under the title =Prodigiorum ac Ostentorum Chronicon= (Basel) in which he
put together all miracles, miraculous happenings and strange phenomena
from the creation of the world down to his days. This is only one of a
number of compilations of this character, the significant feature of which
is the jumbling together into one class, of miracles, of unusual phenomena
in the heavens and on earth, of the birth of malformations--human or
animal--including monstrosities and fanciful hybrid creatures,--all being
viewed as signs sent by a divine power. Lycosthenes includes in his
compilation the accounts of ancient writers and later travellers of
peoples of remarkable formation such as the Scipodes and Monomeri (10) of
whom Pliny[239] reports that they have only one foot, of people who have
the heads of dogs (11), of others living in Western Ethiopia (8) who have
four eyes, of the Ipopodes in Asia (8) who have the feet of horses, and of
the Scythians (ib.) who have only one eye, or of people have no heads, of
others with eyes, nose and mouth on the breast (9), or who have six arms,
(14) or who are provided with hoofs and horns, or of women (13) who lay
their young in the form of eggs.
Lycosthenes' work is elaborately illustrated and so he portrays for us
these strange beings, as well as men with the heads of dogs (11),
hippocentaurs (12), men with six arms (14), baldheaded women with beards,
and people in the region of the North Sea who have ears that cover the
whole body (13), mermaids, tritons, satyrs, fauns (10, 28, 218, 311, 317)
and harpies (31). The whole army of fabulous beings of mythology and
folk-lore is brought before us[240], including the remarkable creature
whom Gessner in his great work on Animals[241] describes as 'a virgin with
human face, arms and hands, body of a dog, wings of a bird, claws of a
lion and the tail of a dragon'. Naive credulity =alone= would be
insufficient to account for such fancies, but if we start from the deep
impression made by malformations of all kinds from the point of view of
birth-omen divination, the exaggeration of such malformations through the
play of the imagination would follow from the inherent fondness of human
nature for the marvellous. A large part of Lycosthenes' work is taken up
with the malformations and monstrosities mentioned in classical
writers--Pliny, Livy, Cicero, Valerius Maximus, Julius Obsequens, Aelian,
etc. which he has collected with great patience. Passing beyond classical
days, he is at equal pains to put together all records of unusual
phenomena, adding generally the attendant circumstances or the events that
followed, which the sign was regarded as portending. All kinds of
monstrosities are described, together with the date and the place of their
appearance. A lamb with a swine's head (136), born in Macedonia presaged
the war with Phillip which soon thereafter broke out. A double-headed ox
born in the year 573 B. C. (309) presaged the defeat of the Persians. A
child without arms (316) and the tail of a fish instead of legs, born in
Thrace in 601 A. D., was ordered to be killed. In 854 A. D. a boy attached
to a dog was born (352, see the illustration). This happened in the days
of Lotharius Caesar, duke of Saxony, who soon thereafter died. In 858 A.
D. (353) a monstrosity of mixed shape was born and all kinds of
misfortunes followed. Twins united at the loins born in England in 1112
are brought into connection with a victory of King Boleslaus of Poland and
the death of Waldrich, duke of Saxony. He carries his chronicle beyond
1543[242] in which year a human monstrosity was born at Cracow, with
flames starting out of the eyes, mouth and nose, with horns on its head,
with the tail of a dog, with faces of apes on its breast and legs, with
the eyes of a cat and with claws. It lived for four hours, cried
'Vigilate, Dominus Deus vester adventat' and expired. The point of view
throughout is the time-honored one that the monstrosity is a =monstrum=--a
sign sent by an angered deity, just as on the other hand as a trace of the
pristine ignorance of the processes of nature, the belief continued to
prevail that such monstrosities were due to the intercourse of women with
demons--either wilfully accomplished by the woman, or without her
knowledge. Martin in his _Histoire des Monstres_ devotes an entire
chapter[243] to illustrations of this belief, which is advocated as late
as the year 1836 by Goerres[244], the Professor of Philosophy at the
Munich University, and even as late as the year 1864 by Delaporte in a
book on the devil[245]. Such a belief which involves the possibility of
pregnancy without the ordinary sexual intercourse and which has left its
traces far and wide[246] in the religious history of mankind must have
acted as a powerful agent in maintaining also the belief in all kinds of
monstrosities that could never have occurred. The demons naturally could
do anything, and thus a very simple theory was evolved to account for such
monstrosities and which supplemented the older one[247] that accounted for
the simpler hybrid beings as due to the intercourse of a human being with
an animal. The cooperation of the demons, moreover, was a natural
correlative to the belief that deviations from the normal course of things
were omens. Even Christian theology found no difficulty in assuming that
God permitted a demon to exercise his power over those who had through sin
forfeited the Divine protection, with the result that in many cases the
unfortunate mother was brought before a tribunal and not infrequently
suffered death for the sin of intercourse with some demon. Martin's work,
above referred to, also furnishes abundant evidence of the persistency
both of the belief in monsters and of their being regarded as omens even
in the scientific world down to a very late date. He tells the story[248]
of the birth of twins, united at the breast, in the year 1569. The royal
physician Jacques Roy was commissioned to make an autopsy and to report on
the result. He closes his report with a poem, glorifying the Catholic
Church and vigorously denouncing the Protestant movement. More than this,
he concludes from the fact that one of the twins received the baptismal
rite before dying, while the other died without baptism that the Catholic
church would survive the Hugenot heresy. In 1605 twins united at the
umbilicum were born in Paris, and despite the fact that the Faculty of
Medicine of Paris presented a scientific report, accounting for the
monstrosity through the fact that 'the semen was too plentiful for one
body and two small for two', a chronicler in embodying the report of the
physicians in his account presents his view that the monstrosity was a
symbol of the wickedness of Papism and of Mohammedanism. Between 1539 and
1605 we have the Edict of Nantes which in rendering civil liberty to the
Hugenots brought about a reversion of feeling in their favor. The tables
are therefore turned, and the monstrosity is now a sign sent against the
Catholic Church. The chronicler breaks out in rhyme as follows[249]:
"Je tiens que ces deux fronts, cette face jumelle,
Sont deux religions, dont l'une est qui s'appelle
Papisme, et son autheur est l'antechrist romain,
De l'autre est Mahumet avec son Alcorain".
The persistency of the belief in monsters even in scientific or
quasi-scientific circles and of regarding monsters as omens no doubt had
much to do with the fact that a really scientific theory to account for
such malformations as actually do occur was not put forth until the year
1826 when Etienne Geoffroy St. Hilaire in reporting to the French Academy
of Medicine on a mummy found at Hermopolis[250] and which appeared to have
been that of a human monstrosity, enunciated the view which led to the
science of Teratology, as a branch of modern medicine[251].
But despite the results of scientific investigation which so strikingly
justify Aristotle's protest against regarding abnormal phenomena in the
young of animals and of infants as =contra naturam=, the strong desire for
the marvellous still helps to maintain at least the belief in monsters,
even if the corollary that the monster is a birth-omen has disappeared.
The believers of the Middle Ages have been succeeded by the deceivers of
the 19th and 20th centuries--the naive Lycosthenes by the shrewder
Barnums[252] who in order to supply the demand created by the love of the
marvellous have manufactured their monsters. To be sure even this is not
quite new under the sun, for Pliny[253] tells us that he saw a
hippocentaur which was brought to Rome from Thessalonica at the order of
the Emperor Claudius and which, as it subsequently turned out, was the
embalmed body of a horse to which a human foetus had been skillfully
attached. The latest companion piece to this neat bit of trickery is to be
found in a description of a fish with the head of a man that was exhibited
in the Crimea in 1911--fished up in the Pacific Ocean[254]!
XI
To sum up the results of our investigations in a series of propositions:
1. The Babylonian-Assyrian birth-omens which can be traced back to at
least 2000 B. C. rest on the impression made by the mystery of a new life
emerging from another.
2. A leading factor in the interpretation of the omens was the recognized
resemblance--often striking--between the features of an infant and that of
some animal, or of an animal to some other.
3. As Babylonian-Assyrian hepatoscopy led to the study of the anatomy of
the liver, and Babylonian-Assyrian astrology to the study of the phenomena
in the heavens, so the resemblance between man and animals became the
basis for the study of Human Physiognomy, which when it came to the Greeks
and Romans was made a means of determining the character of the
individual, just as Babylonian-Assyrian astrology when transferred to
Greece and Rome was applied to the individual as a means of casting his
horoscope, i. e., for determining the general course of his life.
4. This same factor of the resemblance between men and animals in
conjunction with the ignorance as to the processes of nature led to the
belief in all kinds of hybrid creatures, composed of human and animal
organs or features.
5. This belief underlies the fabulous creatures of Greek and Roman
mythology, and also helps to explain the representation of gods as partly
animalic in Egypt, in India and in China.
6. The recognition of a resemblance between man and animals is universal,
and besides leading in connection with birth-omens to the belief in the
actual existence of beings composed of partly human and partly animal
organs or parts of the body, developed quite independently of such
associations also in three other directions, leading on the one hand to
the belief in the descent of a clan or group from some animal, and on the
other to the belief in a transformation of a human being into an animal
and =vice versa=, and thirdly to the Beast Fables of India in which beasts
that talk like human beings are introduced.
7. The theory set forth in Berosus of a time when mixed creatures of all
kinds existed reflects the fanciful combinations found in the collections
of the =bârû=-priests.
8. The Roman view of a monster as a 'sign' (monstrum), sent as an
indication of some event of a disastrous character, is directly traceable
to the Babylonian-Assyrian point of view of malformations of all kinds and
deviations from the normal as birth-omens.
9. From Rome this view passed over to mediaeval Europe, where under
Christian influence the monster became a 'sign' sent by an angered deity
as a warning and as a punishment for sins.
10. The pristine ignorance of the course of nature, leading to the
assumption that conception could take place without sexual intercourse,
had its natural outcome in the belief that women giving birth to
monstrosities had intercourse--wilful or unknown to them--with demons as
emissaries of the devil, or with the devil himself. This attitude served
to maintain the belief in monsters down to the threshhold of modern
science.
11. The Roman law of burning the monstrous birth or of throwing it into
the sea was maintained for a long time and led also to the punishment of
the woman who through supposed intercourse with a demon had given birth to
a monster.
12. The view taken of monsters as a sign sent by an angered Deity had much
to do with preventing the rise of a scientific theory to account for
actual malformations of all kinds.
13. The rise of Teratology as a branch of medical science in the 19th
century represents the closing chapter in the history of monsters, which
is thus to be traced back to Babylonian-Assyrian birth-omens--one of the
three chief branches of Babylonian-Assyrian divination that all made their
way with the spread of the influence of Euphratean culture throughout Asia
Minor and westwards to Greece and Rome, and that may also have passed to
the distant East.
[=Addendum=, to page 43, Note 2.]
Porta, who in his =Della Fisonomia dell' Huomo= (Venice edition, 1648,
chapters XIII and XIV, or Latin edition =De Humana Physiognomia=,
Frankfurt 1618, chapter IX) ascribes to Plato the opinion that a man who
resembles an animal is likely to have the traits of that animal, appears
to base this view on such a passage as Phaedo § 31, referred to in the
note, and which is given as the reference in the German translation of
Porta's work. The passage, however, hardly admits of this interpretation,
though it would appear from Porta, who evidently does not stand alone in
his opinion, that from Plato's view that according to the life led by a
man his soul will be transferred into an animal having the traits
manifested by the individual, the corollary was drawn that a man who
resembles an animal has a soul which shows the traits of the animal which
he resembles.
Index
(Assyrian words italicized)
Acephaly 25
Actiolinus, likened to a hunting dog 47
Adamantius 44
Aelian 57. 75
Agnathy 34
Alexander the Great, likened to a lion 47
Algemundus, King of Lombards 8. 74
=alluttu= (dolphin) 40
Androgynous formations 11. 51. 56
Animals 8. 12. 26. 40 seq. 51 seq.
-- with two to seven heads 62
Anus, closed 35. 51 seq.
Ape, human nose compared with ape's 46
Aprosopy 38
Apuleius 71
Aristotle 44. 56. 59. 77
Arms, one arm short 34
Arnobius 53
Ashurbanapal (Assyrian ruler) 6. 23
Ashurbanapal's Library 6
Ass, born by woman 40
-- Golden Ass 71
-- human face compared with 46 seq.
-- talking 71
Astrology 1
-- underlying theory 3
-- among Greeks and Romans 3. 50. 53. 79
-- among Etruscans 3
-- among Hittites 3
-- in Europe 4
Astrology in China 4
-- official reports 9
-- leads to astronomy 43
-- horoscope 79
Azag-Bau (female ruler) 11 seq.
Bab, E. 66
Babylonia and Egypt 68
Balaam's ass 71
Baldness, a sign of lasciviousness 47
Baptism 5
Barnum, P. T. 78
=bârû= (diviner) 3. 7. 9 seq. 12. 18 seq. 37. 54. 59 seq. 64. 79
Baur, Paul V. 64
Beard, child born with 39
Belly, open 52
Berosus 57. 62
Bezold, Carl 4
Bird, sending out birds 2
-- born by woman 41
-- child with mouth of 61
Birnbaum, R. 34. 37
Birth customs 5
Birth-omens 2
-- basis of 4
-- mystery of birth 4
-- texts 6 seq.
-- official reports 9
-- basis of interpretation 11 seq. 14 seq. 16 seq. 19. 20. 22 seq.
-- combination of texts 19
-- animal 9-28
-- human 28-41
-- lead to study of human physiognomy 43 seq.
-- as warnings 44
-- among Romans 52 seq.
-- give rise to belief in hybrid and fabulous beings 62
-- in India 67
-- in China 67
-- in Egypt 67
-- in Europe 72
Blood, in rivers 51 seq.
-- , rain of blood 51
Boghaz-Keui 58
Boissier, Alfred 11
Boleslaus, King of Poland 75
Boll, Franz 4
Bouché-Leclercq, A. 41
Boy see Child
Brachyprosopy 25
Buddha 71
Bull, with human head 61
-- Jupiter changed to bull 71
Cadmus, changed into a dragon 71
Caesar, Julius, his horse had human feet 52
Calf, two-headed 74
Cat, human face compared with cat's 46
Cerberus 61. 65
Chavannes, Eduard 67
Chicken, as offspring of mule 56
Child, with mouth of bird 33
-- without mouth 33
-- androgynous 51. 62. 74
-- with one hand 51
-- with three feet 51
-- with three feet and one hand 51
-- with closed anus 51 seq.
-- with open belly 52
-- with four feet, four eyes, four ears, and double genital members 51
-- with two faces, four hands and four feet 62
-- with face of an ass 62
-- with caudal appendix 73
-- with club-foot 73
-- with six toes 73
-- with elephant's head 74
-- with three legs 74
-- with three legs and three hands 71
-- with four legs 74
-- with four hands and four legs 74
-- with beard and four eyes 74
-- two-headed 74
-- without eyes or nose 74
-- without arms or feet 74
-- without eyes, no arms, and fish's tail instead of feet 74
-- speaking 52. 74
-- speaking in womb 74
China 67
-- astrology in China 4
Cicero 53 seq. 57. 74
Claudius (Roman Emperor) 71
Clay, A. T. 64
Club-foot 73
Cos 57
Cow 12. 71
Cracow, monster of 75
Cripple 38
Croesus (King of Lydia) 57 seq.
Cross-breeding 44. 59
Cumont, Franz 4
Cyclops 64
Dante, dog forehead 46
Deaf-mute 38
Death (see also Funeral rites) 5
Delaporte, Albert 76
Demon 20. 42. 75
Diana of many breasts 65
Divination, methods 1 seq.
-- basis of interpretation 11
Diviner see =bârû=
Döderlein, Albert 8
Dog 12. 40. 59. 61
-- Plato compared to a 44. 47
-- born by a woman 40. 59
-- with four bodies and fish tails 61
-- with six divisions of foot 73
Dragon 63
Dwarf 39
Eagle 61
-- human nose compared with beak of 46 seq.
Ear, deformities and omens 19 seq. 32 seq.
Egypt 67 seq. 77
Elephant, born by woman 74
-- child with head of 52
Ellenberger-Scheunert 26
Engidu 63
Enlil (deity) 27
Esarhaddon (Assyrian ruler) 10
Ethiopia 73
Etruscans 3. 52 seq. 54 seq. 58
Eusebius 61
Ewe see Sheep
Excess number of limbs and organs 8. 10. 20 seq. 36 seq. 51
Fabulous beings 61 seq. 66 seq.
Fauns 61
Features see Physiognomy.
Feet, six toes on each foot 35
-- six toes on right foot 35
-- like those of a turtle 36
-- attached to belly 36
-- only one foot, which is attached to belly 36
-- child with three feet 36
-- child with four feet 36
-- horse with human feet 52
Festivals at transition periods 5 seq.
Fingers, one missing 34
-- six on right hand 34
Fish, born by woman 40
-- dogs with fish tails 61
-- men and other creatures with fish tails 61
-- Medea changed to a fish 71
Foetus, double 9. 13 seq. 15 seq.
Fox, born by woman 59
Foerster, Richard 44
Frazer, J. G. 5
Funeral rites 5
=ganni= 28
Genital members, intact 36. 52
-- missing 35
Gessner, Conrad 74
Gilgamesh 63
Gizeh 68
Goat 12
-- men with legs and horns of 61
-- goat-fish 61
Goerres, Johann Joseph von 75
Gorgon 65
Greek and Roman mythology 64 seq. 66
Greeks and Romans 58
Guinard, L. 37. 40. 73. 77
Hand, child with one hand 51
Hare, born by mare 56
Hartland, S. G. 5
Haruspices see Etruscans
Hepatoscopy (see also Liver) 1. 50. 66. 78
Herbig, G. 58
Hermopolis, mummy 77
Herodotus 56
Hippocentaurs 61. 63 seq.
Hirst and Piersol 64. 75
Hittites 3. 58
-- omens 10
Horse, in birth-omens 12
-- with human feet 52
-- mare giving birth to a hare 56
-- hippocentaurs 61
-- men with horses' feet 61
-- three-footed 74
-- five footed 74
-- with two tails and mane of lion 62
-- with human head 62
-- with dog's head 62
Hybrid formations 60 seq. 67 seq.
Ihering, Rudolph von 68
India 67
Infant see Child
Io, changed into a cow 71
Ipopodes, have horses' feet 73
=isbu= (foetus) 13. 19. 60. 62
Ishbi-urra (Babylonian ruler), omen 28
Jacobs, Joseph 71
Janus 65
Jastrow, Morris, jr. 1. 2. 3. 4. 7. 10. 13. 23. 26. 28. 29. 36. 39. 43.
49. 57. 58. 60. 63. 65. 66. 67
Jatakas 71
Jaw, missing 34
Julius Obsequens 35. 50 seq. 57. 74
=khupipi= 24
Kitt, Theodor 25. 75
=lamassu= (winged lion or bull) 62
Lamb see Sheep
Lavater, J. C. 47. 48. 50
Leg, missing 36
Lion, lamb like unto 23 seq. 53. 57. 59
-- born by woman 40. 53 seq. 57. 59
-- Alexander's head compared to lion's 47
-- =sedu, lamassu= with head of 61
Lips, missing 34
-- upper lip projecting 34
Liver 1
-- as seat of soul 2
-- signs on 2
-- parts of 2
-- divination texts 6
-- official reports 9
-- divination 1. 44
-- clay models 58
Livy 39. 71. 74. 75
Lotharius Caesar, Duke of Saxony 75
Lu-Bat (planet) 13
Luschan, Felix von 63
Lycosthenes, Conrad 8. 39. 57. 75 seq. 78.
Macedonia, monster of 75
Macrobius 55
Malformations 8. 19. 29 seq. 32 seq. 36 seq. 56
Marduk Epic 61
=marratum= (rainbow) 23
Marriage customs 5
Martin, Ernest 72. 75 seq. 77
Maspero, Gaston 68
Medea, changed into a fish 71
Medicine, early 42
Meles (King of Sardis) 57
Mermaids 61
Metamorphosis, of men into animals, of women into men 71
Milk, in lakes 51
Monomeri, have only one foot 73
Monstrosities 8. 10. 20. 29 seq. 33 seq. 44. 51 seq. 54 seq. 60 seq.
72 seq.
Monstrum 55. 60. 79
Mouth, child with mouth of bird 33
-- child without mouth 33
-- malformation of mouth 56
Mule, giving birth to chicken 56
-- three-footed, five-footed 74
Multiple births 8. 17 seq. 51 seq. 59
Naram-Sin (Babylonian ruler), omens 10
Nergal (god of pestilence) 39 seq.
Nergal-etir (diviner) 10
Neubert, Fritz 49
Nikippos 57
Nostrils, missing 34
Official and unofficial interpretations 16 seq. 19. 34 seq. 54
Owl, Vitellius likened to 47
Ox, born by woman 40
-- human face compared with 46 seq.
-- talking 52. 74
Palestine 69
Pathology, human and animal 7 seq.
Periander 72
Perokomy 25
Phillip of Macedonia 75
Phlegon 71
Physiognomy, study of 8. 23 seq. 43 seq. 70
-- among Greeks 43 seq. 49
-- Porta's work 45 seq.
-- Lavater's work 45. 47 seq.
-- decline of study 48 seq.
-- as indication of character 45 seq.
-- in Europe 45 seq. 49
Pied d'equin (club-foot) 73
Piersol see Hirst
Pig, in birth-omens 12
-- with five divisions of hoof 73
Plato, views on resemblances between men and animals 43 seq. 80
-- compared with dog 46 seq.
Pliny 8. 39. 52. 71. 74. 75. 78
Ploss-Bartels 5
Plutarch 72
Polemon 44
Porta, G. B. 45 seq. 80
Portents 51
Prodigium 55 seq.
Prometheus myth 65
Pseudo-Aristotle 44
Pyramids 68
Puberty 5
Rain of stones, oil, blood 51
Raven, noses compared with beak of 46
Resemblances, between animals 23 seq. 44 seq. 62
-- between infants and animals 40. 44 seq. 62. 78
-- protest against 47 seq. 77 seq.
Richard III, born with teeth 39
Roscius 55
Rossbach, Otto 35. 51
Roy, Jacques 76
=sâ= (animal) 40
St. Hilaire Etienne Geoffrey 77
Sakkarah 68
Sargon (Babylonian ruler), omens 10
Satyrs 61
Schaatz, Friedrich 64 seq.
Scheil, Vincent 12
Schwalbe, Ernst 67
Scipodes, have only one foot 73
Scythians, have only one eye 73
=sedu= (winged lion or bull) 62
Se-ma Tsien 67
Sergius Galba (Roman Emperor), likened to an eagle 47
Serpent, born by woman 40. 52
Shakespeare's Henry V 39
Sheep, animal of sacrifice 2
-- prominence in hepatoscopy 12
-- omens 13 seq. 19 seq. 23 seq.
-- resemblance to lion 23 seq.
-- resemblance to infant 40
-- color of 55
-- with feet of a lion 62
-- with feet of lion, head of dog in front, six feet long and bristles
of a swine 62
-- with feet of lion, head of dog, tail of swine 62
-- with two heads, two tails and dog's feet 62
-- with two heads, two feet, dog's hair 62
-- with four division of hoof 73
-- without ears 73
-- two-headed 74
-- with swine's head 74
Siren 64
Siren formation 40
Socrates, compared with stag 47
Sow 10
Sphinxes 60. 68
Spiegelberg, Wilhelm 68 seq.
Stag, human nose compared with stag's 46 seq.
Still-birth 38
Subartu (older name of Assyria) 27
Suetonius 52
Sun at night 51
Swine, born by woman 40
-- human nose compared with swine's 46
-- men changed to 71
-- two-headed 74
-- with human head 74
-- with human hands and feet 74
Syria 69
Tacitus 55
Talking infant 39. 52. 57 seq.
Teeth, child born with 39
Teratology 77
=tertu= (omen) 13
Testicles, missing 35
Thales 72
Thigh, missing 35
Thompson, R. C. 11
Thrace, monster of 75
Thulin, Carl 54 seq.
=tigri ili= (dwarf) 39
Toes, six on foot 35
Torches in heaven 51
Totemism 70. 79
Transition periods 5
Tritons 61
Turtle, child with turtle's hands and feet 35 seq.
Twins 28 seq.
-- united at the back 74
-- " " " breast 76
-- " " " umbilicum 76
Ungnad, Arthur 61
Urumus (Babylonian ruler), omen 10
Valerius Maximus 52. 56. 75
Van Gennep, Arnold 5
Virolleaud, Charles 37
Vitellius (Roman Emperor), likened to owl 47
Walde, Alois 55
Waldrich, Duke of Saxony 75
Ward, W. H. 64
Winged human figures 61. 63
Woman, giving birth to elephant, to serpent, to seven children 74
Wuelker, Richard 57
Xerxes 56
Zimmern, Heinrich 61. 63
Zoser (Egyptian ruler) 68
FOOTNOTES: