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![]() An artist's impression of a peryton | |
Creature information | |
---|---|
Other name(s) | Winged stag |
Grouping | Fantasy creatures |
Sub grouping | Hybrid |
Similar entities | Furfur, Hippogriff, Pegasus |
Folklore | Fakelore |
Origin | |
Country | Atlantis (fictional origin) |
Region | Fictional |
Habitat | Fictional lands, Atlantis, Fantasy realms |
Details | A fictional hybrid combining the features of a stag and a large bird. Said to cast a human shadow until it kills a person, whereupon it begins casting its own shadow. |
The peryton is a fictional hybrid animal combining the physical features of a stag and a bird. The peryton was invented by Jorge Luis Borges in his 1957 Book of Imaginary Beings, using the fictional device of a supposedly long-lost medieval manuscript.
Some historical versions of the heraldry of King Charles VI of France featured winged stags as heraldic supports, [1] as did some versions of the late medieval battle standard of the Dukes of Bourbon. [2]
The peryton is said to have the head, neck, forelegs and antlers of a stag, combined with the plumage, wings and hindquarters of a large bird, although some interpretations portray the peryton as a deer in all but coloration and bird's wings.
According to Borges, perytons lived in Atlantis until an earthquake destroyed the civilization and the creatures escaped by flight. A peryton casts the shadow of a human until it kills one during its lifetime, at which time it starts to cast its own shadow. Some descriptions of the peryton allege that a sibyl once prophesied that the perytons would lead to the downfall of Rome. [3]
Radioastronomer Sarah Burke-Spolaor gave the name peryton to a class of radio signals of terrestrial origin that mimic fast radio bursts – pulses that appear to originate outside our galaxy. The signals Burke observed demonstrated some properties that appeared man-made and some that appeared natural. [4] These perytons were found to be the result of premature opening of a microwave oven door, which released a frequency-swept radio pulse, which mimiced a fast radio burst, as the magnetron turned off. [5]
Perytons have made appearances in modern literature and games.