Geomythology

How Common Stories Reflect Earth Events

Timothy J. Burbery

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• eBook ISBN:
  9781000407778
• Topic: Naturwissenschaften
• Subtopic: Folklore & Sagen Literaturkritik

Gold-guarding griffins, Cyclopes, killer lakes, man-eating birds, and "fire devils" from the sky—such wonders have long been dismissed as fictional. Now, thanks to the richly interdisciplinary field of geomythology, researchers are taking a second look. It turns out that these and similar tales, which originated in pre-literate societies, contain surprisingly accurate, pre-scientific intuitions about startling or catastrophic earth-based phenomena such as volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, and the unearthing of bizarre animal bones. Geomythology: How Common Stories Reflect Earth Events provides an accessible, engaging overview of this hybrid discipline. The introductory chapter surveys geomythology's remarkable history and its core concepts, while the second and third chapters analyze the geomythical resonances of universal earth tales about dragons and giants. Chapter 4 narrows the focus to regional stories and discusses the ways these and other myths have influenced legends about griffins, Cyclopes, and other iconic creatures. The final chapter considers future avenues of research in geomythology, including geohazard management, geomythology databases, geomythical "cold cases," and ways the discipline might eventually set, rather than merely support, research agendas in science. Thus, the book constitutes a valuable asset for scientists and lay readers alike, particularly in a time of growing interest in monsters, massive climate change, and natural disasters.

1 Universal Geomyths (Part I)

Dragons

One way to approach geomythology is to start with legends that are common to many cultures, such as dragon stories, giant fables, and volcano myths. These narratives are so pervasive as to be nearly universal, even archetypal. Again, we must admit the possibility that they sprang solely from the imaginations of storytellers down through the ages. Even so, there may yet be geological or paleontological events that could have influenced their creation. We begin with dragons, perhaps the most widely known of all legendary creatures. Whether it be the formidable fire-breathers of Game of Thrones; or medieval legends, as in St. George and the dragon; or Smaug, from The Hobbit; or Lewis Carroll’s draconic “Jabberwocky”; or dragon bones in Chinese medicine; or encounters of First Nation tribes with dinosaur eggs and bones, dragon stories abound throughout the world.

However, their very ubiquity presents a considerable obstacle, which is finding fresh ways to discuss creatures whose legends saturate the western mind. Fortunately, geomythical approaches have been innovative in this area. We will consider three topics in the following order: Chinese dragon lore, dragon teeth and skulls, and draconic landscapes. One striking fact for western readers is that in Chinese, historically, the phrase “dragon” applies to all fossil bones, not just those that might evoke a traditionally draconic appearance (Mayor, “Fossil” 21). Mayor notes that a key source for knowledge of “dragon bones” is the I Ching (“Book of Changes”), an ancient divination text. In the third “Qian” section, there are references to dragons “appearing in the field” (“Chinese”), and these manifestations are regarded as good omens since “dragon” bones were often used for folk remedies in China. Indeed, bone-based medicine became popular enough that at one point, in north China, a bone works was operative. It functioned like a mine, in which workers “extracted heavy, calcified bones with pulleys and sifted sediments in baskets” (Mayor, “Fossil” 39). Among its findings were remains of what we now recognize as deer and horses. As Mayor notes, “certain features of the traditional Chinese dragon, such as the distinctive antlers resembling those of fossil deer,” may be based on the remains of Pliocene and Pleistocene mammals (39) (Figure 1.1). Such folk traditions also reinforce Julie Cruikshank’s point that local knowledge can assist scientists in their research, for in their study of dinosaur footprints in China, Xing et al. note that “[r]ecently, Chinese paleontologists have discovered heretofore unknown dinosaur deposits by enlisting the help of farmers familiar with locations of dragon bones” (18).

Figure 1.1 Chinese flag featuring an antlered dragon. Wikimedia Commons.

Regarding other non-western stories of dragons, there are Indian tales of such creatures, who were alleged to live in the Siwalik Hills, at the foot of the Himalayas. Not surprisingly, this area contains rich deposits of Pleistocene remains. Among these are tusks, bones, and jaws of the four-horned giraffes, camels, smilodons, giant turtles, and prehistoric elephants known as proboscideans. Philostratus the Athenian (A.D. 170–250) wrote a biography of the sage and philosopher Apollonius of Tyana (3 B.C. - A.D. 97), who traveled to India to meet with the intellectuals there. Among other things, Apollonius hoped to glimpse the animals who were said to live under the surface of the Himalayas and who sported crests and jewels in their skulls (Mayor, “First” 129–30).

The fact that they supposedly resided in the earth points to their fossil origins. According to Philostratus, the skulls of these dragons were shown in the city of Paraka, which may correspond to the modern city of Peshawar. These skulls plausibly belonged, in fact, to extinct giraffes such as Sivatheriums, or elephants of the region. Somewhat reminiscent of Chinese dragons, the Giraffokeryx had four horns and thus probably looked quite draconic, and Sivartherium Giganteum–whose first name, based on the god Shiva, provides a small example of mythology’s impact on science–was quite large and possessed two colossal antlers. As for the jewels, Mayor speculates that this detail “alludes to the crystals that can form on mineralized bones,” and notes that “large, glittering calcite crystals and tubular selenite crystals are common in the Siwalik fossils” (“The First” 133).

Turning to the lore of Grecian dragon narratives, we briefly noted earlier that the story of Cadmus, dragon-slayer, and founder of Thebes, was analyzed in a proto-geomythical manner by Palaephatus. In his 4th century (B.C.) treatise On Unbelievable Tales, Palaephatus recounts the legend, then offers a rational explanation, which is that Cadmus slew, not a dragon, but a king named Draco (Latin for “dragon”), who owned some elephant teeth. The teeth were housed, Palaephatus alleges, in a temple but were pilfered by Cadmus’s allies, who subsequently sold them to raise armies (Mayor, “The First,” 222). Moreover, it is possible that if actual pachyderm teeth were involved, they might well have belonged to a mastodon. As mentioned above, unlike woolly mammoths, whose flat teeth resemble the tread of a running shoe, mastodons’ were jagged. The latter seems more likely to have conjured tales of a meat-eating beast (Figure 1.2).

Figure 1.2 (a) Mastodon teeth. (b) Mammoth teeth. Wikimedia Commons. Photo of 1.2 (b) by Rama.

Thebes is not the only city founded on a legendary dragon-killing. Another is Klagenfurt, in southern Austria, situated on Lake Wörthersee. Its builders were harassed by a lindworm, a dragon (generally wingless) that is common in Nordic and Germanic lore. Eventually, two valiant men killed it, thereby allowing construction to proceed. Although this tale is fanciful, it is interesting to note that “Klagenfurt” means “ford of lament” or “ford of complaint,” and could indicate that there was a genuine disturbance connected with the waters adjoining the town. Perhaps a large eel was glimpsed during a time of crisis in the area, then alchemized into the dragon fable. In any case, a monument in the town square features two statues, one of the lindworm (winged, in this case), the other of Hercules. The works reinforce each other thematically since Hercules’s second labor was to dispatch the Hydra, who, as its name indicates, was associated with water (Figure 1.3).

Figure 1.3 Lindworm and Hercules statues, Klagenfurt, Austria. Johann Jeritz, 2020. Wikimedia Commons.

Yet, the lindworm statue was not merely symbolic or fanciful for the sculptors. We know this because a supposed dragon skull was uncovered in an Austrian quarry in 1335 and was used as a model for the head of the Klagenfurt statue, which was constructed in 1590. In reality, the skull probably came from a woolly rhino. Like the more famous woolly mammoths, these rhinos lived during the Pleistocene, which was one of Earth’s ice ages. Seas were lower in the Pleistocene because more water was frozen in the polar caps. Worldwide temperatures were also lower, as evidenced by the greater prevalence of glaciers. Indeed, it is estimated that about 30% of the earth was covered with ice during this period, as opposed to 10% today. As a consequence, as animals such as rhinos and pachyderms evolved, they grew fur to cope.

Daniel Ogden, a classics scholar, provides another inventive approach to dragon study, coining the phrase “dragonscapes” to examine legendary “evidence” of their actions in ancient topography. In his words, he surveys “the [supposed] signs … that the great dragons had left on the land – a seemingly burned quality in the rock, or a bloody one, a hill constricted into shape by coils, a meandering riverbed carved out by a serpentine slither, [or] a former cave-home” (15). Ogden does so in relation to well-known monsters including Typhon, who opposed Zeus in the Gigantomachy, the war that followed the Titanomachy; the Python, or Delphic dragon; the Chimera, which was at least partly draconic; and the dragonish sea monster Cetus.

Typhon’s inclusion in Ogden’s list might seem problematic, given that most accounts portray Typhon, not as a dragon, but as a composite of human, animal, and serpentine features. Hesiod depicts him as such, as do Nonnus and Apollodorus (165). Yet Ogden points out that a Greek vase, circa 570–50 B.C., has recently come to light; it shows beyond question that “Typhon was fundamentally a drakon.” It depicts “a striding, bearded Zeus, identified by his lightning-bolt, grasping a great serpent by the neck as he prepares to dash the thunderbolt down upon it; this pure serpent, unhybridised with any other creature, can only be Typhon himself, given that he is the only known opponent of Zeus with any serpentine element” (166; my emphasis).

There is a relatively high number of Typhonic signs throughout the Mediterranean, based on his brawl with Zeus. They include the claim that after their fight, Zeus buried the monster under the region between Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, an area in central Italy that smokes and fumes to this day from volcanic activity (166). Additionally, the so-called Katakekaumene (“Burnt Land”), situated in western Turkey, is characterized by black rocks “that even now give the impression of burning” (166). According to the ancient geographer Strabo (Geographica), Zeus and Typhon dueled to the death here, as Zeus scored the landscape with his thunderbolts. Another is Mt. Haemus (Haimos), located in the Balkan Peninsula and supposedly named for the blood (haima) that spurted forth from the dragon when the All-Father crushed him under Mt. Aetna. Moreover, the winding Orontes River, whose mouth is in western Turkey, was alleged to have been created inadvertently by Typhon when he “squirmed across the surface of the earth … to evade Zeus’s thunderbolts” (166). In fact, in Geographica 16.2, Strabo alleges that “Typhon” was the Orontes’s original name. Finally, there is the Corycian Cave in Cilicia (southern Turkey), reputed to be Typhon’s lair. It is actually a massive sinkhole, 128 meters (420 feet) deep, but its opening is relatively small, giving it a cave-like appearance. While we cannot call any of these fables geomythical, given their post hoc orientation, they do manifest an awareness of each location’s geomorphology.

Giants and Fossilized Bones

Giant fables, like draconic ones, are also widespread. Not only do giants appear in Greek stories; some, like the Cyclopes, feature both in Greek texts (Hesiod’s Theogony, Homer’s Odyssey) and Roman ones (Virgil’s Aeneid). The first great work of English literature, Beowulf, depicts the hero going up against Grendel and his mother, both of whom are huge, humanoid fiends. In English folklore, the hero Jack climbs a beanstalk and makes his way into the castle of a giant, who calls out, ominously and famously, “fee-fi-foe-fum / I smell the blood of an Englishman,” when he senses Jack’s presence. Bilbo Baggins and his nephew Frodo Baggins encounter massive trolls in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, respectively, and giants appear in George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones. They are present as well in non-western stories like those of the Daityas in Hindu mythology and in fables of the Si-Te-Cah, the cannibalistic, red-haired tribe of giants of Paiute legends.

Of course, there have been very large human beings throughout history, and they alone could have inspired giant fables. However, some mythic titans may have sprung from the misrecognition of fossilized animal bones, especially mastodon and mammoth remains. Why this is so requires some explanation. We have touched on the appearances of mammoth and mastodon teeth, yet both species also possessed a morphology that looked startlingly human, especially in terms of their femurs (thighbones), scapulae (shoulder blades), and ribcages. All of these bones can seem like super-sized versions of human ones, especially when viewed in isolation.

It might seem that the presence of tusks alongside these other remains in mammoth graveyards would be a dead giveaway, so to speak, that any other bones near the tusks probably did not belong to humans. However, the ancients did not always regard tusks as related to the rest of the skeletons. In fact, they seem to have correctly recognized, often, that tusks were made of ivory, while also believing, inaccurately if creatively, that these remains sprang from the ground like minerals, not from animals (Burbery, “Geomythology” 86). We also know that while mammoth femurs and scapulae tended to be very durable and often survived for millennia, the skulls of such creatures were relatively fragile and frequently crumbled easily. Hence, it would not be uncommon to find femurs, scapulae, and ribs without any telltale skulls near them.

Moreover, a significant number of mammoth and mastodon remains are buried in seismically active regions like Greece and Italy, and hence, to this day, they often appear after earthquakes or storms. As geophysicist Amos Nur points out, “the Aegean region is a hot-bed of seismic activity.” He sums up the tectonics of this area, movements that have been going on for millions of years: “The Arabian [tectonic] plate is moving north [about 15–20 mm per year] relative to the African plate … the Anatolian plate is moving west, and the European plate is moving southeast” (230; see Figure 1.4). The result is strong, frequent quakes.

Figure 1.4 The Arabian Plate (center), which underlies Saudi Arabia. The arrows indicate the direction of the movements of this plate, along with the African, Anatolian, Eurasian, Indian, and Somali Plates. The numbers represent the millimeters each plate covers annually. Alataristarion, 2015. Wikimedia Commons.

As for bones becoming visible after such events, both ancient and contemporary examples are not difficult to find. The Simi Valley (CA) earthquakes of 2019 exposed at least one fossil, possibly from a whale or hippo (“California”). Furthermore, the New Madrid (Missouri) earthquakes of 1811–12 created, among other things, “sand blows,” or “cratered mounds of sand,” and one such “blow … spit out the fossilized skull of an extinct musk ox” Boer and Sanders (“Earthquakes” 121). In antiquity, the Neades were said to be colossal beasts who lived on the Greek island of Samos, according to the mythographer Euagon of Samos, writing in the 5th century B.C. At times, the Neades roared so loudly the earth would open up and swallow them (Mayor, “Fossil” 57). Samos has strong quakes today as well, which are often accompanied by noises, along with freshly exposed bones. The Neades legend seems to reflect such manifestations.

What is more, the bones that surface are often disarticulated and jumbled, given the potency of these quakes, which in this region tend to be tectonic events. These are caused by the shifting of plates and are usually deeper than volcanic tremors. We also know that in antiquity, neither mammoths nor mastodons were recognized as species that were distinct from elephants, as well as extinct. In fact, the very concept of extinction was not established in western science until Cuvier proposed it in the 1800s. Finally, we recognize that humans are highly prone to seeing apparently humanoid forms in nature—in cloud formations, in the Man in the Moon, in the “face” on Mars, and so on. Summing up, then, it would seem that at least some of the giants in myth were based on the misidentification of animal bones as the remnants of large persons. And if the remnants were discovered near sites such as Troy, it also seems plausible that they were identified by the ancients as belonging to fallen heroes from the epic...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction: What Is Geomythology?
• 1 Universal Geomyths (Part I)
• 2 Universal Geomyths (Part II)
• 3 Regional Geomyths
• 4 The Futures of Geomythology
• Works Cited
• Index