Guess that Medieval Beast 8

         This beast is one that, to be fair, is pretty darn bizarre and amazing in real life, so I’m not going to say that the medieval artists have made it stranger than it actually is.  After all, this illustration basically looks like a rainbow-colored horse, which is really not so crazy.  This picture comes from a bestiary from the mid-thirteenth century, and the illuminator has done a beautiful job of it, too.  We’re treated to borders and backgrounds, lots of colors including gold leaf, and even a bonus owl perched on the background tree.  But what is this creature?  I’ll give you a hint: it’s not a My Little Pony.  So, what do you think it is?

        Chameleon!

        Okay, why does the artist depict it in such an equine manner?  I really can’t tell you, but I do think we should give him credit for the rainbow colors.  I think they represent an attempt to depict the fact that the chameleon does change color, which is pretty fantastic.

        What else did medieval artists know about the chameleon?  Well, they knew it had camel in the name (especially in Latin, where it is not spelled with that silent H).  And that must mean that a chameleon would have humps, right?  So these next two illustrations, from the early fourteenth and late thirteenth centuries respectively, depict the chameleon with camel-appropriate humps.  Illustration 2 doesn’t otherwise look too crazy for a lizard of some sort, and illustration 3, while it gives the “serpent” only two legs, does also give it multiple colors, not to mention a rather attractive little pattern down its back.

        Of course the other half of the chameleon’s name is lion, and this fourth illustration, from the late fifteenth century, depicts our lizard as a delightfully shaggy leonine beast, complete with mane.  And today’s final chameleon may well be lion-inspired as well, although it looks more canine to me.  Funnily enough, unlike many of the crazy medieval illustrations we’ve seen, this illustration makes the chameleon look like a far more ordinary and boring beast than it actually is in real life.

        This does lead to the inevitable question of why the chameleon seems to be named after two large mammals with which it really should have nothing in common.  Well, some chameleons do have a sort of broad, rounded crest which, at an imaginative stretch, could be seen as reminiscent of a lion’s mane.  But the camel is just an accident.  The Greek word khamai means “on the ground,” so the chameleon was really named a “ground lion,” or “earth lion.”  Personally, I think if anything "tree lion" would have made more sense.

[Pictures: Chameleon, illumination from English Bestiary, 1226-1250 (Image from Bodleian Libraries);

Chameleon, illustration from Der naturen bloeme, c 1300-1325 (Image from British Library);

Chameleon, illumination from Liber de natura rerum, c 1280 (Image from Bibliotheque municipale de Valenciennes);

Chameleon, illumination from Explication des évangiles du temps et des saints, 1471 (Image from Bibliotheque nationale de France);

Chameleon, illumination from Der naturen bloeme, c 1350 (Image from Koninklijke Bibliotheek).]