Pegasi illustration (© Tony
Millionaire / inclusion here strictly on Fair Use/non-commercial basis only)
One of the best-known creatures of classical
mythology is Pegasus – the flying horse who sprang into existence (along with
his human brother, Chrysaor) from spurts of blood gushing forth from the neck
of the snake-haired gorgon Medusa when Greek hero Perseus beheaded her with his
sword.
Much less famous than Pegasus, conversely, but
often confused with him on account of their similar name are the subjects of
this present ShukerNature blog – the pegasi or horse-headed birds, fabulous
entities variously claimed to occur in Scythia or in Ethiopia.
A phalanx of flying horses (© Ezra
Tucker / inclusion here strictly on Fair Use/non-commercial basis only)
As I've noted on previous occasions, some of my
most productive and interesting investigations are cases that have been
initiated by the sparsest of information, sometimes no more than a line or two,
or a simple footnote, tucked away and readily overlooked in text otherwise
devoted to much more familiar, extensively-documented subjects. I've presented
some of these hitherto-obscure cases here on ShukerNature (as well as in
articles and comprehensive, often chapter-length coverage in books) - and they
include such fascinating subjects as archangel feathers (click here), Brevet's all-black Malayan tapirs (click here), the Iberian zebro or encebro (click here), Sloan's blue rhinoceros (click here) and Heuvelmans's green leopard (click here), the exploding worm of Kalmykia (click here) and the Isle of Wight's gooseberry wife
(click here), flying cats (click here), flying mice (click here), flying jackals (click here), and flying turtles (click here), the world's only intergeneric elephant
hybrid (click here), Jamaican monkeys (click
here) and Janus cats (click here), the sukotyro (click here), the purple macaw (click here), mirrii dogs (click here), the night jaguar (click here), New Guinea penguins (click here), scarlet bats (click here) and scarlet vipers (click here), the antlered snail of the Sarmatian Sea
(click here), stone worms (click here) and Steller's sea-bear (click here), white eagles (click here), shrieking centipedes (click here), the kuil kaax (click here), were-worms (click here), and much more besides.
And so it was that, many years ago when still a
teenager, I first learnt of the pegasi (aka pegasy and pegasies) from the
briefest of sources – the following single line that appeared in A
Dictionary of Fabulous Beasts (1971), written by Richard Barber and Anne
Riches:
Pegasi
Horse-headed birds found in Scythia; Pliny, who reports their appearance, regards them as fabulous.
(118)
In classical times, Scythia was the name given to a region encompassing much of present-day Eastern Europe and Central Asia. As
for the bracketed 118, this referred to a numbered reference in this book's
bibliography, the reference in question being Dr John Bostock's translation
from 1855 of the encyclopaedic Naturalis Historiae (aka Historia
Naturalis) - the multi-volume magnum opus of Roman
naturalist-historian Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD).
I was able to obtain a copy of Bostock's
translation via Britain's indispensable inter-library loans service, and I discovered
that the lone line documenting the pegasi in the fabulous beasts dictionary by Barber
and Riches was simply a paraphrasing of Pliny's original statement - which
opened Chapter 70 of his encyclopaedia (a chapter dealing with fabulous birds),
and read as follows:
"I look upon
the birds as fabulous which are called "pegasi," and are said to have
a horse's head; as also the griffons, with long ears and a hooked beak. The
former are said to be natives of Scythia,1 the latter of Aethiopia."
The superscript 1 referred to a footnote
by Bostock that stated:
"Scythia and Ethiopia ought to be transposed here, as the
griffons were said to be monsters that guarded the gold in the mountains of Scythia, the Uralian chain, probably."
Otherwise, nothing new there. (NB - In classical
times, Ethiopia referred to much of East Africa, not just the present-day country bearing this
name.)
Moreover, despite perusing countless books and
published articles on mythological animals in subsequent years, I never
encountered any additional mention of pegasi. So the decades slipped by while
visions of horse-headed birds periodically flapped on heavy wings across the
horizon of my mind but never alighted long enough in my consciousness to induce
me to investigate them any further – until quite recently, that is, when, after
recalling these semi-equine enigmas yet again, I decided that it was time to
pursue the pegasi online. So I did - and here is what I found out about them.
Pliny the Elder was not the only classical scholar
to document the pegasi. Preceding his Naturalis Historiae was a short
treatise written in c. 43 AD by Rome's earliest geographer, Pomponius Mela, entitled De
Situ Orbis Libri III – which Pliny used as a major authority for the
geographical sections in his own publication. And both Mela's treatise and
Pliny's encyclopaedia were used as sources of material by the 3rd-Century
compiler and grammarian Gaius Julius Solinus in his own master-work, De
Mirabilibus Mundi (translated as The Wonders of the World).
Interestingly, Pomponius Mela and Solinus merely stated that the pegasi sported
horses' ears – it was Pliny who claimed that they were horse-headed. Also, the
two former authors reported that these birds lived in or near a lake.
So far, however, whether horse-headed or
horse-eared, the pegasi have been deemed to be entirely mythical, with no more
basis in reality than their winged steed namesake, Pegasus. But is it possible that
they actually constituted a distorted or embellished account of a genuine, bona
fide species of bird? In his book Birds in the Ancient World from A to Z
(2012), W. Geoffrey Arnott includes a short account of the pegasi, and,
accepting Bostock's suggestion in his translation of Pliny's encyclopaedia that
these birds were native to Ethiopia, not Scythia, he notes that there are no
less than three relatively common species of East African bird with erect,
pointed crests resembling a horse's ears that perch in lakeside trees. Namely,
the long-crested eagle Lophaetus occipitalis, the spotted eagle owl Bubo
africanus, and the white-bellied go-away bird Corythaixoides leucogaster.
So could one of these be the identity of the pegasi?
Personally, I consider it improbable that either of
the first two species would make a plausible candidate, simply because eagles
and owls would already be very familiar birds to classical European scholars,
and therefore it seems doubtful that even via several retellings between
original observation and subsequent documentation a Chinese whispers process
could convert either of these into a horse-eared (or –headed) avian anomaly.
Conversely, the third species named might be a more plausible candidate,
because go-away birds would be far less familiar to European scholars as they
are confined entirely to tropical Africa, and are
totally unlike any European bird in appearance. Consequently, a go-away bird's
appearance could become distorted much more readily by the Chinese whispers
process (click here for a ShukerNature
article concerning go-away birds).
In addition, one Twitter correspondent suggested that a hornbill might make a promising candidate for the pegasi, and there is no doubt that certain species of hornbill do possess a vaguely horse-headed appearance, due to their huge, burly beaks, which at a distance could resemble a horse's muzzle. Moreover, one species that is especially reminiscent of the pegasi just so happens to be a native of Ethiopia - namely, the Abyssinian ground hornbill Bucorvus abyssinicus. One of the two largest species of hornbill anywhere on the world, it has been specifically recorded from the immediate vicinity of Ethiopia's Lake Langano, thereby fulfilling another pegasi requirement as a plausible candidate - living by a lake.
Ultimately, however, it seems unlikely that we shall ever know for certain whether the pegasi do have a basis in ornithological fact as well as a presence in classical fable.
A female Abyssinian ground hornbill (© Quartl/Wikipedia)
In addition, one Twitter correspondent suggested that a hornbill might make a promising candidate for the pegasi, and there is no doubt that certain species of hornbill do possess a vaguely horse-headed appearance, due to their huge, burly beaks, which at a distance could resemble a horse's muzzle. Moreover, one species that is especially reminiscent of the pegasi just so happens to be a native of Ethiopia - namely, the Abyssinian ground hornbill Bucorvus abyssinicus. One of the two largest species of hornbill anywhere on the world, it has been specifically recorded from the immediate vicinity of Ethiopia's Lake Langano, thereby fulfilling another pegasi requirement as a plausible candidate - living by a lake.
Ultimately, however, it seems unlikely that we shall ever know for certain whether the pegasi do have a basis in ornithological fact as well as a presence in classical fable.
Man
riding a hippalectryon - damaged depiction on the interior of an Attica black-figure
lip cup, 540–530 BC (public domain)
Interestingly, the pegasi are not the only horse-birds
on record. There is also the hippalectryon to consider. No less obscure than
the pegasi, this yellow-plumed composite beast from ancient Greek folklore is
variously said to have combined the wings, legs, and tail of a cockerel (most
frequently), an eagle, or a giant vulture with the head and forequarters of a
horse, and could apparently be tamed and ridden by anyone brave enough to
attempt this daunting feat. It is represented, sometimes bearing a bold rider, in
several pieces of ancient art, including vases, statues, and coins, most
commonly dating from the 6th Century BC; but the oldest known
example - an askos (liquid-pouring pottery vessel) from Knossos - dates from
the 9th Century BC.
Finally: horse-bird composites are assuredly the
stuff of dreams, especially any dreams that can be designed by those skilled in
the illusive arts of Photoshop - so here is a truly delightful example to leave
you with:
I'm pleased to see the hippalectryon getting a little attention. Long has he languished in the shadow of the more famous pegasus. No doubt, he once had he own legend.
ReplyDeleteWhat about the shoe-billed stork? http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=shoebill+stork&qpvt=shoebill+stork&FORM=IGRE
ReplyDeleteThe face is rather horsish to me and was the first thing I thought of. They are from Africa as well.
The shoebill's beak is so enormous and ostentatious, I feel sure that it would have been specifically alluded to by pegasi chroniclers if this species were the latter's identity. Also, I'm afraid that I can't see any resemblance to a horse's head with the shoebill's head.
ReplyDeleteAnyone not familiar with a shoe-billed stork would not know what it was. Early chroniclers would not likely know what they were looking at. Later ones might, but might not realize earlier writers wrote about them as pegasii.
ReplyDeleteMuch like early Greeks might not recognize elephant fossils as elephants but later Greeks would recognize them.
I appreciate that early chroniclers probably wouldn't know what a shoebill was, but what I am saying is that I don't think anyone seeing a shoebill would describe it as being horse-headed, and I feel that anyone seeing it would specifically refer to it having a huge beak.
ReplyDelete