The Dead Sea monster

Abstract

For a very large part of human history, the Dead Sea has been considered a prime example of an environment completely devoid of life, a condition which during the Greco-Roman period was ascribed to natural causes—the bitterness of the water and the hydrogen sulphide stench associated with the area. In the Middle Ages, however, attitudes towards the Dead Sea changed and it came to be considered satanic, actively hostile to anything with the breath of life in it. During this time, two types of Dead Sea monsters are described in various sources: One type is truly halophilic monsters that lurk in the lake itself and are responsible for the drowning of believers who immerse themselves at the baptismal site in the Jordan River, not far from the Dead Sea; the other, based on several descriptions written between the 12th and 15th centuries, is of a serpent named Tyr or Tyrus which lives near the Dead Sea, and which has several mythical properties. It is extremely poisonous and when it stings a horse its rider dies too; it can glow like a red-hot iron and can pierce thick wooden boards. The inhabitants occasionally catch it, and its poison is used as one of the ingredients in preparing tyriac—a universal panacea against poisons and a much sought after drug from the first century BC to the 17th century AD. There is little doubt that descriptions of the mini-monster Tyr are based onEchis colorata, a poisonous snake found in the Jordan Valley, near the Dead Sea, whose bite has been fatal in several cases.