Cultural depictions of salamanders

The salamander is an amphibian of the order Urodela which once, like many real creatures, often was suppositiously ascribed fantastic and sometimes occult qualities by pre-modern authors, as in the allegorical descriptions of animals in medieval bestiaries. The legendary salamander is often depicted as a typical salamander in shape, with a lizard-like form, but is usually ascribed an affinity with fire, sometimes specifically elemental fire.
This legendary creature embodies the fantastic qualities that ancient and medieval commentators ascribed to the natural salamander. Many of these qualities are rooted in verifiable traits of the natural creature but often exaggerated. A large body of legend, mythology, and symbolism has developed around this creature over the centuries. Carl Linnaeus in the 10th edition of Systema Naturae of 1758 established the scientific description of the salamander and noted the chief characteristics described by the ancients: the reported ability to live in fire, and the oily exudates.
The salamander were discussed allegorically in the writings of Christian fathers as well as in the Physiologus and bestiaries.
Aristotle, Pliny, Nicander, Aelian
The standard lore of the salamander as a creature enduring fire and extinguishing it was known by the Ancient Greeks, as far back as the 4th century BCE, by Aristotle (384–322 BCE) and his successor Theophrastus (c. 371–c. 287 BCE) who gave such description of the σαλαμάνδρα (salamandra). The salamander's mastery over fire is described by Aristotle in his History of Animals, while his Generation of Animals offers the explanation that since there are creatures belonging to the elements of earth, air and water, salamander must be such a creature that belongs to the element of fire. Theophrastus refers to the salamander as a lizard ("saura") whose emergence is a sign of rain.
The Ancient Greek physician Nicander (2nd century BCE), in his Therica, provides another early source of the lore of fire-resistance. In his Alexipharmaca, he describes the product of the salamander, referred to as the "sorcerer's lizard" (or "sorceress's lizard", φαρμακίδος σαύρη) in the form of poisonous potion. The aftereffects of ingestion included symptoms of "inflammation of the tongue, chills, trembling of the joints, livid welts, and lack of mental lucidity". A person who consumed this beverage ("draught") was thus enfeebled and reduced to crawling on all fours, as illustrated in the Paris manuscript of the work. It is puzzling why people would so frequently ingest the debilitating salamander potion such as to merit a warning. One conjecture is that a person could have been secretly administered a dose of poison or charm by another. Another possibility is the accidental introduction of it into food or drink. Pliny the Elder (23–79 CE) warns of its effects of (detrimental) hair loss, though other sources hint at its controlled use for the "removal of unwanted hairs".
Pliny described the salamander "an animal like a lizard in shape and with a body specked all over; it never comes out except during heavy showers and goes away the moment the weather becomes clear." Pliny's description of physical markings suggest possible identification with the fire salamander (Salamandra salamandra), perhaps one of its subspecies. Pliny even made the important distinction between salamanders and lizards, which are similar in shape but different in other respects, which was not systematized until modern times, when biologists classified lizards as reptiles and salamanders as amphibians.
Pliny offers the frigidity of their bodies as an alternate explanation to why the salamander can extinguish fire, considered implausible. Note that Pliny offers this explanation in one part of his work, while elsewhere he disbelieves the premise that the salamander has such fire-quenching capability, pointing out that if such an idea were true, it should be easy to demonstrate. Pliny also reports that his contemporary Sextius Niger denied the idea that salamanders could extinguish fire, though Sextius also believed honey-preserved salamander acted as an aphrodisiac when combined with food after it was properly de-headed gutted, etc.
Pliny also notes medicinal and poisonous properties, which are founded in fact on some level, since many species of salamander, including fire salamanders and Alpine salamanders, excrete toxic, physiologically active substances. These substances are often excreted when the animal is threatened, which has the effect of deterring predators. The extent of these properties is greatly exaggerated though, with a single salamander being regarded as so toxic that by twining around a tree it could poison the fruit and so kill any who ate them and by falling into a well could slay all who drank from it, and also infect bread baking on the kiln by touching the wood or stone underneath it.
Roughly contemporary with Pliny is a bas-relief of a salamander straddling the cross-beam of a balance scale in an anvil-and-forge scene found in the ruins of the Roman town of Pompeii. Liliane Bodson identifies the animal as Salamandra salamandra, the familiar fire salamander, and suspects that it might have been a sign for a blacksmith's shop.
Dioscorides (c. 40–90 CE) in De materia medica also repeats the lore of the salamander extinguishing fire but refutes it. Miniature paintings of salamander engulfed in flame occurs in illuminated manuscript copies, such as the Vienna Dioscurides ms. (med. gr. 1, see fig. right) and Morgan Library ms. (M. 652). The salamander purportedly had septic (or caustic and corrosive) abilities, allegedly useful in the treatment of leprosy.
A few centuries later (late 2nd–early 3rd century CE), Greek-speaking Roman author Aelian describes salamanders as being drawn to the fires of forges and quenching them, to the annoyance of the blacksmiths. Aelian is also careful to note that the salamander is not born of fire itself, unlike the pyrausta.
Talmud, Augustine, Physiologus
The legendary salamandra (סָלָמַנְדְּרָה / סלמנדרה) mentioned in the Talmud was a creature engendered in fire, and according to the Hagigah 27a, anyone smeared with its blood allegedly became immune to fire. A fire salamander appears where a fire is sustained at a spot for seven days and seven nights according to the Midrash, but the fire needs be maintained 7 years according to Rashi (1040–1105), the primary commentator on the Talmud, describes the salamander as one which is produced by burning a fire in the same place for seven consecutive years.
The Byzantine St. Gregory of Nazianzus (c. 329–390) referred to a creature that could dance in fire, which destroys other creatures, referring to the salamander, as indicated by his commentator Pseudo-Nonnus, who said it was the size of a lizard or a small crocodile, though land-dwelling.
Saint Augustine (354–430) in the City of God based the discussion of the miraculous aspects of monsters (including the salamander in fire) largely on Pliny's Natural History. Augustine then used the example of the salamander to argue for the plausibility of the Purgatory where humans being punished by being burned in eternal flame.
The Physiologus thought to have been originally written in Greek by an author in Alexandria was a treatise on animals in the Christian context, and the antecedent of the later medieval bestiaries. It is possible the inclusion of "salamander" reflects the author's familiarity with the author's native (African) fauna. In the Physiologus the salamander was allegoric for the three men cast into Nebuchadnezzar's fiery furnace and survived.
An early surviving illustrated example is the Bern Physiologus of the 9th century, with the illustration (fig. right) described as "a satyr-like creature in a circular wooden tub".
Hieroglyphica The 5th century Hieroglyphica attributed to Horapollo (supposed original written in Coptic) also mentions the salamander entering the furnace and putting out its flames; it is pointed out this work draws from Greek classical authors as well as the Physiologus.
The entry occurs in Hieroglyphica, Book 2, Ch. LXII. This "alleged hieroglyph" is probably dubious. An editor of the text finds it "strange" that a "A Man Burned by Fire" is represented by the symbol of the salamander, which is incapable of being burnt. As for the fragment saying it "destroys" with "each of its two heads" (ἑκατέρᾳ τῇ κεφαλῇ), this is thought to be a contamination with the lore of the two-headed amphisbaena.
Bestiaries After the end of the Classical era, depictions of the salamander became more fantastic and stylized, often retaining little resemblance to the animal described by ancient authors.
The medieval European bestiaries contain fanciful pictorial depictions of salamanders. The oldest such illustration of the salamander, according to Florence McCulloch's treatise on bestiaries, occurs in the Bern 318 manuscript, but this actually the so-called Bern Physiologus of the 9th century, discussed above. Other iconographic examples come from bestiaries of the post-millennium, e.g., "a worm penetrating flames" (Bodleian 764, 12c.), "a winged dog" ("GC", BnF fr. 1444. 13c.), and "a small bird in flames" (BnF fr. 14970, 13c.).
The so-called second family group of bestiaries describe the salamander as not only impervious to fire, but the most poisonous of all poisonous creatures (or serpents). And (as Pliny had explained) its presence in a tree infects all its apples, and renders the water of the well poisonous to all who drink it. It dwells and survives in fire, and can extinguish fire as well.
The bestiary of MS Bodley 764 (which is second family) has different incipit which reads "There is an animal called the dea, in Greek 'salamander' or 'stellio' in. Latin", yet it still is followed by a separate chapter on the stellio newt.
German polymath Albertus Magnus described the incombustible asbestos cloth as "salamander's plumage" (pluma salamandri) in his work. (Cf. § Transmission of salamander-asbestos cloth lore below)
Titurel There seems to be a confused use of the salamander, as the symbol of passionate love and its opposite, its dispassionate restraint. The salamander in Christian art represents "faith over passion", according to one critic, or a symbol of chastity in religious art, a view by Duchalais seconded by Émile Mâle. In the rose windows of Notre Dame de Paris, the figure of Chasity holds a shield depicting a salamander (though perhaps depicted rather bird-like).
In medieval Arthurian literature, the salamander who dwells in the fire of Agrimont is invoked by the character Tschinotulander (var. Schionatulander, Schoynatulander) in professing his love for Sigune. Tschinotulander owns an oriental made shield, which "contains a living salamander" whose "proper" fiery heat enhances the powers of the surrounding gemstones" but, it is explained by Lady Aventiure, it is the heathens who take the salamander as a love symbol, when it fact, it represents the opposite, unminne or "un-love".
In the poem by Petrarch (1304–1374), the salamander is used to represent "infinite, burning desire".
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) wrote the following on the "salamãndra" : "This has no digestive organs, and gets no food but from the fire, in which it constantly renews its scaly skin. The salamander, which renews its scaly skin in the fire,―for virtue".
Commentators in Europe still persisted in grouping "crawling things" (reptiles or reptilia in Latin) together and thus creatures in this group, which typically included salamanders (Latin salamandrae), dragons (Latin dracones or serpentes), and basilisks (Latin basilisci), were often associated, as in Conrad Lycosthenes' Prodigiorum ac ostentorum chronicon of 1557.
Of all the traits ascribed to salamanders, the ones relating to fire have stood out most prominently. This connection probably originates from a behavior common to many species of salamander: hibernating in and under rotting logs. When wood was brought indoors and put on the fire, the creatures "mysteriously" appeared from the flames. The 16th-century Italian artist Benvenuto Cellini (1500–1571) famously recalled witnessing just such an appearance as a child in his autobiography. Thomas Bulfinch in his commentary about Cellini's encounter explains that a salamander exudes a milky substance when frightened, which could plausibly protect it long enough to survive the fire as it scurried away.
Paracelsus (1493–1541) suggested that salamanders were the elementals of fire, which has had substantial influence on the role of salamanders in the occult. Paracelsus, contrary to the prevalent belief at the time, considered salamanders to be not devils, but similar to humans, only lacking a soul (along with giants, dwarves, mermaids, elves, and elemental spirits in human form). Salamanders due to their fiery environs cannot interact with humans as other elements may be able to do, so, whereas the undine/nymph can marry a human and will seek to do so, to gain an immortal soul, it is rare for other elements to marry humans, though they may develop a bond and become a human's servant.
Paracelsus also considered the will-o'-the-wisp to be "monsters" or the "misbegotten" of the salamander spirit.
Salamander iconography associated with Paracelsus
Frequently reprinted as Paracelsus's "salamander" image is the illustration of a salamander is presented in the (influential) 20th-century occult work by Manly P. Hall which attributes the illustration to Paracelsus. This illustration appears to originate in a 1527 anti-papal tract by Andreas Osiander and Hans Sachs, where it is identified as "the Pope as a monster". Its association with Paracelsus derives from his Auslegung der Magischen Figuren im Carthäuser Kloster zu Nũrnberg in which the author presents explanations of some illustrations found in a Carthusian monastery in Nuremberg; the illustration in question he labels as "a salamander or abominable worm with a human head and crowned with a crown and a Pope's hat thereon", which is later explained to represent the Pope.
A later alchemical text, the Book of Lambspring [de] (Das Buch Lambspring, 1556), depicts a salamander as a white bird, being kept in fire by a man with a polearm. The text in German states the salamander while in fire exhibits an excellent color hue, while the Latin inscription connects this to the philosopher's stone (lapidis philosophorum). But in the Book of Lambspring inserted into Lucas Jennis Musaeum Hermeticum (1625), an illustration with the same composition (man holding a polearm) depicts the salamander as a lizard-like animal with star-like markings (see right). The author is also styled Lamspring, and his Book bears the title Tractatus de lapide philosophorum with 15 pictures. The first 10 explains the Arabic alchemical process of extracting spirit/animus from the corpus, culminating in the crowned king and salamander.
Conrad Gessner provided two illustrations of the salamander in his work, one realistically lifelike, the other fanciful (with mammal-like head), for comparison. In the caption to the lower image, he explains that the upper image was drawn from life, whereas in the lower image someone supposed the salamandra to be the same as the stellio ("starred" newt), and based on book knowledge, drew literal stars down its back.
Francis Bacon known for a more scientific approach, discusses in Sylva sylvarum (1626/1627) the possibility of the salamander's fire-resistance, stating that if one's hand is cloaked in a hermetic enough seal to shut out the fire, e.g., using egg whites, igniting the hand afterwards with alcohol will be endurable.
Thomas Browne, a follower of Baconian principles, in his Pseudodoxia Epidemica (1646) also discusses the salamander at more length, including esoterica from the past, such as the salamander's use as hieroglyphic symbol.
In European heraldry, the salamander is typically depicted as either a lizard or a dragon within a blazing fire. In some instance, the heraldic salamander resembles a fire-breathing dog.
Francis I of France used a salamander as his personal emblem, as evidenced on the relief at the Château de Chambord. And the king's motto was "Nutrico et extinguo (I nurture, I extinguish)".
In French folklore, it has been alleged that the salamander's highly toxic breath was enough to swell a person until their skin broke. In Auvergne, the salamander was known by such names as soufflet (meaning 'bellows') or souffle ('breath') or enfleboeuf ("beef-puffer"), and was thought capable of killing cattle, and in Berry was the belief salamander could cause cattle to swell, even from a considerable distance. There was also a supposed black and yellow lizard known as lebraude locally, with similar attached lore: it only breathed once every 24 hours, but the exhalation killed any humans or plants or trees. In Auvergne, it was told that the only way to eradicate the lebraude was to keep it isolated in confined space for 24 hours, and let its breath kill itself. In the 18th century, Bretons had a taboo against calling the salamander by its true name, for fear people would come to harm if the creature heard it.
A legend from Lausitz recorded in German tells of a sorcerer who kept a salamander sealed in bottle but could be unleashed on his enemies. While the magician was staying at Lauban, the broom maid's daughter tampered with the bottle and released the salamander. The spirit announced his gratitude to the townsfolk, and thereafter would warn them of an outbreak of fire by flying above the house in danger in the guise of a pyramid and serpent, and came to be called Feuerpuhz, a name that alludes to blowing of air, or swooshing out of a bottle.
According to the Chinese pharmacopoeic treatise, Bencao Gangmu (pub. 16th cent.), the Chinese "salamander" (actually the huoshu 火鼠 "fire-rat") grew long hair that could be woven into cloth which was unharmed by fire and could be cleaned by burning, hence called huo huan bu (火浣布 "cloths washed with fire" or "fire-laundered cloth"). The work is a compilation of past works, many ancient, and though its entry for the "fire rat" does not clarify its sources, similar description of the fire-laundered cloth could be found in Ge Hong's Baopuzi (4th century): both works claim such fireproof cloth could be made from both animal hair and plant material. Ge Hong's Chinese account of the "fire rat" is characterized as a "disguise of the classical salamander" by Berthold Laufer.
Laufer notes that Arab or Persian writers gave a mixed description of their versions of the salamandar, written samandal or samandar, sometimes as a bird or phoenix, but also as a marten-like animal, said to yield cloth which can be laundered in fire, similar to Chinese lore. Such description of "samandar" as marten-like and yielding incombustible cloth was attested by the writer (Lutfullah Halimi, d. 1516) cited by d'Herbelot and (as "samandal") by al-Damiri (d. 1415). As for the commingling of the creature with the bird-kind, the Yaqut al-Hamawi (d. 1229) recorded the popular belief that asbestos came from phoenix feathers, and this is echoed by the European notion of asbestos as "salamander's plumage".
Laufer was convinced such Arab lore had been transmitted into Europe in the 10th or 11th century, via Byzantium and Spain (though the Arab literature he cited above did not date so far back). The earliest attestation in medieval Europe of associating the salamander with an unburnable cloth occurs in the Provençal Naturas d'alcus auzels (13th century) according to Laufer. Also the German scholar Albertus Magnus had called the incombustible cloth pluma salamandri ("salamander's plumage") in his work.
Some commentators also vaguely ascribe the introduction into Europe via early travellers to China were shown garments supposedly woven from such "salamander's" hair or wool. Such garments were, of course, actually made of asbestos cloth.
According to T. H. White, Prester John had a robe made from it; the "Emperor of India" possessed a suit made from a thousand skins; and Pope Alexander III had a tunic which he valued highly. William Caxton (1481) wrote: "This Salemandre berithe wulle, of which is made cloth and gyrdles that may not brenne in the fyre."
Randle Holme III (1688) wrote: "...I have several times put [salamander hair] in the Fire and made it red hot and after taken it out, which being cold, yet remained perfect wool".
An alternative interpretation was that this material was a kind of silk: A 12th-century letter supposedly from Prester John says, "Our realm yields the worm known as the salamander. Salamanders live in fire and make cocoons, which our court ladies spin and use to weave cloth and garments. To wash and clean these fabrics, they throw them into flames". Marco Polo still employed the term "salamander" but recognized this was no creature, but rather an incombustible substance mined from earth, and had visited the production site.
The beast's ability to withstand fire has led to its name being applied to a variety of heating devices, including space heaters, ovens and cooking and blacksmithing devices, dating back at least to the 17th century.