Friday, February 24, 2012

Salamanders, Lava, Blood and Marco Polo and asbestos

So drinking around the Internet this morning and poking about in a new photo album my niece set up for me, I came across this pic...

 

I can not remember where its from. I'll find out I suppose. So anyway, that got me thinking about fire and lava and the mythology of that stuff. I'll get back to some of that in some other post. So, I look up salamander as its the only "fire" monster I can think of.

So as it turns out Pliny and Aristotle both ascribed fire extinguishing characteristics to the salamander. I don't know why.

But it seems to universal. Bathing in the blood of a salamander gives one protection from fire, wearing their skin does as well. And it goes on and one can find similar attributes as far away as china.

Where Marco polo once travelled.

He and others relate that one could by robes and such said to have been made of salamander skin and offered fire protection.

Apparently some robes were made from asbestos and were actually fire retardant. the Greeks buried kings in asbestos robes prior to burning them in order to keep the ashes together. Romans used asbestos napkins and cleaned them by throwing them into the fire.

 

Cool

 

 

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