The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures: The Ultimate A–Z of Fantastic Beings from Myth and Magic. John Matthews
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of India. The stallion Arusha and the mare Arushi are the lead horses, pulling the chariot of the sun god Suraya across the heavens.
ARVAK
One of the horses of the sun in Norse, Scandinavian and Icelandic legends. Arvak, whose name in Old Icelandic means ‘Early Awake’, was one of two horses that pulled the chariot of the sun god Sol/Sunna across the sky, the other horse of the pair being called Alsvid or ‘All Swift’.
ARZSHENK
A gigantic humanoid with the head of a bull in the Zoroastrian religion of ancient Persia. Arzshenk is the king of the Devs, demons and servants of the supreme evil being, Ahriman. They are involved in perpetual battle against the Izeds, who represent goodness. The monster was finally killed by the hero Rustram after a battle lasting several days. (See also Minotaur.)
ASDEEV
A great white dragon from ancient Persian tradition. The hero Rustram, who has much in common with the classical Greek Hercules, fights and defeats this creature as one of a number of battles undertaken in order to prove himself the hero of his people.
ASHUAPS
Similar to the Loch Ness Monster, this lake-dwelling beast, described as 50–60 ft long, able to lift itself some 3 ft above the water, and either black or deep blue in colour, was first recorded in 1950 in Lac Saint-Jean in Canada. The name Ashuaps derives from a river in the area where the Native American Montagnais people were already familiar with the monster. Subsequent sightings, in 1977 and 1978, have confirmed the presence of something large in the water. In 1978, several members of a Native American family from the local reservation were thrown from their canoe by something that rose up from beneath them. Not long after, two other groups saw what they believed to be the monster, thrashing the waters into foam in the nearby Ashuapmouchouan river. The presence of this curious creature, much like that of the Loch Ness monster in Scotland, has created a considerable amount of media interest, and in recent years a number of investigative teams have frequented the area in the hope of catching sight of the elusive Ashuaps. To date, however, no final verdict has been reached about the existence or nature of this creature.
ASIN
A female cannibal monster from the folklore of the Native American Alsea people of the north-west coast of America. Asin lives in the forest and takes her victims from unsuspecting wanderers who come near to the edge of the woodland. She is especially fond of children, and uses her sweet singing voice to lure them into her clutches. Once there, they are never seen again. For this reason, the Asin is often seen as a nursery-frightener, intended to keep unwary children from wandering into dangerous territory.
ASIPATRA
A gigantic bird in the folklore of the Indian continent, the Asipatra lives in the underworld of Yamapura and tortures the souls of condemned sinners. Its name means ‘Sword-Wing’ – the feathers of its fleshy wings are scythe-like and slice through air. It also has claws like knives. It lives in the branches of a tree made from spears.
ASP TURTLE
An alternative name for the Aspidochelone, frequently referred to in early European travellers’ tales.
ASPIDOCHELONE
A gigantic sea turtle frequently cited in sailors’ yarns from earliest times. In classical Greece it was known as Aspidochelon or Aspidodelone or as the Asp Turtle, though the Physiologus refers to it as the as Fastitocalon. This dates it to at least as early as the 2nd century BC, in Alexandria, where the Physiologus was compiled. Medieval bestaries named it as Aspidoicholon or Apsodo-Toroise, while Middle Eastern sources, probably deriving from Alexandrian writings, knew it as Zaratan. It was said to be so vast that it resembled an island floating in the sea. Mud and soil accumulated on its back and bushes and shrubs grew there, giving it the appearance of a floating island. There are numerous sailors’ tales which described ships anchoring off what they thought was an island, going ashore for the night and lighting a fire. Only at this point did the creature awaken, and sink beneath the water, carrying the unfortunate mariners with it. One of the earliest accounts is in the medieval Voyage of St Brendan, when the saint and his companions encounter the great beast and come very close to being destroyed by it – only escaping because of the holiness of their leader. In this source, it is known as Jasconius. Medieval Christian writers associated it with evil, and described its great open mouth – which it used as a kind of trawl-net as it moved through the ocean – as a gateway to hell. Yet the Aspidochelone seems to have lived exclusively on a diet of fish, which swam into its open jaws, attracted by the surprisingly sweet smell that issued from it. J.R.R. Tolkien has a poem about the Fastitocalon, based on the medieval accounts of the Aspidochlone, in his collection The Adventures of Tom Bombadil.
ASPIS
According to the legend and folklore of medieval Europe, the Aspis was a small dragon with two feet rather than the usual four. While its touch was poisonous and even to come close to it was to invite death, its bite was instantaneously fatal. It had one weakness however – its susceptibility to music, which could make it docile. Eventually the Aspis became aware of this and reacted to the sound of music by sticking the end of its tail in one ear and pressing the other to the ground. However, once in this position, it was virtually helpless, allowing its prey to escape. The name Aspis actually means ‘serpent’, suggesting confusion in the minds of medieval writers between this creature and the more familiar dragon.
ASS
The most frequently described symbolism for the ass, or its lowlier brother the donkey, focuses on its stupidity, stubbornness, inferiority and fertility, as well as its lasciviousness. An ass in a lion’s skin is said to suggest a blustering coward, or a fool pretending to be wise. The earliest depictions of the ass come from Egyptian and Syrian monuments, and these represent not the humble donkey, but the wild ass – the onagar – a much larger animal which is more ancient than the horses described in Semitic traditions. This beast was used like a horse to draw the heavy chariots of the Sumerians and as a baggage animal for their armies. As a desert animal, the ass was associated with the Egyptian god of evil, Set, to whom it was sacrificed, and in later Egyptian symbolism Set himself was sometimes personified as a donkey.
For the classical Greeks, the ass represented sloth and infatuation; it was sacred to Dionysus and Priapus and the god Typhon was sometimes depicted with the head of an ass. It was also sacred to Cronos, and Silenus, the god of wine, is sometimes shown riding an ass. During the Roman holiday of Vestalia, donkeys were garlanded and given sweet honey cakes to eat. In China, the Taoist immortal Chang Kuo-lao, a bringer of fertility to childless mothers, rides on a magical donkey which, when not required, becomes a drawing of a donkey on a sheet of paper, and can be folded up and put away. In Hindu mythology, asses drew the chariot of the underworld god Ravana when he abducted the beautiful maiden Sita, and is thus seen as an inauspicious animal by the Hindus. For Buddhists, the ass is a symbol of simplicity and asceticism and is portrayed as sleeping by the roadside on a bed of leaves.
Plutarch, the Roman writer, says the ass was revered by the Jews, because it found springs in the desert during the flight from Egypt. The biblical wild ass was symbolic of wildness and desolation. People of wealth drank asses’ milk and, like Cleopatra, occasionally bathed in it. Early Christians were accused by their opponents of worshipping the ass, and the Roman writer Tertulian mentioned the existence of caricatures of ‘the ass-hoofed god of the Christians’, which was also believed to have ass’s ears. The 1st-century Gnostics believed that