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Message: <blockquote data-quote="talien" data-source="post: 7813874" data-attributes="member: 3285">In the <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/the-imaginary-book-that-spawned-necessary-monsters.667306/" target="_blank">previous article</a> we looked at a book that was highly influential on the creation of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual. But that book wasn't the only source where D&D's co-creator, Gary Gygax, diverged from traditional sources. Like the peryton, we can deduce the origins of another curious monster that is depicted in a unique way thanks to Edward Topsell's Historie of Foure-Footed Beasts.[ATTACH=full]114190[/ATTACH]Although perhaps not as influential as Edward Borges' <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/the-imaginary-book-that-spawned-necessary-monsters.667306/" target="_blank">Book of Imaginary Beings</a>, Topsell's Historie has made an indelible mark on D&D's monsters. This is most evident in the depiction of the gorgon.The GorgonThe gorgon is traditionally associated with Medusa. In a rare reversal for D&D's obsession with categorizing the lineage of every fantasy beast, Medusa is the name of an individual, not a species. She was a gorgon -- along with her two sisters, Stheno and Euryale. All were depicted as having snakes for hair and a gaze that could turn a man to stone. And yet, somehow we ended up with this picture for the gorgon. What happened?[ATTACH=full]114191[/ATTACH]Edward Topsell happened. Or rather, Gygax may have read Topsell's book, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Topsell" target="_blank">The Historie of Foure-Footed Beasts</a>: This massive tome, which you can read in its <a href="https://www.scribd.com/doc/118076446/The-History-of-Four-Footed-Beasts" target="_blank">entirety without pictures at Scrbid</a> or <a href="https://archive.org/details/historyoffourfoo00tops" target="_blank">with pictures at Archive.org</a>, contains a comprehensive compilation of beasts, including mythological creatures. The book was accompanied by detailed woodcuts, one of which was of a “strange Lybian Beast” or the “<a href="https://penelope.uchicago.edu/oddnotes/topsellgorgon.html" target="_blank">Gorgon</a>":This description of an ox-like creature, along with the woodcut of the monster in the first edition of Topsell's bestiary, points to Gygax's inspiration for the gorgon.[ATTACH=full]114192[/ATTACH]RPG scholar Jon Peterson takes this thread further and connects the book to  Ernst and Johanna Lehner's <a href="http://playingattheworld.blogspot.com/2014/02/a-fantastic-bestiary.html" target="_blank">A Fantastic Bestiary</a> :Given the Fantastic Bestiary was published in 1969, it seems likely the gorgon's description was drawn from Topsell's tome. The description doesn't account for the scales, which seem uniquely attributed to Topsell's woodcut. The gorgon wasn't the only creature Topsell recorded that may have inspired Gygax.The LamiaThe lamia, like the three gorgons, was traditionally an individual rather than a species. Ecohawk explains in his <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/monster-encyclopedia-lamia.663690/" target="_blank">Monster ENCyclopedia series</a>:The portrayal of the lamia in the AD&D Monster Manual is something of a sphinx-like centaur.[ATTACH=full]114193[/ATTACH]And while there were definitely some creative tweaks made by the artist, the same cloven hooves, bear fore paws, and female upper torso are apparent in the AD&D lamia portrayal. <a href="https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A42668.0001.001/1:6.381?rgn=div2;view=fulltext" target="_blank">Topsell's descriptio</a>n is accompanied by a woodcut:[ATTACH=full]114194[/ATTACH]The Su-MonsterIn Echohawk's ENCyclopedia article, <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/monster-encyclopedia-tomb-of-annihilation.664710/" target="_blank">he describes the su-monster</a>:[ATTACH=full]114195[/ATTACH]Peterson's article attributes the appearance of the su-monster to <a href="http://playingattheworld.blogspot.com/2014/02/a-fantastic-bestiary.html?_sm_au_=iWH2Vfqnlj7BQMl5" target="_blank">A Fantastic Bestiary</a>:The illustration in A Fanastic Bestiary may well be from Topsell's book. <a href="https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A42668.0001.001/1:6.448?rgn=div2;view=fulltext" target="_blank">He describes it thusly</a>:And in turn, that woodcut was taken from Andre Thevet's Singularites de la France Antarctique.[ATTACH=full]114196[/ATTACH]Was Topsell the direct source for some of these monsters?  We have <a href="http://playingattheworld.blogspot.com/2014/02/a-fantastic-bestiary.html?_sm_au_=iWH2Vfqnlj7BQMl5" target="_blank">only this hint</a> from Stephen R. Marsh, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_R._Marsh" target="_blank">an early contributor to the Eldritch Wizardry supplement</a>:Given that the su-monster appeared in Topsell's medieval bestiary, perhaps he was the original source after all.</blockquote>

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