The Kraken in the Physiologus Tradition
- Date of account
- Late antique, c. 2nd–4th centuries
- Location
- Greek-speaking eastern Mediterranean textual world
- Source
- model_recalled_reference
- Record updated
- 2026-10-10
Record summary
The Physiologus is a late antique Christian text that combines animal lore, scriptural interpretation and moral symbolism. Its marine creatures, including large sea monsters in some textual traditions, are important comparison material because they show that “unknown creatures” may function as allegorical or didactic figures rather than incident reports. Manuscripts differ, and the work circulated through translations and adaptations, so the exact creature list depends on recension. It should be studied as a layered textual tradition, not as evidence that ancient writers observed a cryptid species.
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