strix (mythology)

The strix is described as a large-headed bird with transfixed eyes, rapacious beak, greyish white wings,{{Efn|Latin: {{linktext|canities}}}} and hooked claws in Ovid's Fasti.Frazer, James George (1933) ed., Ovid, [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0959.phi007.perseus-lat1:6 Fasti] VI. 131–, {{harvp|Riley|1851|p=216}}, tr. This is the only thorough description of the strix in Classical literature. Elsewhere, it is described as being dark-colored.{{Refn|The Latin atra ({{linktext|ater}}) is rather vague, and may not be indicative of color. {{harvp|Oliphant|1913|p=136}}.}}

The strīx ({{lang|el|στρίξ, στριγός}}){{efn|name=strix-em}} was a nocturnally crying creature which positioned its feet upwards and head below, according to a pre-300 BC Greek origin myth.{{Efn|The myth is Boios's Ornithologia, preserved by Antoninus Liberalis, described below.}} It is probably meant to be (and translated as) an owl,{{sfnp|Celoria|1992|pp=77–78}} but is highly suggestive of a bat which hangs upside-down.{{sfnp|Oliphant|1913|pp=134–135}}

The strix in later folklore was a bird which squirted milk upon the lips of (human) infants. Pliny in his Natural History dismissed this as nonsense{{Efn|Since the bat was the only winged animal with mammary glands.}}{{Efn|In the ancient world the bat was commonly classified as a bird; only Aristotle differed, considering it halfway between bird and land animal. See {{harvp|Oliphant|1913}}, p. 134 n. 4.}} and remarked it was impossible to establish what bird was meant by this.{{Efn|Their name was once used as a curse being the only other piece of information Pliny gives here.}}Bostock, John; Riley, H.T., ed., tr., Pliny, [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0978.phi001.perseus-eng1:11.95 The Natural History], xi.95. [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/11*.html#232 Naturalis Historia'], xi.232. The same habit, where the strix lactates foul-smelling milk onto an infant's lips is mentioned by Titinius, who noted the placement of garlic on the infant was the prescribed amulet to ward against it.Titinius, in Ribbeck, Scaen. Rom. Poesis Fragg.'' II, 188, Latin passage quoted and discussed by {{harvp|Oliphant|1913|p=136}}. And p. 145, "[Pliny] found the Titinian strix".

In the case of Ovid's striges, they threatened to do more harm than that. They were said to disembowel an infant and feed on its blood. Ovid allows the possibilities of the striges being birds of nature, or products of magic, or transformations by witches using magical incantations.

{{See also|Polyphonte}}

According to Antoninus Liberalis's Metamorphoses, the strīx ({{lang|el|στρίξ}}){{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|name=strix-em|Greek strīx ({{lang|el|στρίξ}} or {{lang|el|ϛρίγξ}}), emended from styx ({{lang|el|ϛύξ / στύξ}}).}} was a metamorphosis of Polyphonte; she and her bear-like sons Agrios and Oreios were transformed into birds as punishment for their cannibalism. Here the strix is described as (a bird) "that cries by night, without food or drink, with head below and tips of feet above, a harbinger of war and civil strife to men".{{Refn|Latin translation: "Polyphonte in Stygem [sic.] mutata est, avem noctu canentem, cibi potusque exsortem, caput deorsum, pedes imos habentem, belli et seditionis hominibus nuciam"}}Antoninus Liberalis, Μεταμορφώσεων Συναγωγή 21, translated in {{harvp|Celoria|1992|pp=77–78}}, summarized in {{harvp|Oliphant|1913|pp=133–134}}

The tale only survives in the form as recorded by Antonius who flourished 100–300 AD, but it preserved an older tale from the lost Ornithologia by Boios, dated to before the end of 4th century BC.{{sfnp|Oliphant|1913|p=134}}

In this Greek myth, the ill-omened strīx herself did not perpetrate harm on humans. But one paper suggests guilt by association with her sons,{{harvp|Oliphant|1913|p=135}}: "As woman-bird, she is .. possessed of a craving for human flesh and blood. Boio transfers this quality to her offspring in human form, to Agrios alone in avian form [vulture]." and seeks to reconstruct an ancient Greek belief in the man-eating strīx dating back to this age (4th century BC).{{harvp|Oliphant|1913|p=135}}. Accepting Theodor Bergk's postulation that Plautus's Latin comedy was a reworking of a hypothetical "Greek original belonging to the Middle comedy of the fourth century." In an opposing view, one study failed to find the ancient Greeks subscribing to the strīx as a "terror" to mankind, but noted a widespread belief in Italy that it was a "bloodthirsty monster in bird form." This study surmises that the Greeks later borrowed the concept of strix as witches, a concept articulated in Ovid,{{sfnp|Lawson|1910|p=180}} and one scholar estimates the Greeks adopted the strix as "child-murdering horrors" by the "last centuries BC".{{sfnp|Hutton|2017|p=69}} The modern Greek form {{lang|el|στρίγλα}} may betray an influence of a Latin diminutive {{lang|la|strigula}}.{{sfnp|Lawson|1910|p=180}}

The first Latin allusion is in Plautus' comedy Pseudolus dated to 191 BC,{{sfnp|Oliphant|1913|p=135}} in which an inferior cook's cuisine is metaphorized as the striges ("vampyre owls") devouring the diners' gastrointestinal organs while still alive, and shortening their lifespan.{{sfnp|McDonough|1997|p=319}}Riley, Henry Thomas tr. (1912)[http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0119.phi016.perseus-eng1:3.2 Pseudolus, Act. 3, Scene 2]. Morris, E. P., ed. (1895)[https://books.google.com/books?id=ZQngAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA57 T. Macci Plauti Pseudolus 820], p. 57 and [https://books.google.com/books?id=ZQngAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA171 note, p. 171] Commentators point to this as attestation that the striges were regarded as man-eating (anthropophagism).{{sfnp|Oliphant|1913|pp=135–136}}{{Efn|Although this is an example of figurative use.}}

In Ovid's Fasti (8 AD), the striges targeted legendary king Procas in his cradle.{{Efn|Procas was a legendary king of Latium before the Roman Empire.}} The assault was detected and interrupted but left the infant with scars on his cheeks and discoloration of his complexion.{{sfnp|McDonough|1997|p=315}} A ritual to keep the striges away from the newborn prince was subsequently performed by the nymph Cranae (or goddess Carna), who owned a wand of whitethorn (spina), given to her by Janus, which could expel evil from all doors.{{Efn|The ritual involved stroking the lintel and threshold with an arbutus branch, and placating the evil with chopped entrails of pigs, etc. This constitutes an explanation for the custom of eating beans and bacon on the Kalends of June as votive offerings to Carna.}}{{harvp|McDonough|1997|pp=330–331}} only refers to Carna obtaining her power as compensation for Janus raping her, but the earlier passage in Ovid states a white wand was given to her. Ovid, Fasti 6.110ff. Riley, Thomas H. (1851) tr., [https://books.google.com/books?id=V_0pAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA214 Fasti], p. 214ff.

Petronius's novel Satyricon (late 1st century AD) includes a tale told by the character Trimalchio, describing the striges that snatched away the body of a boy who had already died, substituting a straw doll. The striges made their presence known by their scream, and a manservant attending to the intrusion discovered a woman and ran her through with a sword so that she groaned, but his whole body turned livid and would die a few days later.Satyricon 63, quoted in {{harvp|Oliphant|1913|p=144}}{{Refn|The same work also notes the striges would feed on the marrow or sinews (nervus) of the living.}}

Pliny's comment that "[strix]...employed in maledictions" signified that its name invoked in "potent" magic curses according to one interpretation,{{harvp|Oliphant|1913|p=137}}, and note 10 but it may have only been used as curse-word, reflecting its regard as an accursed creature.[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=maledico&la=la#lexicon mălĕdīco] defined "II. In partic., a curse, imprecation" and "II B. transf., a cursed thing" in Lewis & Short.{{sfnp|McDonough|1997|pp=325–326}}

There are several examples of the strix's plumage, etc., said to be used as an ingredient in magic. Horace in his Epodes, wrote that the strix's feathers are an ingredient in a love potion,Made by "the witch Canidia": {{harvp|Oliphant|1913|p=137}}{{sfnp|McDonough|1997|p=319}} as has his contemporary Propertius.Propertius, iii, 6, 29. The woman Cynthia accuses her rival of using the love potion. {{harvp|Oliphant|1913|p=137}}. Medea's rejuvenating concoction which she boiled in a cauldron used a long list of ingredients, including the strix's wings.Ovid, Metamporphosis VII, 269. More, Brookes (1922), [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0959.phi006.perseus-eng1:7.238-7.296 translation]. Cited by {{harvp|Oliphant|1913|p=137}}

The striges also came to mean "witches".{{sfnp|Oliphant|1913|p=135}} One paper speculates that this meaning is as old as the 4th century BC, on the basis that in the origin myth of Boios, various names{{Efn|Strymon, Thraissa and Triballos}} can be connected to the Macedonia-Thrace region well known for witches.{{sfnp|Oliphant|1913|p=135}} But more concrete examples occur in Ovid's Fasti (early 1st century AD) where the striges as transformations of hags is offered as one possible explanation, and Sextus Pompeius Festus (fl. late 2nd century) glossed as "women who practice witchcraft" "(maleficis mulieribus)" or "flying women" ("witches" by transference)Frazer, James George (1929) ed., Ovid, [https://books.google.com/books?id=w6uUBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA143 Fasti] 4, p. 143, notes to VI. 131.{{sfnp|Hutton|2017|pp=69–70}}

There are striges, vultures, and bubo owls which cry in the marshes in Hades, by the edge of Tartarus{{Refn|The spot is by Cocytus, one of two rivers forming the moat of the residence of Dis, and the source of these rivers are the Tartaus.}} according to Seneca the Younger's tragedy Hercules Furens.{{plain link|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:2007.01.0003:card=654&highlight=strigis |name=Hercules Furens}}, 686ff; Wilson, Emily (2010) tr. {{plain link|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8CWCAXl3waMC&pg=PA159 |name=Six Tragedies}}, pp. 159–160. Seneca cited by {{harvp|Oliphant|1913|p=138}}: "Tartarean birds", etc. Also, according to the legend of Otus and Ephialtes, they were punished in Hades by being tied to a pillar with snakes, with a strix perched on that column.Hyginus, Fabulae 28, cited by {{harvp|Oliphant|1913|p=138}}.{{Refn|Hyginus spells the bird styx, as in Antonius Libellus above.{{harvp|Oliphant|1913|loc=p. 138, note 11}}}}

The legend of the strix survived into the Middle Ages, as recorded in Isidore's Etymologiae.[https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Isidore/12*.html#7.42 Etymologiae book 12], ch. 7.42. In the 7th–8th century John of Damascus equated the stiriges (Greek plural: {{langx|el|στρίγγαι, Στρῦγγαι}}){{sfnp|Lawson|1910|pp=178, 181}} with the gelloudes (pl. of gello) in his entry Perī Stryggōn {{langx|el|περί Στρυγγῶν}}).John of Damascus, I, p. 473 ({{langx|el|περί Στρυγγῶν}}), in Migne, Patrologia Graeca, p. 1604. Cited by {{harvp|Lawson|1910|p=178}} He wrote that they sometimes had corporeal bodies and wore clothing, and sometimes appeared as spirits.John of Damascus, I, p. 473, in Migne, Patrologia Graeca, p. 1604. Cited by {{harvp|Lawson|1910|p=144}}

The Latin term striga in both name and sense as defined by Medieval lexicographers was in use throughout central and eastern Europe.

Strega (obviously derived from Latin striga) is the Italian term for witch. This word itself gave a term sometimes also used in English, stregheria, a form of witchcraft. In Romanian, strigăt means 'scream',[http://dexonline.ro/search.php?lexemId=54830 DEX Online] strigoaică is the name of the Romanian feminine vampire,[http://dexonline.ro/search.php?cuv=strigoaica DEX Online] and strigoi is the Romanian male vampire.[http://dexonline.ro/search.php?cuv=strigoi DEX Online] Both can scream loudly, especially when they become poltergeists—a trait they have in common with the banshees.{{Citation needed|date=March 2014}} Strigăt is also the Romanian name of the barn owl and of the death's-head hawkmoth.{{Citation needed|date=January 2014}} In Albanian folklore, we can find the shtriga, and in Slavic - the strzyga/stryha.

Linnaeus named the biological genus of earless owls Strix; historically, this genus was (erroneously) thought to extend to barn owls.

• Lamia
• Lilith
• Vampires in popular culture#Strix

{{notelist}}

{{Reflist|30em|refs=

{{cite book|last=Arnott |first=W. Geoffrey |title=Birds in the Ancient World from A to Z |publisher=Routledge |year=2007 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RSWCAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA2032 |pages=2032f|isbn=9781134556250 }} {{isbn|9781134556250}}

{{harvp|Verheyk|1774}}, p. 140

{{cite book|last=Tate |first=Peter |title=Flights of Fancy: Birds in Myth, Legend, and Superstition|publisher=Random House Publishing Group |year=2011 |isbn=9780307783974 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9zZRTCBzeeIC&pg=PT109 }} {{isbn|9780307783974}}

}}

{{Refbegin}}

Primary sources

• {{cite book|ref={{SfnRef|Celoria|1992}}|author=Antoninus Liberalis |editor-last=Celoria|editor-first=Francis |editor-link=Francis Celoria |title=The Metamorphoses of Antoninus Liberalis: A Translation with Commentary |year=1992|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9_Eolzuv0eQC&pg=PA77 |pages=77–78|chapter=21. Polyphonte |publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=9780415068963 }} {{isbn|0415068967}}
• {{cite book|ref={{SfnRef|Verheyk|1774}}|author=Antoninus Liberalis |others=Wilhelm Xylander, Thomas Muncker |editor-last=Verheyk |editor-first=Hendrik |title=Antōninou Liberalis Metamorphōseōn Sunagōgē |publisher=apud Sam. et Joan. Luchtmans |year=1774|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E9-hhAOFeu8C&pg=PA137 |pages=137–143 |chapter=XXI. Polyphonte}}
• {{cite book|ref={{SfnRef|Riley|1851}}|author=Ovid |editor-last=Riley |editor-first=Henry T. |title=The Fasti, Tristia, Pontic Epistles, Ibis, and Halieuticon of Ovid |publisher=H. G. Bohn |year=1851 |url=https://archive.org/details/fastitristiapont00ovid |page=[https://archive.org/details/fastitristiapont00ovid/page/216 216]}}

Secondary sources

• {{cite book|last=Hutton |first=Ronald |title=The Witch: A History of Fear, from Ancient Times to Present

|publisher=Yale University Press |year=2017 |isbn=9780300229042 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QDYuDwAAQBAJ}}

• {{cite book|last=Lawson |first=John Cuthbert |title=Modern Greek folklore and ancient Greek religion: a study in survivals |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1910|url=https://archive.org/stream/moderngreekfolkl00laws#page/176/mode/2up/search/gello |pages=176–179}}
• {{cite journal|last=McDonough |first=Christopher Michael |title=Carna, Proca and the Strix on the Kalends of June |journal=Transactions of the American Philological Association |volume=127 |year=1997 |pages=315–344 |doi= 10.2307/284396 |publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press|jstor=284396 }} {{JSTOR|284396}}
• {{cite journal|last=Oliphant |first=Samuel Grant |title=The Story of the Strix: Ancient |journal=Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association |volume=44 |year=1913 |jstor=282549 |pages=133–149 |doi= 10.2307/282549 |publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press}}

{{Refend}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Strix (Mythology)}}

Category:Greek legendary creatures

Category:Mythological birds of prey

Category:Vampires

Category:Legendary creatures in Roman mythology