Geckos: The Animal Answer Guide

11. Geckos in Stories and Literature

115 Chapter 11 Geckos in Stories and Literature What roles do geckos play in religion and mythology? It is difficult to determine the role of the gecko in religion, as many societies did not or do not distinguish between types of lizards or recognize geckos as a distinctive type of lizard. One might expect that the Bible, having originated in the Middle East—an area of at least moderate gecko diversity—might say something about them. But reference to the most famous English version of the Bible, the Cambridge Edition of the King James Bible (1611), reveals no mention of geckos. However, other reptiles are noted in that part of the Bible in which the Lord tells Moses and Aaron about clean and unclean foods: These also shall be unclean unto you among the creeping things that creep upon the earth; the weasel, and the mouse, and the tortoise after his kind, and the ferret, and the chameleon, and the lizard, and the snail, and the mole. These are unclean to you among all that creep: whosoever doth touch them, when they be dead, shall be unclean until the even. Leviticus 11:29–31 (King James Bible) Of course, when the Bible reached Europe in the Christian Era, some of the animals mentioned were unknown. The original Hebrew (and later Greek and Latin) Bible texts were translated in such a way as to make sense to the people who would read them in their own languages. In the King James Bible, the word “ferret” was provided as the translation for a word referring to an animal that calls out or cries, and which, in modern 116 Geckos: The Animal Answer Guide Hebrew, is used for “gecko.” Thus, a more accurate translation of this part of Leviticus reads: Of the animals that move about on the ground, these are unclean for you: the weasel, the rat, any kind of great lizard, the gecko, the monitor lizard, the wall lizard, the skink and the chameleon. Of all those that move along the ground, these are unclean for you. Whoever touches them when they are dead will be unclean till evening. Leviticus 11:29–31 (New International Version, 1984) So a gecko does appear once in the Bible, but in a rather negative context . Unfortunately, geckos fare no better in Islamic tradition, which otherwise instructs Muslims to treat animals with compassion. The Book on Salutations and Greetings (Kitab As-Salam) in the Sahih Muslim (a major collection oral traditions relating to the words and deeds of the ProphetMuhammad in Sunni Islam) includes a chapter entitled “The Desirability of Killing a Gecko.” This states that Muhammad instructed people to kill geckos, which he considered noxious creatures: “He who killed a gecko with the first stroke for him are ordained one hundred virtues, and with the second one less than that and with the third one less than that.” Geckos were supposedly singled out for their treachery. During the Hijra (Muhammad’s journey from Mecca to Medina in AD 622 and the first year of the Islamic calendar), Muhammad spent 3 days hiding from his persecutors in the Cave of Thur (Ghar al-Thawr). According to tradition, a gecko tried to give away his position by calling out to his enemies. Although there is no mention, of which I am aware, of geckos in connection with Zoroastrianism, a religion and philosophy that originated in Persia in the sixth century BC, there is nonetheless a connection between the two. In the original description of the large eublepharid gecko Eublepharis angramainyu from Iran and Iraq, Steve Anderson and Alan Leviton stated that the species name is “derived from ‘Angra Mainyu’ the Zoroastrian ‘Spirit of Darkness,’ in reference to the nocturnal habits of these animals.” Angra Mainyu has also been interpreted as an evil spirit or a deceiving false god and has been equated to Satan in the Christian tradition. In the Aboriginal cultures of Australia, geckos play a more positive and substantial role. Ipilya is the spirit of a gigantic gecko who, in the mythology of the people of Groote Eylandt, Northern Territory, brings on the monsoon through his actions. In another story of the Dreamtime, a geckoman is credited with helping to create the day and night. In honor of this, geckos were not to be harmed. Chambers Pillar, a sandstone formation in central Australia is said to be the gecko ancestor Itirkawara, who was [18.221.165.246] Project MUSE (2024-04-25 14...