It's that time of the week again, and today I bring you a TRIPLE THREAT WEIRD MEDIEVAL ANIMAL MONDAY. That's right, three weird medieval animals in one:
THE LEOPARD.
Isidore of Seville describes the leopard as "the degenerate offspring of the adulterous mating of a lion (leo) and a pard." I'm pondering slightly how it is that animals can commit adultery, when they don't...marry...but I'm going to assume they mean cheating on your species? Yeah. Anyway, in heraldy, the presence of a leopard on a coat of arms usually means that the bearer was born from adultery.
As we have a hybrid WMA this week, I figured it made sense to go over the parents of the leopard's parents as well. I think we all know a thing or two about the medieval lion and its significance, symbolism, et al, but there was one new thing I did learn while reading about the lion:
The lion is the king of the beasts, and as such is usually the first beast described in the bestiaries. The lion chapter is generally one of the longest and most complex.
The lion has three natures: when a lion walking in the mountains sees that it is being hunted, it erases its tracks with its tail; it always sleeps with its eyes open; and its cubs are born dead and are brought to life on the third day when the mother breathes in their faces or the father roars over them.
Obviously, this came from www.bestiary.ca. Here's a mama lion giving the breath of life to its babeh:
Awesome. And here is the pard, which I have to admit I'd not heard of before:
The pard, clearly not happy to be stuck in a red and blue box, is ferocious and spotted and loves blood. He has extremely long, sharp claws, and apparently has copious amounts of tongue.
That's it for this week. See you with more ridiculousness soon.
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44 minutes ago
7 valued contributions:
For the sake of euphonious English, we're fortunate that things worked out the way they did. Otherwise, we'd have been stuck with "Richard the Pard-Hearted," "The Pard in Winter," "The Pard, the Witch, and the Wardrobe"...
"In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the pard sleeps tonight..."
Nope, just not as good.
Pardonardo Dicaprio!
Hahaha! Best yet =D
Pardonardo the Blue Ninja Turtle, perhaps?
wow that is awesome! so all leopards are bastards! ps lookit me im on blogspot.
This is great! Btw, why does the leopard look like he's wearing his kidneys on the *outside*??
Thank you! No doubt it's some brilliant evolutionary tactic we just can't understand as modern humans, and not as medieval leopards.
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