated).The muscaliet inhabits the trees and described it as a small hare with weasel ears and tail and the legs of a squirrel.
It is covered with rough and hard hair, like that of a pig, and teeth similar to those of a wild boar.This rare animal was able to jump from tree to tree and radiated so hot that at his contact the leaves died .Towards their burrows inside the trees and could kill those who slept underneath.
6.Monoceros
Also known as karkadann or carcazonon , are a kind of unicorn , very common in medieval bestiaries.With the horse body and its famous horn, it had its feet of elephant and the tail of a deer.
The description of Pliny is “wild boar tail and deer head.” Of course, the horn has been said to have enormous medicinal properties, but the monoceros was far from being the docile and submissive the unicorn was.On the contrary, it was very aggressive and, according to the stories of the bestiaries, their appearance was announced by a deafening and chilling braying.
7.Hydrus
They were also called enhydros and they lived along the Nile River, in Egypt, where they roamed in search of crocodiles; upon finding one sleeping, the hydrus would be covered in mud and introduced into the mouth of the crocodile.
Thus, it would go "digging" into the animal and eat its internal organs and come out tearing its belly and, logically , I would kill him.
It is true that Isidoro of Seville wrote about the hydrus, but it was St.Anthony of Padua who, in the twelfth century, compared the hydrus with Christ, who went down to the mud and I defy evil, only to emerge victorious from the other side.
There are divergences in the representations: some medieval bestiaries describe it as a bird and others as a snake.
Imagination rang in these bestiaries, thus offering us their beliefs and their way of seeing the world.And if you liked it, stay with us reviewing these incredible creatures of Celtic mythology.
Images: Jinny , Jamie Anderson, Biodiversity Heritage Library, Commons Wikimedia
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