Chthonic animals

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As a chthonic animals (from ancient Greek chtonios , the earth belongs' ) are animals referred to in mythology , folklore or divination with the underworld are associated, such as snakes , toads and scorpions . In the African Bwiti religion , crocodiles , hippos and lizards are also considered animals of the underworld.

In popular belief, these animals are messengers of the underworld, in Greek mythology they are sometimes subordinate to the chthonic gods as helpful beings and sometimes associated with a cult in which the earth is venerated as a personified primordial mother ( chthonism ). Otherwise they are earthly representatives of the devil or his helpers. Among other things, they are said to carry away the souls of children or to spoil the harvest. Most of the Western European myths about chthonic animals are believed to have their origin in Celtic legends . In many African cosmogonies , access to their world is through a termite mound or a raging underground stream.

The idea of dog-headed people ( kynokephale in ancient Greek ) also seems to be widespread all over the world. Some scientists already suspect their origin in early myths in which they appear as chthonic demons.

Individual evidence

↑ Coco C. Bojadžiev: The night in the Middle Ages. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2003, ISBN 3-8260-2386-2 , p. 90 ( side view in the Google book search): “This is the island of Lérins , from which St. Honorat (4th century) reports, the residence of devils, in which a kind of purgatory for the servants of Satan is set up in the middle of the huge bare rocks [...] These demons were transformed into various chthonic animals within seven years - scorpions, toads and snakes - and in order to be released they had to cause the death of one innocent person every year. "
↑ James W. Fernandez: Bwiti. An Ethnography of the Religious Imagination in Africa. Princeton University Press, Princeton 1982, ISBN 0-6910-9390-3 , Chapter 18 (English; online ( memento of the original from August 19, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original - and archive link according to instructions and then remove this note. on ibogaine.desk.nl): "[…] the frequent reference in visions to river crossings and a great snake in the waters is a motif taken directly from Fang migration legends, which involved difficulties in crossing various watercourses until aided by any of various giant chthonic animals: crocodiles, snakes, hippopotami, lizards. " @1@ 2

↑ For example with Rudolf Wittkower : Die Wunder des Ostens. A contribution to the history of the monsters. In: The same: Allegory and the change of symbols in antiquity and renaissance. DuMont, Cologne 2002, ISBN 3-8321-7233-5 , pp. 87–150, here p. 91 (original 1942); Leopold Kretzenbacher : Kynokephale demons of southeast European folk poetry. Comparative studies on myths, legends, mask customs around Kynokephaloi, werewolves and South Slavic Pesoglavci (= contributions to knowledge of Southeast Europe and the Near East. Volume 5, ZDB -ID 1072151-4 ). Trofenik, Munich 1968, p. 30.

[1] Coco C. Bojadžiev: The night in the Middle Ages. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2003, ISBN 3-8260-2386-2 , p. 90 ( side view in the Google book search): “This is the island of Lérins , from which St. Honorat (4th century) reports, the residence of devils, in which a kind of purgatory for the servants of Satan is set up in the middle of the huge bare rocks [...] These demons were transformed into various chthonic animals within seven years - scorpions, toads and snakes - and in order to be released they had to cause the death of one innocent person every year. "

[2] James W. Fernandez: Bwiti. An Ethnography of the Religious Imagination in Africa. Princeton University Press, Princeton 1982, ISBN 0-6910-9390-3 , Chapter 18 (English; online ( memento of the original from August 19, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original - and archive link according to instructions and then remove this note. on ibogaine.desk.nl): "[…] the frequent reference in visions to river crossings and a great snake in the waters is a motif taken directly from Fang migration legends, which involved difficulties in crossing various watercourses until aided by any of various giant chthonic animals: crocodiles, snakes, hippopotami, lizards. " @1@ 2

[3] For example with Rudolf Wittkower : Die Wunder des Ostens. A contribution to the history of the monsters. In: The same: Allegory and the change of symbols in antiquity and renaissance. DuMont, Cologne 2002, ISBN 3-8321-7233-5 , pp. 87–150, here p. 91 (original 1942); Leopold Kretzenbacher : Kynokephale demons of southeast European folk poetry. Comparative studies on myths, legends, mask customs around Kynokephaloi, werewolves and South Slavic Pesoglavci (= contributions to knowledge of Southeast Europe and the Near East. Volume 5, ZDB -ID 1072151-4 ). Trofenik, Munich 1968, p. 30.