View source for Roc (mythology)

{{short description|Legendary bird in Middle Eastern mythology}}
{{Infobox mythical creature
|name = Roc
|image = Edward Julius Detmold49.jpg
|caption = Roc by [[Edward Julius Detmold]]
|Folklore = Middle Eastern
|Sub_Grouping = 
|Details = Air
|Grouping = Mythology
|AKA = Rukh
|Similar_entities = [[Simurgh]], [[Ziz]], [[Phoenix (mythology)|phoenix]], [[Thunderbird (mythology)|thunderbird]], [[Garuḍa]], [[Peng (mythology)|Dàpéng]]
}}
{{Arab culture}}
The '''roc''' is a legendary [[bird of prey]] which featured in [[Arab culture|popular mythology]] of the [[Middle East]], consistently depicted with an enormous size, allowing it to dispatch [[elephant]]s with minimal effort. [[Ibn Battuta]]<!-- (iv. 305ff) --> tells of a "[[mountain]]" hovering in the air over the "[[History of China|China]] Seas", which was the roc.<ref>Noted in Yule-Cordier, ''Cathay and the Way Thither'' IV (1916:146), noted by Wittkower 1938.</ref>{{Not in body|date=September 2025}}

The roc appears in Arab geographies and natural history, popularized in Arabian [[fairy tale]]s and sailors' [[folklore]]. The roc features in the story collection ''[[One Thousand and One Nights]]'', which includes the bird in two tales; "[[Abd al-Rahman the Maghribi]]'s Story of the Rukh" and "[[Sinbad the Sailor]]".

==Etymology==
The English form ''roc'' originates via [[Antoine Galland]]'s French from [[Arabic]] ''ruḵḵ'' ({{langx|ar|الرُخّ|ar-ruḫḫ}}) and that from [[Persian language|Persian]] ''ruḵ'' ({{IPA|prs|/rux/}}).<ref name="TNSOED-roc">'''roc''' /[phonetic transcription]/ n. Also (earlier) '''✝roche''', '''✝rock''', '''✝ruc(k)''', '''✝rukh'''. L16 [Sp. ''rocho'', ''ruc'' f. Arab. ''ruḵḵ'', f. Pers. ''ruḵ''.] A mythical bird of Eastern legend, imagined as being of enormous size and strength (''The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary'', Clarendon Press, Oxford, Volume 2 N-Z, 1993 edition, page 2614)</ref> In both languages, Arabic and Persian, the word is written in the [[Arabic script]] as '''رخ'''. Common [[Romanization of Arabic|romanizations]] are ''ruḵḵ'' for the Arabic form<ref name="TNSOED-roc" /> and ''ruḵ'',<ref name="TNSOED-roc" /> ''rokh'' or ''rukh'' for the Persian form.

==Inspiration==
[[File:Rocweb.jpg|upright|thumb|left|Illustration by [[René Bull]]]]

According to art historian [[Rudolf Wittkower]], the idea of the roc had its origins in the story of the fight between the Indian solar bird [[Garuda]] and the [[chthonic]] serpent [[Nāga]].<ref>Wittkower noted the identification of the roc and Garuda made in Kalipadra Mitra, "The bird and serpent myth", ''The Quarterly Journal of the Mythic Society'' (Bangalore) '''16''' 1925–26:189.</ref> The [[mytheme]] of Garuda carrying off an elephant that was battling a [[crocodile]] appears in two [[Sanskrit epic]]s, the ''[[Mahabharata]]'' (I.1353) and the ''[[Ramayana]]'' (III.39). The Ath Kadha Lihini (Warana) of [[Sri Lankan mythology]] is a large bird which hunted elephants and cast a shadow as big as a [[cloud]] as it soared above.<ref>{{cite web |title=Traditional arts of Sri Lanka |url=https://www.facebook.com/prasannaweerakkody.paintings/photos/ath-kanda-lihini-waranaamong-the-menagerie-of-mythical-sinhala-or-asian-beasts-t/2935284129876794/ |website=Illustrations by Prasanna Weerakkody |access-date=11 April 2019}}</ref> [[Embekka Devalaya|Embekka Temple]] has wood carvings depicting its likeness.<ref name="Embekke Devalaya Arts">{{cite web |title=Embekke Devalaya Arts |url=https://engphysics1.blogspot.com/2009/06/traditional-arts-in-sri-lanka.html |website=Traditional Arts of Sri Lanka|date=5 June 2009 }} {{Self-published inline|date=September 2025}}</ref>

According to another scholar, however, "there is weak evidence suggesting that the Rukh is directly associated with the Persian [[Simurgh]] or the Indian Gäruda birds."<ref name=":0">Al-Rawi, Ahmed. 2017. "A Linguistic and Literary Examination of the Rukh Bird in Arab Culture." ''Al-'Arabiyya'' 50: 105-117. <nowiki>http://www.jstor.org/stable/26451398</nowiki>.</ref> Rather, he argues that the myth is more connected to the Arabic [[Anqa|ˁAnqāˀ]], "a pre-Islamic giant bird with a human face and four wings, [whose] name was derived from its long white neck."<ref name=":0" />  It was said to have lived around Jerusalem during the time of Moses. The first textual reference is in Abü Muhammed Abdullah ibn Hàmid's (326-331) book ''Dalail al-nubuwwah''.<ref name=":0" />

[[Rabbi]] [[Benjamin of Tudela]] reported a story reminiscent of the roc in which [[shipwreck]]ed sailors escaped from a [[desert island]] by wrapping themselves in [[ox]]-[[Hide (skin)|hides]] and letting [[griffin]]s carry them off as if they were cattle.<ref>M. Komroff, ''Contemporaries of Marco Polo'' 1928:311f.</ref>

==Depictions==
===Ethiopian traditions===
The rukh is identified in the abridged Arabic version of the ''[[Kebra Negast]]'',<ref>Bezold, Carl. 1905. ''Kebra Nagast, die Herrlichkeit der Könige: Nach den Handschriften'' in Berlin, London, Oxford und Paris. München: K.B. Akademie der Wissenschaften. xliv-lx.</ref><ref>Anonymous. 1922. T''he Queen of Sheba and Her Only Son Menyelek: Being the History of the Departure of God and His Ark of the Covenant from Jerusalem to Ethiopia, and the Establishment of the Religion of the Hebrews and the Solomonic Line of Kings in That Country: A Complete Translation of the Kebra Nagast''. Translated by E. A. Wallis Budge. 1st ed. London: Medici Society Limited. xxxii-xlviii.</ref> an Ethiopian holy book, as the agent responsible for delivering the blessed piece of wood to [[Solomon]] which enabled him to complete [[Solomon's Temple]]. This piece of wood also is said to have transformed the [[Queen of Sheba]]'s foot from that of a goat to that of a human. The piece of wood that the rukh brought was therefore given an honored place in the Temple that Solomon built and decorated with silver rings. According to tradition, these silver rings were given to [[Judas Iscariot]] as payment for betraying [[Jesus]]; the piece of wood became [[Christian cross|Jesus's cross]].{{Citation needed|date=September 2025}}

===Marco Polo===
[[File:Print, Ferdinandes Magalanes Lusitanus, plate 4 from "Americae Retectio", 1580s (CH 18382163).jpg|thumb|290px|''Elephant Carried Away by a Roc'' after design by [[Stradanus]], 1590]]
As quoted in [[David Attenborough|Attenborough]] (1961: 32), [[Marco Polo]] stated: <blockquote>It was for all the world like an eagle, but one indeed of enormous size; so big in fact that its [[Flight feather|quills]] were twelve [[paces]] long and thick in proportion. And it is so strong that it will seize an elephant in its talons and carry him high into the air and drop him so that he is smashed to pieces; having so killed him, the bird swoops down on him and eats him at leisure.</blockquote>
[[File:Earth after the Fall of Man.jpg|thumb|1690 painting by [[Franz Rösel von Rosenhof]] showing two roc-like birds carrying a deer and an elephant; a third grapples with a lion.]] 
Polo claimed that the roc flew to [[Sultanate of Mogadishu|Mogadishu]] "from the southern regions",<ref>
“The island now known as [[Madagascar]] was named by no less a personage than Marco Polo, the famous Venetian explorer. Passing through [[Arabian Peninsula|Arabia]] on his way home from [[History of China|China]] in 1294, he wrote a description of "Madeigaskar" based on stories he heard from other travelers. The only problem was that he had confused the great island off the east coast of Africa with the bustling port of Mogadishu on the African coast, so none of the things he described were true of the real Madagascar. Besides getting the name wrong, he wrote of lions, giraffes, camels and huge flying birds on his mythical island that lifted elephants off the ground and dropped them to their deaths from a great height. The island was a source of indescribable wealth in his telling, full of gold, [[ivory]] and jewels.” - The Tragedy of Madagascar
An Island Nation Confronts the 21st Century
By Nathaniel Adams · 2022</ref> and that the [[Great Khan]] sent messengers to the island who returned with a feather (likely the frond from a [[Raffia palm]]).<ref name="ley196608">{{Cite magazine
 |last=Ley |first=Willy |date=August 1966
 |title=Scherazade's Island
 |department=For Your Information |url=https://archive.org/stream/Galaxy_v24n06_1966-08#page/n45/mode/2up
 |magazine=Galaxy Science Fiction |pages=45–55}}</ref> He explicitly distinguishes the bird from the griffin.{{Citation needed|date=September 2025}}

In addition to Polo's account of the ''rukh'' in 1298, Chou Ch'ű-fei (周去非, Zhōu Qùfēi), in his 1178 book ''[[Lingwai Daida]]'', told of a large island off Africa with birds large enough to use their quills as water reservoirs.<ref>{{Cite book|title=In Search of the Red Slave|last=Pearson & Godden|year=2002|isbn=0750929383|pages=121|publisher=Sutton }}</ref> Fronds of the [[raffia palm]] may have been brought to [[Kublai Khan]] under the guise of roc's feathers.<ref>[[Sir Henry Yule|Yule]]'s ''[[Marco Polo]]'', bk. iii. ch. 33, and ''Academy'', 1884, No. 620.</ref><ref>Attenborough, D. (1961). ''Zoo Quest to Madagascar''. Lutterworth Press, London. p.32-33.</ref>

===In folklore===
[[File:Sinbad the Sailor (5th Voyage).jpg|thumb|The merchants break the roc's egg, ''Le Magasin pitoresque'', Paris, 1865]]
In ''[[The Arabian Nights]]'' the roc appears on a tropical island during [[Sinbad]]'s second voyage. Because of Polo's account, others{{Who|date=September 2025}} identified the island as Madagascar, which became the location for stories about other giant birds.{{r|ley196608}} 

Doubtless, it was Polo's description that inspired [[Antonio Pigafetta]], one of [[Ferdinand Magellan]]'s companions, who wrote or had [[Ghostwriter|ghost-written]] an embroidered account of the [[Circumnavigation|circumglobal voyage]]: in Pigafetta's account the home grounds of the roc were the seas of [[Ancient China|China]].<ref>Or the Italian version in [[Giovanni Battista Ramusio|Ramusio's]] ''Delle navigationi et viaggi'', mentioned in [[Rudolf Wittkower]], "'Roc': An Eastern Prodigy in a Dutch Engraving" ''Journal of the Warburg Institute'' '''1'''.3 (January 1938:255–257) p 255</ref> Such descriptions captured the imaginations of later illustrators, such as [[Stradanus]] {{circa}} 1590,<ref>An engraving after Stradanus is reproduced in Wittkower 1938:fig 33c.</ref> or [[Theodor de Bry]] in 1594 who showed an elephant being carried off in the roc's talons,<ref>De Bry's engraving is reproduced in Attenborough (1961: 35)</ref> and depicting the roc destroying entire ships in revenge for destruction of its giant egg, as recounted in the fifth voyage of [[Sinbad the Sailor#Fifth Voyage|Sinbad the Sailor]]. [[Ulisse Aldrovandi]]'s ''Ornithologia'' (1599) included a [[woodcut]] of a roc with a somewhat pig-like elephant in its talons,<ref>Illustrated in Wittkower 1938:33, fig. b.</ref>

===Michael Drayton===
Through the 16th century the existence of the roc could be accepted by Europeans. In 1604, [[Michael Drayton]] envisaged the rocs being taken aboard [[Noah's Ark]]:

<blockquote><poem>All feathered things yet ever knowne to men,
From the huge Rucke, unto the little [[Wren]];
From Forrest, Fields, from Rivers and from Pons,
All that have webs, or cloven-footed ones;
To the Grand Arke, together friendly came,
Whose severall species were too long to name.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The works of Michael Drayton|last=Drayton|first=Michael|publisher=Blackwell|year=1961|volume=3|location=Oxford|pages=338}}</ref></poem></blockquote>

===Modern era===
In the [[Rationalism|rational world]] of the [[17th century]], the roc was regarded more critically.{{Vague|date=September 2025}} The roc, like many other mythological and folkloric creatures, has entered the [[bestiaries]] of some [[fantasy]] [[role-playing game]]s such as ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]''.{{Citation needed|date=September 2025}} The [[Scaled Composites Stratolaunch]] carries the nickname ''Roc''; it is one of the [[largest aircraft]] ever built.

==Rationalization==
The [[History of science|scientific culture of the 19th century]] introduced some "scientific" rationalizations for the myth's origins, by suggesting that the origin of the [[Mythology|myth]] of the roc might lie in embellishments of the often-witnessed power of the eagle that could carry away a newborn lamb. In 1863, [[Giovanni Giuseppe Bianconi|Bianconi]] suggested the roc was a [[Bird of prey|raptor]].<ref>Hawkins and Goodman, 2003: 1031</ref> 
[[File:Aepyornis eggs.jpg|thumb|left|''Aepyornis'' eggs, [[Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle]], Paris]]
Another possible origin of the myth is accounts of eggs of another extinct Malagasy bird, the enormous ''[[Aepyornis]]'' [[elephant bird]], hunted to extinction by the 16th century, that was three meters tall and [[flightless bird|flightless]].<ref>{{cite book | title=The Eighth Continent | url=https://archive.org/details/eighthcontinent00pete | url-access=registration | author=Tyson, Peter | year=2000 | location=New York | pages=[https://archive.org/details/eighthcontinent00pete/page/138 138–139]| isbn=9780380975778 }}</ref> There were reported elephant bird sightings at least in folklore memory as [[Étienne de Flacourt]] wrote in 1658.{{r|ley196608}} Its egg, live or [[subfossil]]ised, was known as early as 1420, when sailors to the Cape of Good Hope found eggs of the roc, according to a caption in the 1456 [[Fra Mauro map]] of the world, which says that the roc "carries away an elephant or any other great animal".<ref>{{Cite book|title=Science and Civilisation in China|last=Needham|first=Joseph|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1971|isbn=9780521070607|pages=501}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=The Life of Prince Henry of Portugal Surnamed the Navigator, and Its Results, Comprising the Discovery, Within One Century, of Half the World ... from Authentic Contemporary Documents|last=Major|first=Richard Henry|publisher=Biblioteca Nacional de Austria – Asher (Editor)|year=1868|pages=311}}</ref> Between 1830 and 1840 European travelers in Madagascar saw giant eggs and egg shells. English observers were more willing to believe their accounts because they knew of the [[moa]] in New Zealand. In 1851 the [[French Academy of Sciences]] received three eggs. They and later fossils seemingly confirmed to 19th-century Europeans that ''Aepyornis'' was the roc,{{r|ley196608}} though elephant birds were [[ratite]]s, and thus did not resemble the roc at all.

A giant [[subfossil]] eagle from [[Madagascar]], the [[Malagasy crowned eagle]] (''Stephanoaetus mahery''), is thought to be the [[Apex predator|top avian predator]] of the island in prehistory, whose [[megafauna]] once included the aforementioned elephant birds, [[giant lemur]]s, and [[Malagasy hippopotamus|pygmy hippopotamuses]].<ref>Goodman, 1994</ref>

== See also ==
* [[Mount Qaf]], the only place in this world where the roc will land<ref name="Qaf">{{cite web|url=http://www.mythologydictionary.com/mount-qaf-mythology.html|title=Mount Qaf – Mythology Dictionary|access-date=2017-01-06|archive-date=2018-07-31|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180731084318/http://www.mythologydictionary.com/mount-qaf-mythology.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>{{Unreliable source?|date=September 2025}}{{Not in body|date=September 2025}}
* [[Sinbad the Sailor]]
* [[Vogel Rok]], a Rollercoaster themed to the myth in the [[Efteling]]
* [[Blackburn Roc]], Second World War naval turret fighter 
* [[List of fictional birds of prey]]
** [[Shahrokh (mythical bird)|Shahrokh]], similar creature in [[Persian Mythology]]
** [[Pouākai]], legendary giant bird of prey from [[New Zealand]]
** [[Thunderbird (mythology)|Thunderbird]], legendary giant bird of prey from [[North America]]
** [[Eagle (Middle-earth)]], the giant birds of [[J. R. R. Tolkien]]'s tales
* Rocs appear in the 2000 novel ''[[Baudolino]]'' by [[Umberto Eco]]

== Footnotes ==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==References==
:For a collection of [[legend]]s about the roc, see [[Edward William Lane|Edward Lane]]'s ''Arabian Nights'', chap; xx. notes 22, 62
{{refbegin|30em}}
* [[Samuel Bochart|Bochart, Samuel]], ''Hierozoicon'',  vi.14
* [[Damfri]], I. 414, ii. 177 seq.
* {{aut|[[Etienne de Flacourt|Flacourt, E. de]]}} (1658). ''Histoire de la grande île de Madagascar''. Paris. New edition 2007, with Allibert C. notes and presentation, Paris, Karthala ed. 712 pages
* {{aut|Goodman, Steven M.}} (1994). "Description of a new species of subfossil eagle from Madagascar: ''Stephanoaetus'' (Aves: Falconiformes) from the deposits of Amphasambazimba," ''Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington'', '''107''': 421–428.
* {{aut|Galbreath, Ross & Miskelly, Colin M.}} (1988): The Hakawai. ''Notornis'' '''35'''(3): 215–216. [http://www.notornis.org.nz/free_issues/Notornis_35-1988/Notornis_35_3.pdf PDF fulltext] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081017194454/http://www.notornis.org.nz/free_issues/Notornis_35-1988/Notornis_35_3.pdf |date=2008-10-17 }}
* {{aut|Miskelly, Colin M.}} (1987): The identity of the hakawai. ''[[Notornis]]'' '''34'''(2): 95–116. [https://web.archive.org/web/20090325235703/http://www.notornis.org.nz/free_issues/Notornis_34-1987/Notornis_34_2.pdf PDF fulltext]
* {{aut|Hawkins, A.F.A. & Goodman, S.M.}} (2003) ''in'' {{aut|Goodman, S.M. & Benstead, J.P. (eds.)}}: ''The Natural History of Madagascar'': 1019–1044. University of Chicago Press.
* [[Ibn Batuta]], iv. 305ff
* [[Kazwini]], i. ~I9 seq.
* {{aut|Pearson, Mike Parker & Godden, K.}} (2002). ''In search of the Red Slave: Shipwreck and Captivity in Madagascar''. Sutton Publishing, Stroud, Gloucestershire.
* [[Friedrich Spiegel|Spiegel, Friedrich]], ''Eranische Alterthumskunde'', ii. 118.
* Yule, Henry The Travels of Marco Polo<ref>{{cite book |last1=Walker |first1=Peter |title=Hard by the Cloud House |date=11 April 2024 |publisher=Massey University Press |isbn=978-1-991016-81-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UBcBEQAAQBAJ&dq=roc+legend+Yule,+Heny&pg=PA1 |language=en}}</ref>
*Allibert C., Le monde austronésien et la civilisation du bambou: une plume qui pèse lourd: l'oiseau Rokh des auteurs arabes, in Taloha 11, Antananarivo, Institut de Civilisations, Musée d'Art et d'Archéologie, 1992: 167–181
{{refend}}

==Further reading==
* Al-Rawi, Ahmed. "A Linguistic and Literary Examination of the Rukh Bird in Arab Culture." Al-'Arabiyya 50 (2017): 105–17. www.jstor.org/stable/26451398.

==External links==
{{Commons category-inline|Roc}}
*[http://home.comcast.net/~chris.s/rukh.html Sir Richard F. Burton's notes on the Rukh]

{{One Thousand and One Nights}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roc (Mythology)}}
[[Category:Persian legendary creatures]]
[[Category:Mythological birds of prey]]
[[Category:Arabian legendary creatures]]