Tarasque

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The Tarasque is a creature from French mythology. According to the Golden Legend, the beast had a lion-like head, a body protected by turtle-like carapace(s), six feet with bear-like claws, a serpent's tail, and could expel a poisonous breath.

Medieval iconography such as renditions in church sculpture did not necessarily conform to this description in the earlier Gothic period, and examples which seemed to were later assigned later, 14th century dates. The six-footed, turtle-shelled tarasque was the form depicted on the city seal of Tarascon around the 15th century, and this held to be the norm in 16th- and 17th-century paintings. As St. Martha purportedly encountered the beast in the act of swallowing a human victim, it has become a stock motif in art to portray the monster swallowing a human (e.g. head first, with the victim's legs still dangling).

According to tradition, in 1474, René of Anjou initiated the use of the tarasque in the Pentecostal festival, and later used also on the saint's feast day of July 29. Yearly celebration in the last weekend of June was added in the modern day. The effigy or float (Template:Langx) of the tarasque has been built over the years for parading through town for the occasion, carried by four to a dozen men concealed inside.

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LegendEdit

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The legend of the Tarasque probably arose in Provence, France, from earlyTemplate:Sfnp to late 12th century.<ref>Template:Harvp, citing E. H. Duprat.</ref> The legend is recorded in several sources, but especially in the story of St. Martha in the Golden Legend (Legenda aurea), which was "the most influential".Template:Sfnp Template:Efn

Legenda aureaEdit

In Provence, France, the monster allegedly inhabited the forested banks of the Rhône between Arles and Avignon, around what is now the town Tarascon (then called Nerluc or 'black place'), but lurked in the river and attacked the men trying to cross it, sinking boats. The creature was described a dragon, half animal, half fish, thicker than an ox, longer than a horse, with "sword-like teeth".<ref name=legenda-aurea-stace-tr/>Template:Efn

The Tarasque (Template:Langx) was said to have come from Galatia, a cross-breed between the biblical Leviathan and the legendary Onachus (or onacho, or bonacho Template:Efn Template:Efn) of Galatia, this onachus being a creature that retaliated against pursuers by flinging its dung (Template:Langx) like an arrow, and causing burns.<ref name=legenda-aurea-stace-tr/>Template:Efn The people besought Saint Martha for help, and she found the creature in the act of devouring a man.Template:Efn Merely by sprinkling holy water and holding up the cross, she caused the creature to become submissive and obedient.Template:Efn She then tied her girdle (to its neckTemplate:Efn), leading the beast to the villagers who cast rocks and spears at it until it died.<ref name=legenda-aurea-stace-tr/>Template:Efn

Other sourcesEdit

The account of St. Martha and the tarasque in the Golden Legend ("LA") roughly correspond to the versions of the legend found in the pseudo-Marcella ("V"), and in Vincent de Beauvais's Speculum historiale ("SH").Template:Sfnp Template:Sfnp Template:Efn Template:Efn are near contemporaneous works (late 12th and 13th century), with the pseudo-Marcella probably being the oldest,Template:Sfnp and dating "between 1187 and 1212 or 1221".<ref>Template:Harvp and note 2 apud Template:Harvp</ref> The three texts LA, SH, and V are similar in content with only modest variations.Template:Sfnp

There is also a fourth variant Latin account, a "Life of St. Mary Magdalene and her sister St. Martha" (Vita Beatae Mariae Magdalenae et sororis ejus Sanctae Marthae) with somewhat divergent content from the other three,Template:Sfnp whose authorship had formerly been credited to Raban Maur (d. 856 AD),<ref name=migne-ed-vita/>Template:Sfnp but since rejected as a false attribution,Template:Sfnp being the work of an unknown author perhaps as early as the late 12th century,Template:Sfnp<ref>12th century accord. Sabine Baring-Gould, apud Template:Harvp</ref> or as late as the second half of the 13th century.<ref>Template:Harvp: "entre 1250 et 1300 selon M . Duprat (between 1250 and 1300 according to Mr. E. H. Duprat)"</ref> The work is referred to as the "pseudo-Raban" by Louis Dumont Template:Sfnp and others.

There is also a brief notice on the tarasque which occurs in Gervase of Tilbury (Gervais de Tilbury).Template:Sfnp Gervase assigns the habitat of the tarasque (Template:Langx) to be an abyss near the city-gates of Arles and the rock/cliff beneath the castle/fort at Tarascon.Template:Efn Template:Sfnp<ref name=lycourentzos/>

DescriptionEdit

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As for the description of the tarasque's physical appearance given in the Legenda aurea,<ref name=legenda-aurea-stace-tr/> it is given a somewhat dissimilar treatment in the corresponding passage in the c. 1200 pseudo-Marcella: Template:Verse translation

This description is said to "correspond rather closely" to 17th and 18th century iconography in paintings and woodcuts and to the modern-day effigy.Template:Sfnp Even the turtle-like carapaces (Template:Langx "shields") is attested in this c. 1200 piece of writing,Template:Efn even though some commentators ventured it to be a 15th-century addition, created out of expedience to conceal the men carrying the beast's effigy paraded through town for the Pentecostal festivities.Template:Sfnp

The head has later been described as being similar to a bull and a lion<ref name=villeneuve-tarasque-effigy/> or having the muzzle/face of a lion, or, having the head of a lion with a black mane.<ref>Template:Harvp, cited by Template:Harvp, who translates the passage saying "Mistral ... endows our monster with a lion's muzzle, the shell of a tortoise armed with horns and hooks, and says it has lizard's teeth, the belly of a fish, and a (reptile or) serpent's tail".</ref><ref name=mistral1862b-effigy>Template:Harvp, quoted by Template:Harvp: "La Tarasque est figurée par un monstre à tête de lion avec crinière noire, carapace de tortue, armée de crocs et de dards : dents de lézard, ventre de poisson, queue de reptile, jetant par les naseaux de longues traînées d'etincelles produites des fusées", etc.</ref>

TailEdit

The "tail of a serpent" detail is given in both the Pseudo-Marcella and the Speculum Historiale.Template:Sfnp The tail was "long and ringed and looked considerably like that of the scorpion" in a lost sculpture on a face of an old church (Église Sainte-Marthe de Tarascon) according to surgeon-author Template:Illm.Template:Sfnp Template:Efn It is a ringed tail, and does turns upright as can be verified in facsimile sketch of the sculpture printed by Faillon.<ref>Illustration on Template:Harvp, reprinted by Dumont (Template:Harvp, planche XIII) as noted by Template:Harvp n67. There is also a copy of the sketch at Template:Harvp.</ref> Some modern-day authors have gone a step further, claiming the tarasque's tail ended in a scorpion sting.<ref name=niles/> Or rather, the tail terminated in a (cock's) Template:Illm according to writer Jean-Paul Clébert.<ref name=clebert/> There has also been past comment that the tail should end in an arrowhead's shape, according to tradition.<ref name=le_pelerin/>

Poison breathEdit

The pseudo-Raban speaks at length of the poisonous fumes exhaled by the tarasque:

Template:Verse translation

Rather than its eyes literally shooting flames, some French sources take it to be a figure of speech, that "its eyes glare sulfurously".Template:Refn<ref>Cf. Template:Harvp. "Son souffle répandait une fumée pestilentielle, de ses regards sortaient comme des flammes".</ref>Template:Efn One source (Abbé François Canéto) has Raban Maur stating that the poison breath shot out of the tarasque's nostrils in thick vapours.<ref>Template:Harvp: «Les naseaux de la Tarasque, dit Raban-Maur, lançait naguère, en épaisses vapeurs, un vrai souffle de pestilence..».</ref>

Medieval depictionsEdit

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Heraldry and numismaticsEdit

The Tarasque is featured on the coat of arms of Tarascon, and here too, the beast/dragon is depicted as devouring a human,<ref name=eschavannes/> at least in later versions of the seal. In 11th or 12th century seals of the city, the tarasque is given an appearance of a crocodile or some sort of amphibian according to one opinion.Template:Sfnp The city seal from the 13th century appears much as a plain dragon according to one 18th century writer on medieval coats of arms,Template:Efn<ref name=recueil/> though Faillon counters that this represents not a dragon guarding the city, but the tarasque.Template:Sfnp This early type perhaps dates to as far back as the 11th century, seen on seals struck on méreau type tokens.Template:Sfnp<ref>Template:Harvp and plate.</ref>Template:Efn The later design of the seal depicting the tarasque with a (turtle-like) carapace appeared in the 15th century.Template:Sfnp<ref>Cf. the plate illustrations between Template:Harvp, small seal (right) and large seal (bottom), from the 15th century.</ref>Template:Efn

Later design of the city seal distinctly shows the tarasque swallowing a human. In the language of heraldry, the coat of arms has been described as featuring "below [the castle with crenelated towers argent] a dragon of sinople devouring a man and covered with scales of gold".<ref name=cali/><ref name=girault_de_st_fargeau/>Template:Efn

Illuminated manuscriptsEdit

In late medieval manuscripts, the monster is often depicted devouring people.

ArchitectureEdit

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There are also depictions in architecture.

The aforementioned sculpture once incorporated into the right side exterior of Église Sainte-Marthe de Tarascon purportedly dated to the 11th century,Template:Sfnp and counted as the oldest representation recorded.Template:Sfnp Template:Efn This sculpture of the tarasque depicted the beast in the act of devouring a human, in typical fashion.Template:Sfnp This tarasque was a quadruped that bore close resemblance to the beast trodden underfoot by St. Martha in the paneling sculpture of the choir stalls at Cathédrale Sainte-Marie d'Auch, according to Abbé François Canéto.Template:Sfnp Template:Efn It depicts the monster that has (already swallowed the child head first), with the pair of the child's legs still showing between its lips.Template:Sfnp

Template:Multiple image Another example is the carving of a The tarasque in the Montmajour Abbey near Arles.Template:Sfnp

Yet another is carved in the capital column of the Church of St. Trophime (Église Métropolitaine de Saint-Trophime) in Arles, dating to the mid-14th century,<ref>Template:Harvp: "date du milieu du XIVe siècle".</ref> though earlier commentators, such as Faillon who supplied detailed drawings of the capital, considered it to be an example of early Gothic art from the 11th century.Template:Sfnp

FestivitiesEdit

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File:Museon Arlaten intérieur112.jpg

Tarascaïre costume in Museon Arlaten.

The festival of the tarasque was initiated on April 14, 1474, during Pentecost in Tarascon, at the behest of René of Anjou, in order to amuse his citizens with a reenactment of St. Martha's miracle.<ref name=ingersoll/>Template:Sfnp Template:Efn Template:Efn Later, a second festival was held on 29 July, the feast-day of Saint Martha.<ref name=vierne/>

In former days, the effigy of the tarasque was paraded through the streets twice a year,Template:Sfnp and a maiden portraying St. Martha escorting the tarasque held it by the leash (or a white ribbon) in one hand.<ref>Template:Harvp apud Template:Harvp</ref><ref>Template:Harvp: "D'une main elle dirige l'animal avec un simple ruban".</ref><ref name=coxe/>

In the modern day (post-World War II), the festival came to be held annually on the last Sunday of June, to tell the tale of the Tarasque,<ref name=gueusquin1992-p095>Template:Harvp: ""La Tarasque sort désormais le dernier dimanche de juin.. depuis 1946 , célèbre chaque année le retour".</ref><ref name=glotz/> as well as Tartarin, the main character of Alphonse Daudet's Tartarin of Tarascon.

19th century descriptionsEdit

The tarasque paraded through the streets once changed from a wooden prop painted green to a metallic contraption in the early 19th century. Aubin-Louis Millin (1808) described the tarasque effigy as wooden, and consisting of hoops covered in painted cloth.Template:Sfnp German writer Christian Friedrich Mylius (1818) elaborated that "Every year on the 2nd day of Pentecost, a grotesque wooden likeness of the dragon, or the Tarasque, is carried through the city; it resembles a turtle; it consists of a wooden framework covered with wax canvas,Template:Efn painted apple-green, with gilded hooks and thorns on its back".<ref name=mylius>Template:Harvp, cited by Template:Harvp</ref> A tarasque used in the jeu de tarasque during the Pentecostal festival is described by the Count of Villeneuve in 1826, as an effigy of a "monstrous dragon, whose torso is assembled from hoops covered with a painted sheet metal, and whose back is made using a huge shield to imitate a turtle's carapace. The paws are clawed, the tail scaly and several times curved, the head is like a bull and a lion. A gaping mouth reveals several rows of teeth".<ref name=villeneuve-tarasque-effigy>Template:Harvp, cited by Template:Harvp and Template:Harvp</ref>

The wooden hull described in 1818 required eight men to carry,<ref name=mylius/><ref name=coxe/> the metallic version needed 12 men.<ref name=villeneuve-tarasque-effigy/> The tarasque of the festival of 1846 concealed four porters inside,<ref>Template:Harvp, citing Template:Harvp</ref>Template:Refn and the one in 1861 needed six men.<ref name=mistral1862b-effigy/>

The head could be manipulated by a person inside, making the effigy's jaws open or close;Template:Sfnp from out of its nostrils fuses or rockets were made to poke out and ignited so it issued fiery sparks.Template:Sfnp<ref>Template:Harvp: "Des fusees sont attachées aux deux narines de la Tarasque".</ref><ref name=mistral1862b-effigy/>

During the festival, while the huge effigy of the Tarasque is carried through the streets, there are shouted the traditional cries for the {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} in a popular song attributed to King René of Anjou:<ref name=grant-note-mistral-mireo/>Template:Sfnp Template:Efn

Template:Verse translation

It later became established that the jeu de Tarasque would commence at Pentecost and continue to the feast day of Saint Martha on July 29,<ref name=revue_britannique/> or the festival was held on those two days as two acts.Template:Sfnp

Modern-day effigyEdit

By the 20th century, the tarasque effigy used in Tarascon was mounted on a wheeled cart,<ref name=alford/><ref>Template:Harvp: "Le chariot".</ref> which are dragged or pulled by persons known as Tarascaïres,<ref name=turnbull/>Template:Sfnp and these attendants of the tarasque could intermittently break off and engage in dance (farandole).<ref name=alford/>

Dates of observationEdit

In the past, the festivals were only held sporadically in a major way, e.g., in the years 1846, 1861, 1891 and 1946<ref>Template:Harvp, cited by Template:Harvp</ref> but since 1946 they have become a yearly event and tourist attraction.<ref name=gueusquin1992-p095/>

In the gap years (first half of the 20th century) when the jeu de Tarasque was in hiatus, different authorities were claiming different weeks and weekdays around Pentecost Sunday for the proper day for the ceremony, according to Eliza Gutch (d. 1931)'s paper, published posthumously.Template:Efn Template:Sfnp

A tarasque feast was held on a non-traditional day on 23 June 1946 in Tarascon, for practical reasons.<ref>Template:Harvp</ref> Subsequently, the holding of the tarasque festival in this last Sunday or weekend of June became annually recurrent.<ref name=gueusquin1992-p095/><ref name=turnbull/><ref name=glotz/>

The Tarasque was designated one of "Processional Giants and Dragons in Belgium and France" listed in November 2005 as part of UNESCO's Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.<ref name="unesco"/>Template:Sfnp

In SpainEdit

File:Tarasca.jpg

Tarasque at a Corpus Christi procession in Valencia

The Tarasca (Spanish for Tarasque) is one of the statues of the Corpus Christi procession, paraded through a number of Spanish cities, and elsewhere throughout the Iberian peninsula,Template:Sfnp for example, the cities of Granada, Toledo,Template:Sfnp and Valencia,Template:Sfnp<ref name=martinez-gil&rodriguez-gonzalez/> and the city of Madrid.Template:Sfnp

The first record of the tarasca legend in the peninsula comes from Seville in the year 1282, shortly after the reconquista of the city in the mid-13th century.Template:Refn

The Spanish version is tinged with misogynistic elements, or rather repudiations against biblical and historical temptresses, with statues and statuettes of such female figures (called "{{#invoke:Lang|lang}}"Template:Sfnp) surmounted on top of the tarasca dragon.Template:Sfnp The figure atop the Granada dragon is a life-size doll resembling a retail store mannequin, and the tiny blonde-hair figurine set atop the papier-mâché tarasca of Toledo is supposed to represent Anne Boleyn.Template:Sfnp

Historically in the city of Seville, it was originally a young boy called a {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (rather than a modeled figure) who was seated atop the processional dragon. But in 1637 the boy was replaced by a well-adorned woman, and in 1639 it was prescribed that she should be an ugly old woman.<ref name=brooks/>

The word tarasca has entered the Spanish vocabulary in the sense of an ill-natured woman,Template:Sfnp or a "hussy".<ref name=labnyi/> A 19th-century dictionary defines the tarasca as a "crooked, ugly, lewd, and impudent woman",<ref name=meadows/> and the word is known to have been used in the sense of "ugly old woman" in the 16th century.<ref>Pineda, Juan de (1589), Agricultura cristiana, apud Template:Harvp</ref>

TheoriesEdit

Celtic origin hypothesisEdit

File:Tarasque de Noves (profil - époque incertaine).png

Tarasque de Noves, dated to 3rd to 1st century B.C.<ref name=armit/>

A pre-Christian Celtic origin for the legend has been proposed, and endorsed by some writers.

French archeologist Isidore Gilles proposed the pre-Christian pagan origins for the legend of the tarasque, and connected with the so-called "tarasque of Noves", unearthed at the village Noves, once called "Tarasconnet".<ref name=gilles/> The find was a stone statue of a sharp-toothed chimeric beast with a scaly back,<ref name=gilles/><ref name=armit-chimerical/> "crunching a human arm in its mouth".<ref name=davidson/>Template:Efn Gilles postulated this was a Celtic deified beast to which human sacrifices were offered.<ref name=gilles/>

Gilles's theory was embraced by the Provençal poet Frederic Mistral,<ref name=day/> and Dumont was disinclined to dismiss Mistral's belief altogether.Template:Sfnp French scholar Template:Illm also states that the Saint Martha legend is undoubtedly "superimposed on old beliefs of Celtic paganism".<ref name=walter2003-ch8/>

ParallelsEdit

Parallels have been drawn with the French legends of the Graouilli in Metz,Template:Sfnp<ref name=lenotre/> and the Gargouille of Rouen defeated by St. Romanus.Template:Sfnp

A legendary dragon or dragon-like marine creature reported to have appeared in Vietnam's Halong Bay has been called the "Tarasque" after the famed creature of Tarascon.<ref name=birnbaum/><ref>"Ha Long Bay." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 28 February 2007 Ha Long Bay</ref>

CommemorationsEdit

The Tarasque was designated one of "Processional Giants and Dragons in Belgium and France" listed in November 2005 as part of UNESCO's Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.<ref name="unesco">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Sfnp