Water monsters

[Michael Mccafferty]

My impression is that the watermonsters such as the one once painted on a
cliff upriver from St. Louis included serpent morphology.



On Mon, 21 Jan 2002, Koontz John E wrote:

> On Sun, 20 Jan 2002, Linda A Cumberland wrote:
> > ... the "monster" bore no resemblance to an alligator - it was huge,
> > snake-like, and had antlers!  ... Does anyone know of a tradition
> > involving such an antlered monster?
>
> Well, I think Chinese dragons are snake-like and have antlers.
>
> I should probably clarify that I believe the explanation of watermonsters
> in terms of alligators is not claimed to be direct in every case.  I
> simply ran across the suggestion somewhere once.  I didn't get the
> impression that alligators were supposed to have coincided at any point
> with the later distribution of watermonster stores.  Lions and the like
> figure prominently in Old World stories far outside their natural range,
> even though those ranges were once greater than they are now. I think they
> idea is that such stories are popular even in the absence of the original
> creatures, and, of course, stories grow or at least vary with the telling
> and the distance from the original inspiration.
>
> Watermonsters evidently vary a great deal with the particular tradition.
> If they have any similarities other than dwelling in water and being
> associated with similar stories, I'm not aware of it.  I don't know of any
> general studies of watermonsters and similar creatures of legend in North
> America.
>
> I think in the Omaha conception watermonsters are associated with
> whirlpools or eddies in the Missouri.  In the Haxige stories they don't
> seem to be particularly described, but I think it's Orphan who kills one
> with seven heads.  This sounds a bit like it may have been influenced by
> the Greek myth of Hercules and the Hydra.
>
>
>
>
>


Michael McCafferty
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Indiana University
Bloomington, Indiana
47405
mmccaffe at indiana.edu

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