Thursday, August 23, 2018

Ecology of the hyena, thoa, and leucrota

Nomenclature: akabo, alazbo, crocotta/crocuta ("saffron, hyena"), curcrocute ("cur hyena"?), cynolycus ("dog-wolf"), hyena, leocrocotta ("lion-hyena"), leucrocotta ("yellow-white hyena"?), leucrota, lupus vesperitinus ("wolf of the evening"), luvecerviere ("wolf that attracts deer"), lycopantherus ("panther-wolf"), rosomacha ("wolverine"), yena, zabo.

Description: wolves of the evening that attract deer, deadly enemies of men and dogs, mimic the sound of human voices to lure prey.

©1998 Jonathan Hunt
In medieval times people believed in a much more magical world that what modern folks are used to. While fantasy gaming labels anything that does not exist in reality as an unnatural magical abomination, in reality ancient peoples believed that such creatures were perfectly normal parts of the natural world. The hyena, for example, was attributed fantastical properties absent from its appearances in fantasy gaming.

The crocotta or crocuta (plural ending -e) is a mythical dog-wolf of India or Ethiopia, supposedly an enemy of men and dogs. It is a fabulous account of the very real hyena, which Pliny attributed to the offspring of a wolf and a bitch. The name derives from the Ancient Greek krókos (Latin crocus) meaning "saffron" or krokôtos (Latin crocōta) meaning "saffron-colored court dress." It is also named cynolycus (plural cynolyci), meaning "dog-wolf," from Ancient Greek kyôn "dog" + lúkos "wolf"). According to Jorge Luis Borges' Book of Imaginary Beings:
Ctesias, physician to Artaxerxes Mnemon in the fourth century B.C., made use of Persian sources to compile a description of India, a work of incalculable value if we are curious as to how Persians under Artaxerxes Mnemon imagined India. In Chapter 32, he gives an account of the cynolycus, or dog-wolf, from which Pliny seems to have evolved his Crocotta. Pliny writes (VIII, 30) that the Crocotta is ‘an animal which looks as though it had been produced by the coupling of the wolf and the dog, for it can break anything with its teeth, and instantly on swallowing it digest it with the stomach

The monolycum (plural monolyci), pronounced /onolysum/, or thos is the offspring of a wolf and a she-hyena (wolfyena?) or a wolf and a pantheress (wolther?). It lives solitary and wanders among men and flocks. It has rough thick hair and no vertebrae, just one upright bone, so it must turn its entire body to look around. The first name may derive from Ancient Greek mónos "one" + lúkos "wolf," perhaps referring to its stiff spine. It is likely a fabulous account of the African wild dog, which Oppian named thoa (plural thoas, adjectival thoan) and claimed was a hybrid of wolf and leopard. According to a pinterest pin whose source I could not trace:
With arching backs covered in thick and bushy fur, these Greek beasts are thought to represent hybrids of wolves and hyenas, and are solitary animals rather than pack hunters. They do not seem to be afraid of humans, and are willing to wander into their farmlands and villages to raid supplies and kill livestock.

The leucrocotta or leucrota (plural ending -e) is the offspring of a hyena and a lioness, supposedly able to mimic the sound of human voices and having a single strip of bone instead of teeth. The prefix may derive from the Ancient Greek leôn meaning "lion" or leukós meaning "yellow-white." It has sometimes been identified with the manticore due to its vocal mimicry and unusual dentition. According to Jorge Luis Borges' Book of Imaginary Beings:
He [Pliny] goes on to describe another Indian animal, the Leucrocotta, as follows: ["]a wild beast of great swiftness, the size of the wild ass, with the legs of a stag, the neck, tail, and breast of a lion, the head of a badger, a cloven hoof, the mouth slit up as far as the ears, and one continuous bone instead of teeth; it is said, too, that this animal can imitate the human voice.["] Later authorities seem to feel that Pliny’s Leucrocotta is a cumbersome blend of the Indian antelope and the hyena. All of these animals Pliny has fit into an Ethiopian landscape, where he also lodges a wild bull with convenient movable horns, a hide as hard as flint, and hair turned contrariwise.

Their names have numerous variant spellings since they predate the invention of dictionaries and standardized spellings. This makes googling the words very annoying since you have to account for whether a U is substituted for the second O or the T is doubled for no reason and blah blah blah. Furthermore, although originally mentioned as separate creatures these various hyena hybrids have been steadily conflated in bestiaries and modern fantasy.

What follows are some truths, rumors and mixes thereof...

© Kory Bingaman

Hyena

  • The hyena is a wild beast native to India and Ethiopia.
  • The hyena is also called crocuta meaning "saffron-color" and cynolycus meaning "dog-wolf".
  • They are supposedly a crossbreed of dog and wolf, but this does not stop them breeding true. 
    • The crossbreed of a wolf and a she-hyena, pantheress, or leopardess is a monolycum or thoa/thos.
    • The crossbreed of a hyena and a lioness is the leucrota.
  • It is illegal to eat hyenas because they are unclean.
    • The hyena may change its sex, or it is both sexes at once.
    • Hyenas live near tombs and scavenge the dead.
  • There is a stone in the hyena's eye, or the stomach of its young, which grants precognition if placed under the tongue.
  • Hyenas circle houses at night and call out in human voices; anyone who investigates is eaten
    • If a dog crosses a hyena's shadow, then it will lose its voice.
  • The hyena's spine is rigid, so it must always turn its entire body. According to Gesner, this limitation only applies to the monolycum. Supposedly it applies to wolves too. (In real life this is all bunk, but you have to remember that natural historians who spent years educating and learning genuinely believed this to be the case.)
  • In folklore the hyena has been attributed with the power to assume human form, and more besides.

Thoa

  • The thoa wild dogs have been difficult to classify in the past.
  • They may be the same as the monolycum.
  • They are supposedly a crossbreed of a wolf and a leopardess.
  • Like some hyenas they supposedly lack vertebrae, so to look around it must always turn its entire body.
  • The hyena is a pack hunter, whereas the monolycum is supposedly a solitary hunter. (In real life the African wild dog is a pack hunter.)
  • The thoa is an alias of the blink dog. (In earlier editions of D&D blink dogs were compared to African wild dogs. They were also compared to badgers, much like the leucrota.)

Leucrota

  • The leucrota is a swift beast native to India and Ethiopia.
  • The name leucrota is a shortening of leucrocotta meaning "lion-hyena" or "pale hyena."
  • The leucrota is supposedly a crossbreed of hyena and lioness.
  • It resembles an African wild dog with cloven hooves and wolfish features. Other times it resembles a mix of badger, deer and hyena.
  • It has a wide mouth which stretches from ear to ear. Instead of teeth, it has a single ridge of bone (or beak that rests in a sheath).
  • The leucrota outraces the gazella and swallows it down in two or three gulps, chewing the meal in its tooth-lined stomach.
  • Like the hyena, it mimics human speech to trick the unwary and its shadow strikes fear into dogs.
  • Because of its wide mouth and deceptive voice, it has been conflated with the manticore.

Hyenas, thoas, and leucrotae in my setting

The fabulous hyena, thoa and leucrota are naturally occurring wild beasts, as they were in the original medieval bestiaries. They display properties that do not exist in real animals, but in the fantasy world these properties are perfectly natural.

There are a variety of hyena shape changers. Some are healers and tradesmen who invoke the hyena as a totem, others are evil witches that assume the hyena's guise to hunt the living and desecrate the dead.

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