sea serpent

1. an enormous, imaginary, snakelike or dragonlike marine animal.

2. (caps.) Astron. the constellation Hydra.

[1640-50]

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▪ mythology

      mythological and legendary marine animal that traditionally resembles an enormous snake. The belief in huge creatures that inhabited the deep was widespread throughout the ancient world. In the Old Testament there are several allusions to a primordial combat between God and a monstrous adversary variously named Leviathan or Rahab. Although the references to Leviathan usually indicate a dragon-like creature, the name has also been used to denote a sea monster in general (see dragon). Analogies to this combat are found throughout the ancient Middle East. Babylonian literature records a battle between the god Marduk and the multi-headed serpent-dragon Tiamat, and in Hittite myth the weather god is victorious over the dragon Illuyankas. Similarly, a Canaanite poem from Ras Shamra (ancient Ugarit) in northern Syria records a battle between the god Baal and a monster called Leviathan.

      Although tales of sea serpents have continued to exist throughout the centuries, no animal has been captured so far that has not proved to belong to a previously well-known group. A large number of the well-authenticated stories of monstrous marine creatures seem to be explicable as incorrect observations of animals already well known. For example, a number of porpoises swimming one behind the other and rising regularly to take air might produce the appearance of a very large serpentlike creature progressing by a series of vertical undulations. Large masses of seaweed half awash often have been mistaken for some gigantic animal. Basking sharks, nemertines (marine worms), ribbonfish or oarfish (Regalecus), and sea lions have also been suggested as explanations of some so-called sea serpents.

      Giant squids (squid) (Architeuthis species) are presumably the foundation on which many accounts are based; these animals, which may attain a total length of 50 feet (15 metres), occasionally frequent the regions from which many accounts of sea serpents have come—Scandinavia, Denmark, the British Isles, and the eastern coasts of North America. One of these animals swimming at the surface with two enormously elongate arms trailing along through the water would produce almost exactly the picture that many of the strangely consistent independent accounts require: a general cylindrical shape with a flattened head, appendages on the head and neck, a dark colour on top and a lighter shade beneath, progression steady and uniform, body straight but capable of being bent, and spouting water. Further, sperm whales are known to kill and devour Architeuthis, and one of the most graphic accounts of the sea serpents speaks of it as in conflict with a whale around which it had thrown two coils and which it ultimately dragged below the surface.

      The history of sightings of freshwater “monsters” is lengthy, especially those of Loch Ness in northern Scotland. They have been the object of much investigation, all of it remaining inconclusive.

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