Sea monsters

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Depiction of an octopus from 20,000 leagues under the sea .
Summary display of sea monsters from the Carta Marina

The term sea ​​monsters is used to describe mythical monsters living in the water. Many descriptions of sea monsters refer to beings whose existence has not yet been proven. However, some descriptions can be traced back to exaggerated descriptions of living things such as whales , devil rays , giant squids or colossal squids . The marine monsters are usually portrayed as particularly large compared to other sea creatures and as hostile to sailors. Historical accounts show gigantic creatures attacking ships, devouring seafarers or spitting water.

background

The origin of the sea monster myths is mostly unknown. However, there are a large number of written records, mostly from seafarers, in which encounters with supposed sea monsters are described. The Swedish clergyman Olaus Magnus depicted numerous sea monsters in words and pictures in his works Carta Marina and Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus in 1555 , the description of which was adopted by later authors. Magnus' sea monsters can also be found in Conrad Gessner's important work Historia Animalium, for example .

Some eyewitness accounts of sea monsters can be traced back to exaggerated descriptions of real life creatures such as whales or giant squids . Despite abundant and partly credible descriptions of sea ​​snakes , for example , the existence of these beings could not be proven. So could carcasses -Funde that were initially held for remains of sea snakes, as remnants of basking sharks or belt fish are identified. The Cryptozoology deals with references to the existence of previously detected species such as sea monsters.

Historical descriptions and portrayals

Depiction of a sea serpent by Hans Egede

Some historical nautical maps such as the Carta marina or medieval encyclopedic works such as the Liber Floridus were decorated with depictions of sea monsters and dragons. The reports of sea travelers about such beings have been preserved over long periods of time in different cultures.

  • In the Old Testament , Jonah is devoured by a large fish.
  • Avienus reports in his work Ora maritima about the Carthaginian seafarer Himilkon of "monsters from the deep" (Ora maritima 117-29).
  • In 1555, Olaus Magnus describes in his work Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus the largest and most monstrous creature in the Indian Ocean . It was about 100 meters long and extremely cruel . It attacked ships by spewing large amounts of water on the ship and crew. It also tried to capsize ships by throwing itself on the bow or stern .
  • The crew of HMS Squirrel (1582) under Humphrey Gilbert is said to have sighted a lion-like monster with "glaring eyes" on their return journey from Newfoundland in 1583.
  • The "Apostle of the Greenlanders" Hans Egede describes in Det gamle Grønlands nye Perlege in 1729 a huge water-spouting sea serpent that is said to have had paws and a skin covered by shells. The monster is said to have been three to four times longer than the ship and was able to stand up with the ends of its body far out of the water.
  • According to a letter from the captain published in 1852 , the whaler Monongahela is said to have killed a giant sea snake in the South Pacific . The creature is said to have moved with undulating movements through the water, to have been over 30 meters long and to have had a long, flat head with sharp teeth. The remains of the creature described disappeared without a trace, along with the ship and crew.
  • In a 1919 article for National Geographic , John Oliver La Gorce describes how a devil ray is said to have seized the anchor chain of a ship with its tentacle horns and pulled the anchor chain with anchor and ship out to sea. The description can be judged as implausible and presumably due to the fact that very little was known about devil rays at the time.

Known sea monsters

Sea monsters

Monsters in inland waters

In the myths and legends of many peoples , marine monsters appear in lakes, and more rarely in rivers. One of the most famous monsters in inland water is the Loch Ness Monster . Other sea monsters are:

From literature and pop culture

literature

Web links

Commons : Sea Monsters  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Sea monsters  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Maren Peters: The legends of sea monsters are so true. Welt Online , February 20, 2009, accessed on August 3, 2012 : "But there is a real core to the legends."
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h Richard Ellis: Sea monsters - myths, fables and facts . Birkhäuser Verlag AG, Basel 1997, ISBN 3-7643-5422-4 .
  3. ↑ Ute Schneider : The power of cards. A history of cartography from the Middle Ages to the present day. 2nd revised edition, Primus Verlag, Darmstadt 2006, ISBN 3-89678-292-4 .
  4. ^ Edward Haies: Sir Humphrey Gilbert's Voyage To Newfoundland, 1583 There in the fifth section after the note footnote 11: Stephen Parmenius
  5. ^ Ellis, R. 1998. The Search for the Giant Squid. The Lyons Press.