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 assigned later, in the 14th century. 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 () 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.

Legend

) of Galatia, this onachus being a creature that retaliated against pursuers by flinging its dung () like an arrow, and causing burns. The three texts LA, SH, and V are similar in content with only modest variations.

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, whose authorship had formerly been credited to Raban Maur (d. 856 AD), or as late as the second half of the 13th century. The work is referred to as the "pseudo-Raban" by Louis Dumont and others.

There is also a brief notice on the tarasque which occurs in Gervase of Tilbury (Gervais de Tilbury). Gervase assigns the habitat of the tarasque () to be an abyss near the city-gates of Arles and the rock/cliff beneath the castle/fort at Tarascon.

Rather than its eyes literally shooting flames, some French sources take it to be a figure of speech, that "its eyes glare sulfurously".

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, which are dragged or pulled by persons known as Tarascaïres, but since 1946 they have become a yearly event and tourist attraction. Subsequently, the holding of the tarasque festival in this last Sunday or weekend of June became annually recurrent.

Theories

Celtic origin hypothesis

thumb|upright|[[Tarasque de Noves, dated to 3rd to 1st century B.C.

Commemorations

The Tarasque was designated one of "Processional Giants and Dragons in Belgium and France" listed in November 2005 <!--25 November (not in sources)-->as part of UNESCO's Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.

See also

  • Saint Martha
  • Tarasque, a towed 20&nbsp;mm anti-aircraft gun (53 T2) used by the French military
  • Tarrasque, a monster in Dungeons & Dragons
  • Bowser
  • Tarascosaurus, a dinosaur named after the Tarasque
  • Ankylosaurus
  • Mont Gerbier de Jonc
  • Gargouille of Rouen
  • Graouilli
  • Peluda
  • Coco or coca

Explanatory notes

References

Citations

Works cited

  • Alt URL
  • ; Volume 2 (1848);

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  • (translation)
  • ; copy via Google
  • Tarasque Tudela - Navarra - Spain