In 1863, Bianconi suggested the roc was a raptor (Hawkins and Goodman, 2003: 1031). The scientific culture of the 19th century introduced some "scientific" rationalizations for the myth's origins, by suggesting that the origin of the myth of the roc might lie in embellishments of the often-witnessed power of the eagle that could carry away a newborn lamb. In the modern era, the roc, like many other mythological and folkloric creatures, has entered the bestiaries of some fantasy role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons. Ulisse Aldrovandi's Ornithologia (1599) included a woodcut of a roc with a somewhat pig-like elephant in its talons, but in the rational world of the 17th century, the roc was regarded more critically. 1590 or Theodor de Bry in 1594 who showed an elephant being carried off in the roc's talons, or showed the roc destroying entire ships in revenge for destruction of its giant egg, as recounted in the fifth voyage of Sinbad the Sailor. Such descriptions captured the imaginations of later illustrators, such as Stradanus c. Doubtless, it was Polo's description that inspired Antonio Pigafetta, one of Ferdinand Magellan's companions, who wrote or had ghost-written an embroidered account of the circumglobal voyage: in Pigafetta's account the home grounds of the roc were the seas of China. Because of Polo's account, others identified the island as Madagascar, which became the location for stories about other giant birds. In The Arabian Nights the roc appears on a tropical island during Sinbad's second voyage. He explicitly distinguishes the bird from a griffin. Polo claimed that the roc flew to Madagascar "from the southern regions", and that the Great Khan sent messengers to the island who returned with a feather (likely a Raphia frond). And it is so strong that it will seize an elephant in its talons and carry him high into the air and drop him so that he is smashed to pieces having so killed him, the bird swoops down on him and eats him at leisure. It was for all the world like an eagle, but one indeed of enormous size so big in fact that its quills were twelve paces long and thick in proportion. In the 13th century, Marco Polo (as quoted in Attenborough (1961: 32)) stated Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela reported a story reminiscent of the roc in which shipwrecked sailors escaped from a desert island by wrapping themselves in ox-hides and letting griffins carry them off as if they were cattle. The merchants break the roc's egg, Le Magasin pitoresque, Paris, 1865 Western expansion 1690 painting by Franz Rösel von Rosenhof showing two roc-like birds carrying a deer and an elephant a third grasps a lion. The mytheme of Garuda carrying off an elephant that was battling a crocodile appears in two Sanskrit epics, the Mahabharata (I.1353) and the Ramayana (III.39). Common romanizations are ruḵḵ for the Arabic form and ruḵ, rokh or rukh for the Persian form.Įastern origins Illustration by René BullĪccording to art historian Rudolf Wittkower, the idea of the roc had its origins in the story of the fight between the Indian solar bird Garuda and the chthonic serpent Nāga. In both languages, Arabic and Persian, the word is written in the Arabic script as رخ. The English form roc originates via Antoine Galland's French from Arabic ruḵḵ ( Arabic: الرُخّ, romanized: ar-ruḫḫ) and that from Persian ruḵ ( Dari pronunciation: ). The story collection One Thousand and One Nights includes tales " Abd al-Rahman the Maghribi's Story of the Rukh" and " Sinbad the Sailor", both of which include the roc. Ibn Battuta tells of a mountain hovering in the air over the China Seas, which was the roc. The roc appears in Arab geographies and natural history, popularized in Arabian fairy tales and sailors' folklore. The roc is an enormous legendary bird of prey in the popular mythology of the Middle East.
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