A truly exciting exhibit presenting fantastical creatures that have been a part of human experience for thousands of years and continue to fascinate us.
Press Release:
MYTHIC CREATURES: DRAGONS, UNICORNS & MERMAIDS AT THE FIELD MUSEUM
March 21 through September 1, 2008
The new eye-popping Field Museum exhibition Mythic Creatures: Dragons, Unicorns & Mermaids uses paintings, life-size models, and cultural objects from around the world to shed light on the ways people have been inspired by nature to depict strange and wonderful creatures. From Pliny the Elder who, in 77 C.E., asserted that mermaids were “no fabulous tale,” to today’s sightings of Scotland’s famous yet unsubstantiated Loch Ness Monster, mythic creatures delight and mystify us all.
Mythic Creatures features fossils of prehistoric animals and preserved specimens to investigate and illustrate how they could have—through imagination, speculation and even fear—inspired the development of some legendary creatures. For instance, Scythian nomads of southeastern Europe may have mistaken dinosaur fossils for the remains of griffins and narwhal tusks from the North Sea likely offered credibility to the belief in the unicorn.
Throughout the exhibition, models of mythical creatures astound and delight. Come face-to-face with a 17-foot-long dragon with a wingspan of over 19 feet; a 10-foot-long unicorn; an 11-foot-long Roc with a wingspan of nearly 20 feet and huge talons sweeping overhead; and a kraken, whose 12-foot-long tentacles appear to rise out of the floor of the exhibition as if surfacing from the sea. The exhibition also includes two life-sized models of real creatures: an over-six-foot tall extinct primate called Gigantopithecus; and the largest bird ever to have lived, the over-nine-foot tall, extinct Aepyornis. Other highlights include: a “Feejee mermaid,” similar to those made famous by P.T. Barnum, created by sewing the head and torso of a monkey to the tail of a fish; a 120-foot-long Chinese parade dragon, recently used in New York City’s Chinatown at a Lunar New Year performance; a Pegasus carousel sculpture; and an 18th century German apothecary sign featuring a unicorn, with an actual narwhal tusk as its horn.
Interactives and Videos
At the exhibition’s many interactive stations you can touch the lower jaw of Gigantopithecus; handle casts of a narwhal tusk; and examine a life-size reproduction of a Haast’s Eagle talon. Using touch-screens, create your own dragon and then watch it come to life in a virtual environment. Scale models of mammoth bones can be rearranged into a giant human skeleton and Protoceratops bones can be made into a griffin skeleton.
Videos include interviews with Eragon and Eldest author Christopher Paolini; award winning artist Takeshi Yamada, who creates “mythic creatures” today; and artists from the motion picture visual effects company, Industrial Light and Magic, who demonstrate the process of creating dragons for popular movies.
Exploring Diverse Cultural Perspectives
Mythic Creatures: Dragons, Unicorns & Mermaids is organized by the American Museum of Natural History, New York in collaboration with The Field Museum, Chicago; Canadian Museum of Civilization, Gatineau-Ottawa; Australian National Maritime Museum, Sydney; and Fernbank Museum of Natural History, Atlanta
“The Field Museum is an educational institution concerned with the diversity and relationships in nature and among cultures, says John McCarter, President and CEO of The Field Museum. “We strive to educate and inspire a broad public about the natural sciences through exhibitions and programs. Through the exploration of diverse cultural perspectives present in legends, art, anthropology and literature, the exhibition presents fantastical creatures that have been a part of human experience for thousands of years and continue to fascinate us. The Field Museum is proud to continue collaborating on exhibitions with the American Museum of Natural History, and the Mythic Creatures exhibition is no exception.”
“We’re proud to be the lead sponsor of Mythic Creatures in Chicago,” said Sibyl Jacobson, President, MetLife Foundation. “This exhibition supports The Field Museum’s mission to educate the public about the Earth and its people and MetLife Foundation’s goals of making the arts accessible to broad audiences and learning fun for people of all ages.”
Exhibition Walk Through
Mythic Creatures: Dragon, Unicorns & Mermaids is divided into an introduction and five sections:
The introduction immediately transports visitors to a “mythical” land as they come face-to-face with a huge model of a dragon. Arguably, the most famous of mythic creatures, dragons are featured throughout the exhibition and play important roles in the cultures of Asia, Europe, and the Americas. In Asia, dragons can be as small as silkworms or fill the sky when they rise from the waters every spring and send rain to help crops grow. In Europe, the dragon is an evil creature that captures princesses and fights heroic knights. In the Americas, the Aztecs worshipped the god Quetzalcoatl, or “feathered serpent.” This creature was linked to the movement of the planet Venus, and often is depicted with sharp fangs, a fiery gaze, the body of a snake, and the deep green feathers of the quetzal, a tropical bird.
The section called Creatures of Water explores the kraken, sea monsters, mermaids and other fantastic beings that inhabit the depths. The sea, both mysterious and enchanting, inspired these creatures. When European explorers set out on voyages of discovery in the 15th and 16th centuries, rumors of sea monsters aroused their curiosity and fear. Sailors’ tales ranged from accurate observations, to honest mistakes, to tall tales. This section features a 16th century map and books with drawings of sea monsters. Some images seem to be based on sightings of an actual fish called the oarfish or ribbon-fish, while others are products of the imagination such as the hippocampus, a mythic animal with a horse’s head and a fish’s tail. A highlight here is a Swiss naturalist’s book from the 16th century that shows mysterious sea creatures with body parts mimicking the characteristic robes and bishops’ hats of Catholic clergymen. Also found in this section is a ceramic trumpet with a depiction of a killer whale with human hands holding a trophy head; there’s also a ceramic vessel in the form of a killer whale from Peru painted by the ancient people, known today as the Nasca.
Mermaids – half fish and half woman – are possibly the most popular and intriguing creatures across all cultures and they occupy their own section in the exhibition. In Europe, Africa, and the Americas, mermaids are a personification of the sea itself—powerful, seductive, and dangerous. Stories and images of mermaids were transported to the Americas by sailors and slaves who told of beautiful, oceanic women.
Visitors will see many images of the “Mami Wata” (mommy water), one of the most powerful and popular African water spirits. Also on display are Vodou banners from Haiti depicting the mermaid Lasirèn, as well as an early 20th century figurehead carved with a gilded mermaid. There are beautiful stone carvings of Sedna, a character in one of the most dramatic tales of the Inuit people of Canada and Greenland, and two contemporary wooden sculptures of Yawkyawk, a water spirit from Australia.
The exhibition also examines mythic beings that walk the Earth. In the Creatures of Land section, extraordinary beings seem to blend a number of different animals to create a magnificent creature, such as the griffin. This colossal beast, part eagle and part lion, was possibly inspired when Scythian miners in southeastern Europe discovered the fossil of a Protoceratops , a four-legged, beaked dinosaur, around 2,000 years ago. On display is the skeleton of a Protoceratops, discovered by Roy Chapman Andrews, as well as an Egyptian statuette of a griffin, circa 150 CE, and a number of Greek coins engraved with the image of the griffin.
The ever-popular unicorn is also featured here. In Europe, this magical animal’s horn was believed to counteract poisons. In Asia, the unicorn had a scaly coat, one or multiple flesh covered horns, and a wolf-like head. On display here is the narwhal tusk—a long, thin tusk, thought to have inspired the tales of the European unicorn.
The discovery of enormous mammoths, mastodons, and wooly rhinoceroses probably inspired the Greeks in their stories of giants who walked the Earth. The infamous Cyclops, one of whom Odysseus outwitted, was possibly inspired by fossil bones of the dwarf elephant. The elephant’s nasal cavity (for the trunk) could easily have been misinterpreted as a single eye.
We’ve all heard tales of Bigfoot and the yeti of Tibet—this section explores these ape-men who always seem to remain just out of sight, their existence incapable of being proved or disproved. Scientists have discovered the fossil bones of a real ape-man, the Gigantopiteus blacki, that lived in Asia for nearly one million years. A formidable model of this creature is on display here.
Most of the mythic creatures explored in this exhibition have ancient roots that go back hundreds or even thousands of years, but the Chupacabra is an exception. This new mythical creature, whose name means “goat sucker” in Spanish, started gaining recognition in the late 1980s. Stories of the creature’s glowing red eyes and vicious fangs, as well as its penchant for drinking the blood of farm animals are told today throughout Latin America and the southwestern United States.
Mythic beings that take flight are featured in Creatures of the Air. Here visitors can learn about the Greek Sphinx. A terrible monster with the body of a winged lion and a woman’s head, she guarded the city of Thebes asking passersby a riddle before allowing them to pass. The sphinx would strangle those that failed. According to legend, it was Oedipus who eventually outwitted the monster, causing her to throw herself over a cliff. The Sphinx wasn’t the only monstrous creature who took to the sky. The Tengu, a “goblin like” being, lived in the forests of Japan and would mock and punish people whom he deemed too prideful.
The Asian phoenix, a mystical bird that appears at a time of peace or to announce the birth of a virtuous emperor, is featured in this section. On display here is a clay roof charm in the image of the Asian phoenix; charms such as this one guard the roof tiles of palaces and temples. The exhibition also examines a bird that Arab traders used to tell stories about; the bird supposedly lived off the coast of Africa and was so large, it could lift an elephant into the sky. In actuality, the Aepyornis—now extinct, lived on Madagascar and was over nine feet tall.
Visitors will discover the fabled winged horse, Pegasus from Greek mythology; the Garuda—a birdlike divinity found in Hindu and Buddhist stories; and the snakelike Naga. Visitors have the opportunity to view several artifacts including an Egyptian scarab with the image of a bird that resurrects itself—the precursor to the Phoenix; a bowl from Persia with the image of three birds resembling the Chinese phoenix; and Balinese shadow puppets made to depict the Garuda and Naga.
Like the prince who must battle the dragon to complete his journey, the exhibition ends with an extensive study on dragons. Legends of dragons have been found on at least three continents, with the earliest tales dating back thousands of years. In Europe, the dragon is a powerful, wicked, and dangerous creature that tends to nest in caves guarding treasure and devouring sheep (and perhaps a human being every now and then). In these tales, the dragon lends itself to the image of wickedness and is usually killed by a brave and virtuous knight in the ultimate battle of good and evil. In East Asia though, dragons differ from their European counterparts and are given sweeping powers, such as breathing clouds, moving seasons and controlling the waters of rivers, lakes, and seas.
Artifacts on display in this section include an illustrated encyclopedia of dragons from Bologna, Italy (1640 CE); British and Turkish coins bearing images of the dragon (600-800 CE and 1162-1178 CE); an American weathervane in the shape of a dragon rather than the traditional rooster; samples of traditional Chinese medicine, longgu or “dragon bones,” prescribed for a number of ailments from madness to dysentery, which actually were nothing but ordinary rock; and a Japanese suit of armor and sword guards from the Edo period (1600-1850 C.E.) decorated with a number of dragons. A woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis) skull watches over visitors in the exhibition and illustrates how an animal 20,000 years old could have been misinterpreted as proof that these magnificent dragons were real.
The conclusion of the exhibition focuses on the meaning of mythic creatures today. Photographs of people of all ages are accompanied by their intriguing quotes about the importance of mythic creatures in their lives.
Admission
Tickets to Mythic Creatures: Dragons, Unicorns & Mermaids include Museum admission and are priced at $19 for adults, $14 for seniors and students with ID, $9 for children 4-11. Discounts are available for Chicago residents. Visit www.fieldmuseum.org or call 312-922-9410 for details.
The Field Museum is open from 9 am to 5 pm daily except Christmas Day. Last tickets are sold at 4 pm. To purchase tickets, call 866-FIELD-03 (866-343-5303), visit www.fieldmuseum.org, or come to the Museum’s box office. Special rates are available for tour operators and groups of 15 or more. Call our Group Sales office toll-free at 888-FIELD-85 (888-343-5385).
Location and Travel Information
The Field Museum is located at 1400 S. Lake Shore Drive, on CTA bus lines #6, #12, and #146, and close to other routes and the Metra electric and South Shore lines. An indoor parking garage is located just steps from the main entrance. For more travel information, call the Illinois Department of Transportation, 312-368-4636, or the RTA Travel Center Hotline, (312) 836-7000.
National Tour
Following its stay at The Field Museum, Mythic Creatures: Dragons, Unicorns & Mermaids will travel to Canadian Museum of Civilization, Gatineau-Ottawa (May 14-September 20, 2009); Australian Natural Maritime Museum, Sydney (December 20, 2009-May 23, 2010); and Fernbank Museum of Natural History, Atlanta (February 12-August 7, 2011).
