Here be dragons
Encyclopedia
"Here be dragons" is a phrase used to denote dangerous or unexplored territories, in imitation of the medieval practice of putting sea serpent
s and other mythological creatures in uncharted areas of maps.
form "HC SVNT DRACONES" (i.e. hic sunt dracones, here are dragons) on the Hunt-Lenox Globe
(ca. 1503-07). Earlier maps contain a variety of references to mythical
and real creatures, but the Lenox Globe is the only known surviving map to bear this phrase.
The term appeared on the Lenox Globe around the east coast of Asia, and might be related to the Komodo dragon
s in the Indonesian islands, tales of which were quite common throughout East Asia.
The classical phrase utilized by ancient Roman and Medieval cartographers used to be HIC SVNT LEONES (literally, Here are lions) when denoting unknown territories on maps.
Sea serpent
A sea serpent or sea dragon is a type of sea monster either wholly or partly serpentine.Sightings of sea serpents have been reported for hundreds of years, and continue to be claimed today. Cryptozoologist Bruce Champagne identified more than 1,200 purported sea serpent sightings...
s and other mythological creatures in uncharted areas of maps.
History
The only known historical use of this phrase is in the LatinLatin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
form "HC SVNT DRACONES" (i.e. hic sunt dracones, here are dragons) on the Hunt-Lenox Globe
Hunt-Lenox Globe
The Hunt-Lenox Globe or Lenox Globe, dating from ca. 1510, is the second or third oldest known terrestrial globe, after the Erdapfel of 1492. It bears a striking resemblance to the Globus Jagellonicus, also tentatively dated to 1510...
(ca. 1503-07). Earlier maps contain a variety of references to mythical
Legendary creature
A legendary creature is a mythological or folkloric creature.-Origin:Some mythical creatures have their origin in traditional mythology and have been believed to be real creatures, for example the dragon, the unicorn, and griffin...
and real creatures, but the Lenox Globe is the only known surviving map to bear this phrase.
The term appeared on the Lenox Globe around the east coast of Asia, and might be related to the Komodo dragon
Komodo dragon
The Komodo dragon , also known as the Komodo monitor, is a large species of lizard found in the Indonesian islands of Komodo, Rinca, Flores, Gili Motang and Gili Dasami. A member of the monitor lizard family , it is the largest living species of lizard, growing to a maximum length of in rare cases...
s in the Indonesian islands, tales of which were quite common throughout East Asia.
The classical phrase utilized by ancient Roman and Medieval cartographers used to be HIC SVNT LEONES (literally, Here are lions) when denoting unknown territories on maps.
Dragons on maps
Dragons appear on a few other historical maps.- The T-OT and O mapA T and O map or O-T or T-O map , is a type of medieval world map, sometimes also called a Beatine map or a Beatus map because one of the earliest known representations of this sort is attributed to Beatus of Liébana, an 8th-century Spanish monk...
Psalter world mapPsalter world mapPsalter world map is the name historiography gave to a medieval world map that has been found in a psalter. This mappa mundi is now conserved at the British Library in London....
(ca. 1250 AD) has dragons, as symbols of sin, in a lower "frame" below the world, balancing JesusJesusJesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
and angels on the top, but the dragons do not appear on the map proper. - The Borgia map (ca. 1430 AD), in the Vatican Library, states, over a dragon-like figure in AsiaAsiaAsia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
(in the upper left quadrant of the map), "Hic etiam homines magna cornua habentes longitudine quatuor pedum, et sunt etiam serpentes tante magnitudinis, ut unum bovem comedant integrum." ("Here there are even men who have large four-foot horns, and there are even serpents so large that they could eat an ox whole.") The latter may refer to the dragons of the Chinese dragon danceDragon danceDragon dance is a form of traditional dance and performance in Chinese culture. Like the lion dance it is most often seen in festive celebrations. Many Chinese people often use the term "Descendants of the Dragon" as a sign of ethnic identity, as part of a trend started in the 1970s. Another...
. - The Fra Mauro MapFra Mauro mapThe Fra Mauro map, "considered the greatest memorial of medieval cartography" according to Roberto Almagià, is a map made around 1450 by the Venetian monk Fra Mauro...
(ca. 1450) has the "Island of Dragons" , an imaginary island in the Atlantic Ocean. In an inscription near HeratHeratHerāt is the capital of Herat province in Afghanistan. It is the third largest city of Afghanistan, with a population of about 397,456 as of 2006. It is situated in the valley of the Hari River, which flows from the mountains of central Afghanistan to the Karakum Desert in Turkmenistan...
, Fra MauroFra MauroFra Mauro, O.S.B. Cam., was a 15th-century Camaldolese monk who lived in the Republic of Venice. He was a monk of the Monastery of St. Michael, located on the island of Murano in the Venetian Lagoon. It was there that he maintained a cartography workshop.In his youth, Mauro had traveled...
says that in the mountains nearby "there are a number of dragons, in whose forehead is a stone that cures many infirmities", and describes the locals' way of hunting those dragons to get the stones. This is thought to be based on Albertus MagnusAlbertus MagnusAlbertus Magnus, O.P. , also known as Albert the Great and Albert of Cologne, is a Catholic saint. He was a German Dominican friar and a bishop, who achieved fame for his comprehensive knowledge of and advocacy for the peaceful coexistence of science and religion. Those such as James A. Weisheipl...
's treatise De mineralibus. In an inscription elsewhere on the map, the cartographer expresses his skepticism regarding "serpents, dragons and basiliskBasiliskIn European bestiaries and legends, a basilisk is a legendary reptile reputed to be king of serpents and said to have the power to cause death with a single glance...
s" mentioned by "some historiographers". - A 19th-century Japanese map, the Jishin-no-ben, depicts a dragon associated with causing earthquakes.
Other creatures on maps
- PtolemyPtolemyClaudius Ptolemy , was a Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under Roman rule, and is believed to have been born in the town of Ptolemais Hermiou in the...
's atlas in GeographiaGeographia (Ptolemy)The Geography is Ptolemy's main work besides the Almagest...
(originally 2nd century, taken up again in the 15th century) warns of elephantsElephantElephants are large land mammals in two extant genera of the family Elephantidae: Elephas and Loxodonta, with the third genus Mammuthus extinct...
, hipposHippopotamusThe hippopotamus , or hippo, from the ancient Greek for "river horse" , is a large, mostly herbivorous mammal in sub-Saharan Africa, and one of only two extant species in the family Hippopotamidae After the elephant and rhinoceros, the hippopotamus is the third largest land mammal and the heaviest...
and cannibalsCannibalismCannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh of other human beings. It is also called anthropophagy...
. - Tabula PeutingerianaTabula PeutingerianaThe Tabula Peutingeriana is an itinerarium showing the cursus publicus, the road network in the Roman Empire. The original map of which this is a unique copy was last revised in the fourth or early fifth century. It covers Europe, parts of Asia and North Africa...
(medieval copy of Roman map) has "in his locis elephanti nascuntur", "in his locis scorpiones nascuntur" and "hic cenocephali nascuntur" ("in these places elephants are born, in these places scorpionsScorpionScorpions are predatory arthropod animals of the order Scorpiones within the class Arachnida. They have eight legs and are easily recognized by the pair of grasping claws and the narrow, segmented tail, often carried in a characteristic forward curve over the back, ending with a venomous stinger...
are born, here CynocephaliCynocephalyThe condition of cynocephaly, having the head of a dog — or of a jackal— is a widely attested mythical phenomenon existing in many different forms and contexts.-Etymology:...
are born"). - Cotton MS. Tiberius B.V. fol. 58v (10th century), British Library Manuscript Collection, has "hic abundant leones" ("here lions abound"), along with a picture of a lion, near the east coast of Asia (at the top of the map towards the left); this map also has a text-only serpent reference in southernmost AfricaAfricaAfrica is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
(bottom left of the map): "Zugis regio ipsa est et Affrica. est enim fertilis. sed ulterior bestiis et serpentibus plena" ("This region of Zugis is in Africa; it is rather fertile, but on the other hand it is full of beasts and serpents.") - The Ebstorf mapEbstorf MapThe Ebstorf Map is an example of a mappa mundi similar to the Hereford Map, made by Gervase of Ebstorf, who was possibly the same man as Gervase of Tilbury, some time in the thirteenth century....
(13th c.) has a dragon in the extreme south-eastern part of Africa, together with an aspAsp (reptile)Asp is the modern Anglicisation of the word aspis, which in antiquity referred to any one of several venomous snake species found in the Nile region. It is believed that the aspis referred to in Egyptian mythology is the modern Egyptian cobra....
and a basiliskBasiliskIn European bestiaries and legends, a basilisk is a legendary reptile reputed to be king of serpents and said to have the power to cause death with a single glance...
. - Giovanni Leardo's map (1442) has, in southernmost Africa, "Dixerto dexabitado p. chaldo e p. serpent".
- Martin WaldseemüllerMartin WaldseemüllerMartin Waldseemüller was a German cartographer...
's Carta marina navigatoria (1516) has "an elephant-like creature in northernmost NorwayNorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, accompanied by a legend explaining that this 'morsus' with two long and quadrangular teeth congregated there", i.e. a walrusWalrusThe walrus is a large flippered marine mammal with a discontinuous circumpolar distribution in the Arctic Ocean and sub-Arctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere. The walrus is the only living species in the Odobenidae family and Odobenus genus. It is subdivided into three subspecies: the Atlantic...
, which would have seemed monstrous at the time. - Waldseemüller's Carta marina navigatoria (1522), revised by Laurentius Fries, has the morsus moved to the Davis StraitDavis StraitDavis Strait is a northern arm of the Labrador Sea. It lies between mid-western Greenland and Nunavut, Canada's Baffin Island. The strait was named for the English explorer John Davis , who explored the area while seeking a Northwest Passage....
. - Bishop Olaus MagnusOlaus MagnusOlaus Magnus was a Swedish ecclesiastic and writer, who did pioneering work for the interest of Nordic people. He was reported as born in October 1490 in Östergötland, and died on August 1, 1557. Magnus, Latin for the Swedish Stor “great”, is a Latin family name taken personally, and not a...
's Carta MarinaCarta marinaThe Carta marina , created by Olaus Magnus in the 16th century, is the earliest map of the Nordic countries that gives details and placenames...
map of ScandinaviaScandinaviaScandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
(1539) has many monsters in the northern sea, as well as a winged, bipedal, predatory land animal resembling a dragon in northern Lapland.
External links
- Myths & Legends On Old Maps (Chapter 10)
- Cecil Adams on the Subject (see bottom of page)
- An overview of dragons on antique maps
- "Here be Dragons" by David Montgomery, Washington Post, 3/14/07
- "Here Be Dragons: An Introduction to Critical Thinking" by Brian Dunning from Skeptoid
- "Here Be Dragons" by Brian Dunning - Spanish Subtitled Version (Versión Subtitulada al Español de "Aquí Hay Dragones" por Brian Dunning)