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This article discusses fictional tortoise and turtles from mythology, literature, cinema, television, and video games.

Turtles and tortoises are frequently depicted in popular culture as easygoing, patient, and wise creatures, snapping turtles aside.[citation needed] Due to their long lifespan, slow movement, sturdiness, and wrinkled appearance, they are an emblem of longevity and stability in many cultures around the world.[1][2] Turtles are regularly incorporated into human culture, with painters, photographers, poets, songwriters, and sculptors using them as subjects.[3] They have an important role in mythologies around the world,[4] and are often implicated in creation myths regarding the origin of the Earth.[5] Sea turtles are a charismatic megafauna and are used as symbols of the marine environment and environmentalism.[3]

As a result of its role as a slow, peaceful creature in culture, the turtle can be misconceived as a sedentary animal; however, many types of turtle, especially sea turtles, frequently migrate over large distances in oceans.[6]

In mythology, legend and folklore[edit]

A bas-relief from Angkor Wat, Cambodia, shows Samudra manthan-Vishnu in the center and his turtle avatar Kurma below.
Japanese Edo period depiction of a minogame.
The stone turtle carries stela on its back Văn Miếu in Hanoi, Vietnam.

The turtle has a prominent position as a symbol of steadfastness and tranquillity in religion, mythology, and folklore from around the world.[6] A tortoise’s longevity is suggested by its long lifespan and its shell, which was thought to protect it from any foe.[2] In the cosmological myths of several cultures a World Turtle carries the world upon its back or supports the heavens.[5] The mytheme of a World-Tortoise, besides that of a world-bearing elephant, was discussed by comparatively by Edward Burnett Tylor (1878:341).

In ancient Mesopotamia, the turtle was associated with the god Ea and was used on kudurrus as a symbol of Ea.[7] Ijapa the tortoise (alternatively called Alabahun), is a trickster, accomplishing heroic deeds or getting into trouble in a cycle of tales told by the Yoruba of Nigeria and Benin Republic (West Africa).[5]

The World Turtle carries the Earth upon its back in myths of some Northeastern Woodlands tribes. In Cheyenne tradition, the great creator spirit Maheo kneads some mud he takes from a coot's beak until it expands so much that only Old Grandmother Turtle can support it on her back. In Mohawk tradition, the trembling or shaking of the Earth is thought of as a sign that the World Turtle is stretching beneath the great weight that she carries.[5]

In a story from Admiralty Island, people are born from eggs laid by the World Turtle. There are many similar creation stories throughout Polynesia.[5]

Further information: World-Tortoise (Hindu)

In Hindu mythology, one avatar of Vishnu is said to be the giant turtle Kurma. The Shatapatha Brahmana identifies the world as the body of Kurmaraja, the "king of tortoises", with the earth its lower shell, the atmosphere its body, and the vault of the heavens its upper shell. Akupara is a tortoise who carries the world on his back mentioned in the Bhagavata Purana.[page needed][2] The Sanskrit epics also have references to the conception that the world rests on four elephants, who stand on the shell of a turtle[dubious – discuss]. [8]

A bixi holding Kangxi Emperor's stele near Marco Polo Bridge in Beijing, China

In Chinese tradition the creator goddess Nu Gua cuts the legs off a sea turtle and uses them to prop up the sky after Gong Gong destroys the mountain that had supported the sky. The flat undershell and round domed upper shell of a turtle resembles the ancient Chinese idea of a flat earth and round domed sky.[9] In China, the tortoise is one of the “Four Fabulous Animals”,[2] the most prominent beasts of China. It is of the water element.[10] The other animals are the unicorn, phoenix, and dragon. These animals govern the four points of the compass, with the Black Tortoise the ruler of the north, symbolizing endurance, strength, and longevity.[11] It is the only one of the four that is a real animal, although it is depicted with the supernatural features of dragon ears, flaming tentacles at its shoulders and hips, and a long hairy tail. The hairy tail is based on seaweed and the growth of plant parasites that are found on older tortoises’ shells, which flow behind the tortoise as it swims. The tortoise is a symbol of longevity, with a potential lifespan of ten thousand years.[2] Due to its longevity, a symbol of a turtle was often used during burials. A burial mound might be shaped like a turtle, and even called a “grave turtle”. A carved turtle, known as bixi (Chinese: 赑屃) was used as a plinth for memorial tablets of high ranking officials during the Sui Dynasty (581-618 CE) and the Ming period (1368-1644 CE). Enormous turtles supported the memorial tablets of emperors.[11]

In Feng shui the rear of the home is represented by the Black Tortoise, which signifies support for home, family life, and personal relationships. A tortoise at the back door of a house or in the backyard by a pond is said to attract good fortune and many blessings. Three tortoises stacked on top of each other represents a mother and her babies.[10] In Daoist art, the tortoise is an emblem of the triad of earth-humankind-heaven.[12]

Tortoise shells were used for divination in the ancient Shang Dynasty China, and carry the earliest specimens of Chinese writing.

In Japan, the turtle has developed a more independent tradition than the other three prominent beasts of China. It is known as minogame and is a symbol of longevity and felicity. The minogame is also depicted with a long feathery fan-like tail. A minogame has an important role in the well-known legend of Urashima Tarō. The tortoise is an attribute of Kompira, the deity of seafarers. It is a favored motif by netsuke-carvers and other artisans, and features in traditional Japanese wedding ceremonies.[2] There is also a well-known tortoise-shell artistic pattern, based on the nearly hexagonal shape of a tortoise’s shell. These patterns are usually composed of symmetrical hexagons, sometimes with smaller hexagons within them.[13]

In Taiwanese villages, paste cakes of flour shaped like turtles are made for festivals that are held in honor of the lineage patron deity. People buy these cakes at their lineage temple and take them home to assure prosperity, harmony, and security for the following year.[11]

Many legends of Vietnam connect closely to turtle. In Yao dynasty of China, a Vietnamese King's envoy offered a sacred turtle (Vietnamese: Thần Quy) which was carved Khoa Đẩu script on its carapace writing all things happening from the time Sky and Earth had just been born. Yao King ordered a person copied it and called it Turtle Calendar.

Another legend told that Kim Quy Deity (literally: Golden Turtle Deity) came into sight and crawled after An Dương Vương's pray. And follow the Deity's foot prints, An Dương Vương built Co Loa citadel in spiral model and got result. Furthermore, An Dương Vương was given present a Kim Quy Deity's claw to make the trigger (Vietnamese: lẫy), one part of the crossbow (Vietnamese: nỏ) named Linh Quang Kim Trảo Thần Nỏ which is the military secret of winning Zhao Tuo. Unfortunately, a wicked scheme of stealing the sacred crossbow through a political marriage made Vietnam lose its sovereignty for 1000 years hence.[citation needed]

An 15th century- legend told that Lê Lợi returned his sacred sword named Thuận Thiên (literally: Heaven's Will) to Golden Turtle in Lục Thủy lake after he had won Ming's army. That is why Lục Thủy lake was renamed to Sword Lake (Vietnamese: Hồ Gươm) or Returning Sword lake (Vietnamese: Hồ Hoàn Kiếm). This action symbolizes to taking leave of weapons for peace.

Other notable examples include:

In fiction[edit]

The Mock Turtle from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

The turtle has often been a humorous figure in literature, such as in Yertle the Turtle by Dr. Seuss.[14] In children’s literature, the turtle is often depicted as having a mixture of animal and human characteristics.[14][15]

In Aesop's fable The Tortoise and the Hare, a tortoise defeats an overconfident hare in a race. In the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (1499), there is an engraving of a woman holding a turtle in one hand and a pair of outspread wings in the other. The turtle symbolizes stagnation and slowness, compared to the elevation of the spirit denoted by the wings.[1]

There is a character called the Mock Turtle in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. In the illustration by John Tenniel, the Mock Turtle is depicted as a turtle with the head, hooves, and tail of a calf; referencing the real ingredients of mock turtle soup.[16]

Michael Ende's books Momo (1973) and The Neverending Story (1979) feature, respectively, the tortoise Cassiopeia, who can see into the future and display messages on her shell, and the giant, wise swamp turtle Morla. Some of his other works also feature turtles and tortoises. In the books by Terry Pratchett, the Discworld rests on the back of the gigantic star-turtle Great A'Tuin. In the Discworld novel Small Gods, the Great God Om manifests as a tortoise. Yertle the Turtle by children's author Dr. Seuss is a king turtle who orders all the other turtles in his pond, called Salamasond, to stack themselves beneath him so that he can look out across all his kingdom but he ends up falling into the mud.[14]

In The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck uses the tortoise as an emblem of the resolve and persistence of the "Okies" that travel west across the US for a better life.[4]

In Stephen King's Dark Tower Series, the Turtle is a prominent figure. Named Maturin, the Turtle is one of the twelve guardians of the beams which hold up the Dark Tower. There is also a small carving of the turtle which is described as a 'tiny god'. A rhyme is recited by the characters, "See the TURTLE of enormous girth, on his shell he holds the Earth." This rhyme and the Turtle also show up in Stephen King's IT, where the Turtle represents the opposition to the terror that is IT.

Other notable examples include:

Bert the turtle

Duck and Cover was a six minute civil defense film that starred an animated character called Bert the Turtle. In “Tortoise Wins by a Hare” Bugs Bunny raced the slow moving Cecil Turtle in an Aesop’s Fables spoof.[17]

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are comic book characters whose adventures have been adapted for TV and film. They are Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo. They were created in 1984.[18] They were a cultural phenomenon between 1988 and 1992, with their images ubiquitous in advertising, cinema, comics, magazines, music, newspapers, and television.[19] Their action figures were top sellers around the world. In 1990, the cartoon series was shown on more than 125 television stations every day and the comic books sold 125,000 copies a month.[18] Their origin – flushed down the toilet and ending up in the sewer system – echoed contemporary stories of small reptiles that were flushed down toilets growing into fierce animals in city sewers.[19]

Turtles are also featured in the popular worldwide phenomenon Pokémon, with such creatures as Blastoise, Torkoal, Squirtle and Grotle.

Verne is a fictional turtle in the Over the Hedge merchendise. In the movie he is played by Gary Shandling. In the movie, Verne is shown as a tentative, cautious and neurotic turtle who considers himself the leader of a pack forest foragers. Verne calls his pack his "family"; Verne's family includes: Hammy the squirrel, Stella the skunk, Ozzie and Heather the opossums, Lou, Penny, Quillo, Spike and Bucky the porcupines. Verne is quite disturbed when he finds out that the humans settled over their forest while they were hibernating and misses his pristine forest a lot. Verne prefers to eat the primitive way, i.e. by foraging through the forest, unlike the other foragers who are led by RJ into the neighboring suburb to steal the humans' food. Verne is also particularly suspicious of RJ, because "his tail tingles everytime he gets near him (RJ)," which is supposed to indicate something wrong.

Although the foragers keep ignoring Verne's warnings about RJ, at one point even considering him to be jealous of RJ's cool antics, in the end they regret ignoring Verne after they figure out that Verne was right. RJ used the foragers to steal all the food for an angry bear (Vincent) and afterwards dumped the foragers, leaving them vulnerable to the traps of the hi-tech pest control specialist, the Verminator. However, later on RJ helps them escape from the Verminator's enclosures, and eventually saves them from Vincent, who hunted down the pest control van after RJ threw the wagon of food he gathered for the bear in front of the van in order to distract the Verminator and allow the foragers to escape from the enclosures inside the van. Near the end of the movie, Verne officially introduces RJ to the family, saying that "this (the primitive life) is the gateway to the good life"; RJ used the same phrase earlier in the movie when introducing the foragers to suburbia. In the comic strip, Verne has a girlfriend, first Velma and then Sheila the snail, and a cousin Plushie. However neither of those characters appear in the film.

Walt Kelly's Pogo featured a turtle named Churchy LeFemme, always afraid of Friday the 13th and usually wearing a pirate's hat.

Koopa Troopas (Japanese ノコノコ Nokonoko) are common, tortoise resembling, enemies in the Mario Series, usually displayed as footsoldiers under the direct leadership of Bowser. Since Super Mario 64, however many Koopas whom do not work for Bowser (or any other villain) have appeared, some of which even act as allies to Mario during his adventures. Koopa Troopas are turtle-like humanoids with shells that come in many different colors. Koopas, along with Goombas, are some of Mario's most persistent foes.

Other notable examples include:

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Cirlot, Juan-Eduardo, trans. Sage, Jack, 2002, A Dictionary of Symbols, Courier Dover Publications, ISBN 0-486-42523-1.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Ball, Catherine, 2004, Animal Motifs in Asian Art, Courier Dover Publications, ISBN 0-486-43338-2.
  3. ^ a b Lutz, Peter L., Musick, John A., and Wyneken, Jeanette, 2002, The Biology of Sea Turtles, CRC Press, ISBN 0-849-31123-3.
  4. ^ a b Garfield, Eugene, 1986, The Turtle: A Most Ancient Mystery. Part 1. Its Role in Art, Literature, and Mythology, Towards Scientography: 9 (Essays of An Information Scientist), Isis Press, ISBN 0-894-95081-9.
  5. ^ a b c d e Stookey, Lorena Laura, 2004, Thematic Guide to World Mythology, Greenwood Press, ISBN 0-313-31505-1.
  6. ^ a b Plotkin, Pamela, T., 2007, Biology and Conservation of Ridley Sea Turtles, Johns Hopkins University, ISBN 0-801-88611-2.
  7. ^ Green, Anthony and Black, Jeremy, 1992, Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia: an illustrated dictionary, University of Texas Press, ISBN 0-292-70794-0.
  8. ^ M. Monier-Williams, Indian Wisdom, p. 432
  9. ^ Allan, Sarah, 1991, The Shape of the Turtle: Myth, Art, and Cosmos in Early China, SUNY Press, ISBN 0-791-40459-5.
  10. ^ a b Moran, Elizabeth, Biktashev, Val and Yu, Joseph, 2002, Complete Idiot's Guide to Feng Shui, Alpha Books, ISBN 0-028-64339-9.
  11. ^ a b c Simoons, Frederick J., 1991, Food in China: A Cultural and Historical Inquiry, CRC Press, ISBN 0-849-38804-X.
  12. ^ Tresidder, Jack, 2005, The Complete Dictionary of Symbols, Chronicle Books, ISBN 0-811-84767-5.
  13. ^ Niwa, Motoji, 2001, trans, Thomas, Jay W., Snow, Wave, Pine: Traditional Patterns in Japanese Design, ISBN 4-770-02689-7.
  14. ^ a b c Smith-Marder, Paula, The Turtle and the Psyche, Journal of Psychological Perspectives, December 2006, 49, 2, p. 228-248, DOI: 10.1080/00332920600998262.
  15. ^ Goldstein, Jeffrey H., 1994, Toys, Play, and Child Development, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-45564-2.
  16. ^ Reichertz, Ronald, 1997, The Making of the Alice Books, McGill-Queen’s Press, ISBN 0-773-52081-3.
  17. ^ Lenburg, Jeff, 2006, Who's Who in Animated Cartoons: An International Guide to Film & Television, Hal Leonard, ISBN 1-557-83671-X.
  18. ^ a b Long, Mark A., 2002, Bad Fads, ECW Press, ISBN 1-550-22491-3.
  19. ^ a b Jones, Dudley, and Watkins, Tony, 2000, A Necessary Fantasy?: The Heroic Figure in Children's Popular Culture, Routledge, ISBN 0-815-31844-8.

Further reading[edit]

  • Kathleen Rodgers, Turtles in Literature (S&S Learning Materials, 1997).
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