The problem was, however, that few artists in medieval Europe had ever seen a real elephant—instead they created an astonishing variety of fabulous pachyderms that still fascinates today. The Carthaginian general Hannibal famously followed up with 37 war elephants that he marched across the Alps decades later during the Second Punic War, from 218 to 201 B.C. Westphal’s research has also documented “clusters” of medieval elephant illustrations that he’s determined derive from a single portrayal, which may have represented an anatomically correct elephant—or a wholly imagined one. Eleazar was a brother of Judas Maccabee who, during the Maccabean Revolt around 165 B.C., is said to have killed an enemy war elephant in battle by sliding underneath and stabbing it with his spear; the elephant then collapsed on the warrior, crushing him to death. It seems, however, that none of these medieval artists had ever seen a real elephant; nor could they quite imagine how anyone could easily slide underneath one.

Source: The North Africa Journal August 03, 2023 13:17 UTC