In ancient historical sources, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish myth from reality. In some cases, the authors used allegories that are difficult to understand for a modern reader. Sometimes they mix real facts and fiction, and in some cases, we observe the distortion of facts over time - historians have been playing "tainted telephone" with each other for centuries.
Some of the creatures described in ancient books can rival the fantasies of modern surrealists. But in reality they were a reflection of real people, events, places or animals.
Here are two such creatures, one of them is a little strange, and the other is completely fantastic.
Yale
Its main feature is its unique horns, which it can turn in any direction. This creature was first mentioned in the Natural History (Book VIII) by the Roman historian Pliny the Elder (23–79).
He describes yail as being “black or dark brown in color, about the size of a hippopotamus, with an elephant-like tail and boar-like jaws. It has movable horns longer than the elbow. During the fight, depending on the situation, he either keeps them pointed forward, so that they become dangerous, or directed to the sides."
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This creature is not very different from the animals we know. Is it possible that Pliny simply recounted someone's erroneous description of a wildebeest or some similar animal?
Hugh Stanford London, author of several books on heraldry, became interested in yail's appearance on the coat of arms of the British royal family. Centuries after being mentioned by Pliny, yail reappeared in medieval bestiaries and in the 14th-century coat of arms of King Henry IV's youngest son John, Duke of Bedford and Earl of Kendal.
Lono writes: “Yale was included among the king's heraldic beasts. In 1925, their images were installed on the roof of St. George's Chapel at Windsor Palace. Yale was one of the 10 beasts of the queen, whose images stood at Westminster Abbey during the coronation. Currently, their images are in the great hall of the Hampton Court palace complex."
AH Longharsi, a student of Indian history, told London that the image of yail may have been derived from the mystical creature yali, known in southern India for thousands of years. Yali is described as a hybrid of an elephant, horse and lion. Its appearance varies greatly in descriptions, but “one property remains unchanged: the ability to turn the horns at will. If one horn is damaged, it turns back, and the other horn is sent forward to continue the battle,”notes London.
The name of the famous Yale University in the United States is not associated with this creature, it got its name from its founder Elihu Yale. However, the image of the yail is present in some places of the university, for example, on the banner of the president of the university. The master of ceremonies at a meeting of university alumni holds a staff decorated with the head of a yale.
Blemies
Brever's Dictionary of Idioms and Legends, 19th century edition, defines the Blemies: “An ancient Ethiopian tribe of nomads who, according to Roman writers, inhabited Nubia and Upper Egypt. According to the legends, they had no head, their eyes and mouths were on the chest."
Image of the Blemies in the Nuremberg Chronicles, 1500.
The dictionary describes: “On the banks of the river described by the royal travelers, there were people whose head was below the shoulders. Their eyes were located on their shoulders, and their mouths were in the middle of their chest.
The Blemians appear to be a tribe that threatened Egypt's southern borders during the late Roman period. They came into conflict with the Romans from the 3rd to the 4th century.
People of foreign origin who posed a threat were often described as monsters or werewolves.
Asa Mittman uses the Blemies as an allegory in her work Maps and Monsters of Medieval England:
“Their heads, the receptacle of spirituality, moved down to their material body. Blemiy is a person who is only a physical body, a material object, and his eyes in his chest are mirrors of the body, not the soul."
Such a description could simply indicate that from the point of view of the Roman authors, they were inhuman and degraded.