D&D General Origin of the name Stirge

[MrZeddaPiras]

It recently dawned on me that the Stirge monster from D&D seems to be related to the Strix, a creature from ancient Roman mythology "a bird of ill omen,(...), that fed on human flesh and blood" (Strix (mythology) - Wikipedia). The plural for Strix in English can be "Striges", and so I was wondering if perhaps Gygax or Arneson or whoever came up with the idea misspelled their notes back from the library, back in the '70. Anyone knows about how the monster was created?

 

[jaelis]

I've never seen anything from an early designer about where the idea came from, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was taken from Strix, they certainly leaned heavily on classical mythology. Neat!

 

[Fenris-77]

That sounds reasonable, and the build of the Stirge is very in keeping with related terms like Strigoi. I don't know that it's related, but it sounds right.

 

[jaelis]

That sounds reasonable, and the build of the Stirge is very in keeping with related terms like Strigoi. I don't know that it's related, but it sounds right.

Wikipedia says that strigoi itself probably goes back to strix, so likely enough they are all related one way or another.

 

[Fenris-77]

Look at us making with the armchair etymology. The connection to Strega is also interesting.

 

[Eis]

It recently dawned on me that the Stirge monster from D&D seems to be related to the Strix, a creature from ancient Roman mythology "a bird of ill omen,(...), that fed on human flesh and blood" (Strix (mythology) - Wikipedia). The plural for Strix in English can be "Striges", and so I was wondering if perhaps Gygax or Arneson or whoever came up with the idea misspelled their notes back from the library, back in the '70. Anyone knows about how the monster was created?

if it were me I would say instead of misspelling I changed it to be easier to say but I can't claim that I know that one of those gentlemen would do that

 

[Tonguez]

“Bird of Ill omen” makes sense for the Stirge and yes Strigoi was applied in Romanian to Witches who took the form of screech owls and from that got a Vampire connection