Piasa Bird

For this week's episode, we're heading over to the US for some Native mythology to look at the terrifying Piasa Bird! Why was this monster painted on a cliffside in the 1990's? How does this monster go back to the Ice Age? Find out this week!

Transcript

INTRO:
Hello and welcome to Myth Monsters, my name is Erin and I’ll be your host for these little snack bite size podcasts on folklore and mythical monsters from around the world. 

These podcasts focus on the actual cryptids, folklore and mythic monsters from global mythology, rather than focusing on full stories of heroes and their big adventures.

I’ll also be dropping in some references that they have to recent culture and where you can see these represented in modern day content so you can learn more, and get as obsessed as I am about these absolute legends of the mythological world.

It’s freezing here in the UK at the moment, so I hope that wherever you are - you’re keeping warm and cosy and consuming an inordinate amount of hot chocolate.

DESCRIPTION:

This week’s monster might be able to help with that - although I’m not sure you’d want to snuggle up with it. We’re heading over to Native America this week to look at a terrifying mythical bird, the Piasa.

The Piasa Bird is described as a large dragon-like creature that was around the same size as a horse with golden scales, a human face, flaming nostrils and sharp protruding fangs. It has two white deer horns sticking out of its noggin, alongside massive bat-like wings, but is held up by two stubby little legs with clawed feet. Its wings are apparently so massive that they can break trees with the pushing of the air through them and it also has a large maced tail that is long enough to wrap around its body at least three times. 

There’s actually a really good description that was written by an explorer which I’ll get more into later on but it goes as follows:

As large as a calf; they have horns on their heads like those of deer, a horrible look, red eyes, a beard like a tiger’s, a face somewhat like a man’s, a body covered with scales, and so long a tail that it winds all around the body, passing above the head and going back between the legs, ending in a fish’s tail. Green, red, and black are the three colours composing the picture.

In terms of powers, this monster is pretty scary. It has the ability to breathe flame onto its victims, as well as having a terrifying scream that could shake the earth. Of course, because of its wings, it has the power of flight and does move immensely fast through the sky, but not so much on the ground. The Piasa Bird was also known to eat people, as well as livestock such as cows and bison, and would snatch them up from tribes living along the riverside. It was actually known for being silent and deadly, however, when you heard the screech, it was already way too late. 

Can you take it down though? Yes, but it is significantly difficult - the only weakness of the Piasa Bird is the soft part under its armpit, but getting off a hit with an arrow was hard with its speed and dexterity. Also I hate to say it, but it was not a lone dragon, but a whole species so there were baby Piasa Birds kicking about too, but we don’t know how they reproduced - we assume it’s like we imagine for dragons, which is with eggs.

We haven’t really talked about where this monster is from, and we’ll get more into it in our history segment, but the Piasa Bird is from Illinois in the US, however, it is a Native American monster, dating back before the Europeans settled. The Mississippi runs through most of the middle of the US, including Illinois, and the Piasa Bird stuck to the riverside near a city called Alton, where many native tribes, collectively called the Illini lived. The monster itself lives within dingy waterside caves, littered with the bones of its victims. 

You’re probably sitting there now thinking, this doesn’t sound like a bird - it sounds like a dragon so why do we call this the Piasa Bird rather than Piasa Dragon?

ORIGIN:

Well that is all linked to its etymology - Piasa is a name for the stream that runs near the area, but in the Illini languages, this also means ‘The Bird That Devours Men’. So it was pre-called a bird even from the get-go, and wasn’t ever really called a dragon. 

Importantly with this though, I’m talking about Dragons from a European perspective - we’re thinking scales, teeth and wings, which is what these creatures do have. However, in Native folklore, they were usually considered more avian than reptilian in general - but the terms were and are still used interchangeably.

The history of this monster goes very far back, but without much information on it. This is quite common with Native myths as they are very rightfully protective of their folklore, and so it does not often end up in the minds of outsiders to that. However, we do know that this monster is believed to have existed since the last Ice Age, which started 115,000 years ago and ended 11,700 years ago - I can’t even give you a date, it's that far in the past. 

It was first discovered by Europeans when they had a foothold in America in 1673, when a French missionary, Jacques Marquette, stumbled upon it. He was told by the local Natives that he shouldn’t go near the cliffside for fear of the monster, but instead he found the mural, which gave us that lovely description of the monster earlier in the episode. 

But the monster was first referred to as the Piasa Bird by John Russell in 1836, who told a story of the bird that is often told as the origin of the monster.

The Chief of the tribe was Ouatoga, and generally their tribe was happy and peaceful until one day a Piasa Bird screeched into their lives. It took one of the warriors, but kept coming back for more one after the other. The village was helpless, and the creature seemed invulnerable to any of their attacks, so the Chief called out to the Great Spirit - who told him in a dream that the body of the Piasa is the weak spot, under the wings. 

The tribe prepared for the attack, leaving the Chief on his own and as the Bird came over the horizon, it darted for him and he hung onto the roots on the ground whilst it tried to pull him away with its razor sharp claws digging into him. The warriors then emerged from their hiding places in the bushes around him, and shot poison arrows into the soft armpit of the bird. The Piasa Bird let go of the Chief with a cry and flew into the river - and the Chief was nursed back to health. The next day, the Piasa Bird was painted onto the limestone cliff face next to the river, and all natives would shoot it with an arrow as they passed it to honour the bravery of Chief Ouatoga. It was also noted that the Piasa Bird lived in a cave in the mountain and there were thousands of human and cow bones littering the floor of the monster's home.

This story was in fact, bogus and a completely fabricated story - but a really good and believable one. In fact, modern historians and folklorists, as well as tour guides, use this to explain the origin of the Piasa Bird, so we can take it as gospel too.

There have been no sightings of the monster since the late 1880’s and this bird is generally considered to be extinct. However, like its cousin, the Thunderbird, it represents the tumultuous relationship that we have with nature and how all living things must be respected.

Most famously, this is probably where you may have heard about the Piasa Bird - the infamous cliff painting in Alton from this story. We do not know when this painting was done, but it was indeed very real. Unfortunately, it was painted onto limestone, which is known to be very soft and easily eroded, meaning that the original painting was lost in around the 1690’s, and it was completely quarried in 1870. However, this was painted back on in the 1990’s downriver and measures about 50 ft wide by 20 ft tall and is very often vandalised and then restored once again. It’s a huge tourist attraction, and the pictures of it are lovely.

Now for comparable monsters, we have to talk about the Thunderbird, as these two are often put in the same category. Large dragon-like birds that dominate the local landscape as well as being metaphors for natural respect. I covered the Thunderbird not too long ago if you want more information on it, but it’s also a Native mythological bird that commands the power of the weather and is very hungry for humans. Another one that is always compared is the Underwater Panther, which is another Native beast. This one is slightly different, as it is a feline monster, but it’s also a water cat and has scales and a body like a dragon. These are the master water creatures in a lot of Native myths, but are the closest Native folklore monster to a European dragon in appearance - we’ll cover the Underwater Panther another time.

CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE: 

Now onto modern media, there’s nothing for this monster specifically - but we’ll cover some feathered dragon content although there are also only a few bits within this.

For art, have a look at the mural! If you’re in Illinois, go have a look in person and then send me pictures - but if you’re elsewhere, have a Google for this amazing artwork, but bear in mind this is the replication and not the original. Otherwise, have a look at the independent art available for this one.

In movies, we only have a few; Eragon, How to Train Your Dragon & Maleficent. 

For TV, we have; Lost Tapes, Wakfu, The Legend of Korra, Moondreamers, Digimon, Fairy Tail, Sword Art Online Feathered Dragons & Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid.

In video games, we have ones such as; Pokemon, Fire Emblem, Lunar, Golden Treasure, The Legend of Zelda, Spyro Reignited Trilogy, Monster Hunter, Final Fantasy 9 & 14, Horn of the Abyss, Disgaea, Xenoblade Chronicles 10, Sword of Stars, Dragalia Lost, Flight Rising, ARK: Survival Evolved, Secret of Mana, Battlerite, World of Warcraft & Dark Souls 3.

My book recommendation this week is The Piasa: The Devil Among the Indians by P A Armstrong - it’s a very old book and is very short, but I really recommend it because it’s from 1887 and has real accounts of the monster in it.

DO I THINK THEY EXISTED? 

Now it’s time for, do I think they existed?

With Native myths, I always think there is an air of mystique around them due to their secretive nature around their folklore, which makes me believe in it slightly. What I think is crazy about this monster is that it goes back to the last ice age, that’s amazing and probably one of the oldest monsters that we’ve covered, although we don’t have any actual accounts for that time. Probably because humans were still in their infancy, but also because we would have either lost it or destroyed it by now. 

I do think it’s plausible that Dragons and giant birds could have once existed, because technically they did - pterodactyls were in theory, both of these things and we know they existed. But do I think they exist now? No - probably not; because we’ve not seen one or even had a potential sighting in over 200 years and if they were around, we’d know about it by now. 

But as always, I love covering Native myths for this exact reason - it’s not to say that they live now, but they might have. The mural that backs this up is a great way of recording history and how these animals looked, but alas, by the time we had means to record it, they were either extinct or very good at hiding. Either way, I don’t think a dragon from the Mississippi is going to hunt you down for dinner anytime soon - unless you ask it first of course.

Lastly, it’s Illinois - now I know that Chicago is the top most corner and Alton is on the west edge of the state, but what dragon would dare flying around the windy city state? I get why they would hide away from all that navigational drama, especially with the city skylines in the way too now. 

But what do you think? Did the Piasa Bird roam the skies of Illinois? Let me know on Twitter!

OUTRO: 

A great monster this week, I love looking into Native myths and this one is especially interesting due to the physical history behind it. I would love to cover more monsters with murals, I hope we find another one soon.

Next week, we’re heading over to East Africa to look at a ferocious Kenyan cryptid, the Nandi Bear. Hold onto your scalps before this beast comes for them next Thursday!

For now, thank you so much for listening, it’s been an absolute pleasure. If you enjoyed this podcast, please give it a rating on the service you’re listening on - I’ve got the twitter for any questions, or suggestions on what monsters to cover next and I’d love to hear from you. The social media handles for Tiktok, Youtube, Threads and Instagram are mythmonsterspodcast, and twitter is mythmonsterspod. But all of our content can be found at mythmonsters.co.uk - you can also find us on Goodpods, Buymeacoffee and Patreon if you want to help me fund the podcast too.

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But for now, stay spooky and I’ll see you later babes.