Peryton
A peryton is a mythical creature , which is represented as a hybrid of deer and bird.
features
The peryton has the head, neck and front legs as well as the antlers of a deer, furthermore its rear legs and wings with associated plumage are those of a huge bird. Sometimes he is shown as a stag with bird wings. The color scheme should be dark green or light blue.
The creature casts a strange shadow, not that of a winged deer, but that of a human. Hence it stands to reason that the peryton was seen as a spiritual manifestation of deceased people, such as travelers who were lost in the distance, souls of murderers or spirits of drowned sailors. Some said the animal came from the lost continent of Atlantis .
Although the peryton looks harmless, it is not a herbivore - it is said that the animal has an insatiable appetite for human flesh. But as soon as a peryton kills a person, his shadow is supposed to show his true body again, and as long as this lasts, he cannot kill another man.
Mentions
The earliest documented mention of the mythical creature can be found in Jorge Luis Borges Einhorn, Sphinx und Salamander - Handbuch der Fantastischen Zoologie from 1957, the author referring to a medieval manuscript as the source. Since there is no evidence whatsoever in ancient sources, it can be assumed that the peryton is not necessarily a modern idea, but is by no means older than the Middle Ages .
The mythical creature achieved further popularity when it was mentioned in the monster manual for the pen and paper role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons , which has been published since 1977.
In the 1990s, brief energy emissions in the gigahertz range were recorded at the Parkes Observatory in Australia . These were named Perytone by the scientists . Their origin was unknown for a long time. Some of the perytons could later be traced back to radiation from a microwave oven .
Further mentions in popular culture
- The Peryton appears as an opponent in the role-playing games Star Ocean and Shadowrun .
- It even has its own role-playing game named after the creature, but " Peryton " has bat wings instead of bird wings.
- In the novel, The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe of Peryton is also mentioned.
- The Donald Duck comic book "Animals from all over the world" by Don Rosa includes a fake peryton - a deer with wings made of cardboard.
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.borges.pitt.edu/vakalo/zf/html/the_peryton.html
- ↑ http://www.tagesschau.de/schlusslicht/peryton-101.html ( Memento from April 14, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ http://www.perytonpublishing.com/perytonrpg.htm
