From the disgusting to the sublime, Mythic Creatures: Dragons, Unicorns & Mermaids gives a fair overview of the many monsters man has imagined to live beside us, but just beyond our proof down through the ages. While legends about many of these creatures, such as the dragons and mermaids, date back to ancient times, stories about Yeti, Bigfoot and the Chupacabra are as prevalent today as ever. This exhibit which has run since last March at the Field Museum here in Chicago closes September 1, 2008. If you have yet to see it, drag the nephews, nieces, sons and daughters down to the museum campus to check it out before it is gone. The exhibit is divided into three sections, Creatures of Water, Creatures of Land and Creatures of the Air.
The section focused on the water includes the aforementioned mermaids which seem to be one of the most cross-cultural. Each continent has a number of peoples with their own version, some malign, others benevolent and some just plain weird. Like the Feejee Mermaid, made famous by P.T. Barnum as an oddity that patrons paid to view, and which turned out to be no more than a dead Monkey’s head sewn onto a fish body. Loch Ness, the lake in Scotland, and its famous monster gets a mention. There are also less well known additions like the hippocampus sporting a horse’s head and a fish tail.
The land creatures range from the unicorn to giants and cyclops. The kids can play with a display that allows them to use magnetic tools to move various puzzle pieces of real creature body parts into new positions that help explain how monster forms might have been suspected by those who stumbled across strange remains. Narwahl horns are on display as examples of a body part that may help explain how stories of unicorns first came about. So, too, the dwarf elephant skulls, with their nasal passage hole where a corresponding trunk would have protruded, are used to show how the Cyclops legend may have been born. Oddly, the exhibitors chose to include the mighty griffin among the land creatures rather than those of air despite it having the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle.
Of course the air creatures display comes last, mostly because of the presence of dragons, but there are other monsters on display in this section. Notably, the noble Pegasus proudly guards the entryway and right above the Roc, a giant eagle, is swooping down on unsuspecting visitors. The famous phoenix which resurrects itself in flames is here and also the mysterious sphinx. But it is the dragons which hold the greatest attention and they are given their due. Eastern and Western varieties are all represented, some in the form of huge models that are quite breathtaking. This alone might be worth the price of admission.
For more information visit www.fieldmuseum.org or call the Field Museum at 312-665-7400.