Scolopendra

Scolopendra Classification Many-finned (Heuvelmans system) Proposed scientific names Other names Great sea centipede Sea reported Mediterranean Sea First reported 2nd Century B.C. Prominent investigators • Aelian

The scolopendra (Σκολοπενδρα; Greek: "centipede") was a sea serpent or cetus of the Mediterranean Sea in classical Greco-Roman belief, usually considered by cryptozoologists to be an early description of the many-finned sea serpent.

Attestations

The giant scolopendra is mentioned in poems attributed to the 2^nd Century B.C. poets Antipater of Sidon and Theodoridas of Syracuse. One of Antipater's epigrams tells of a man named Hermonax, who discovers the remains of a fifty-foot scolopendra in shallow water, and offers the carcass to the sea deity Ino as a gift. Theodoridas simply describes it as a thousand-limbed sea monster.

The scolopendra was most famously described, in a natural history context, by the Roman writer Aelian, in the surviving thirteenth book of his multi-volume work De Natura Animalium. Aelian gleaned much of his information on marine life from fishermen and sailors; such was the case with the scolopendra, and, after some "examining and investigating," Aelian declared himself convinced by the testimonies he received.

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Now in the course of examining and investigating these subjects and what bears upon them, to the utmost limit, with all the zeal that I could command, I have ascertained that the scolopendra is a sea-monster, and of sea-monsters it is the biggest, and if cast up on the shore no one would have the courage to look at it. And those who are expert in marine matters say that they have seen them floating and that they extend the whole of their head above the sea, exposing hairs of immense length protruding from their nostrils, and that the tail is flat and resembles that of a crayfish. And at times the rest of their body is to be seen floating on the surface, and its bulk is comparable to a full-sized trireme. And they swim with numerous feet in line on either side as though they were rowing themselves (though the expression is somewhat harsh) with tholepins hung alongside. So those who have experience in these matters say that the surge responds with a gentle murmer, and their statement convinces me.

”

Theories

The scolopendra is usually classified as a many-finned sea serpent, a sighting of which was later reported in the Mediterranean by the Narcissus (1899). In recognition of this, the Heuvelmans system applied the parataxomonic name Cetioscolopendra aeliani to the many-finned, while the Coleman-Huyghe system changes the type's name to "great sea centipede," the "original ... Roman name for these kinds of creatures".