An aspidochelone is a titanic mythic whale with a rocky hide more than 500 feet long. These creatures float dormant on the surface of the ocean, developing colonies of plants and animal life that delude sailors into mistaking them for natural islands. Yet these creatures can easily capsize ships and survive at the crushing depths of the ocean floor.
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| - An aspidochelone is a titanic mythic whale with a rocky hide more than 500 feet long. These creatures float dormant on the surface of the ocean, developing colonies of plants and animal life that delude sailors into mistaking them for natural islands. Yet these creatures can easily capsize ships and survive at the crushing depths of the ocean floor.
- In Medieval folklore and bestiaries, the Aspidochelone (also called the Asp-Turtle) was a gigantic combination of an asp and a turtle that lived in the ocean. It was so large, sailors would mistake it for an island. The Aspidochelone even had trees and bushes growing on its shell. The sailors would often drown when the turtle dived back in the ocean. Usually, this occurred when the sailors started a campfire on its back. It might have originated with reports of an Irish monk who traveled on the ocean or the stories about Sindbad's voyages, one of which involved Sindbad and his crew debarking on a small island, lighting some fires for cooking, the island shaking and diving beneath the waves, taking some of Sindbad's crew to watery graves and leading to Sindbad being adrift on the sea alone.
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| - An aspidochelone is a titanic mythic whale with a rocky hide more than 500 feet long. These creatures float dormant on the surface of the ocean, developing colonies of plants and animal life that delude sailors into mistaking them for natural islands. Yet these creatures can easily capsize ships and survive at the crushing depths of the ocean floor.
- In Medieval folklore and bestiaries, the Aspidochelone (also called the Asp-Turtle) was a gigantic combination of an asp and a turtle that lived in the ocean. It was so large, sailors would mistake it for an island. The Aspidochelone even had trees and bushes growing on its shell. The sailors would often drown when the turtle dived back in the ocean. Usually, this occurred when the sailors started a campfire on its back. It might have originated with reports of an Irish monk who traveled on the ocean or the stories about Sindbad's voyages, one of which involved Sindbad and his crew debarking on a small island, lighting some fires for cooking, the island shaking and diving beneath the waves, taking some of Sindbad's crew to watery graves and leading to Sindbad being adrift on the sea alone. He reported a creature which looked like an island, but went beneath the waves. Most medieval drawings depicted it as a large fish instead of the asp-turtle mix. Its name is derived from the Greek words "aspido" + "chelone", which mean "shield" and "turtle". The title it gives, Aspidochelone Sinker, derives from its island nature, meaning to slay the beast is to cause it (the "island") to sink.
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