Torpedo/Electric Ray, Rochester Bestiary, c.1230

The torpedo, or electric ray, is a fascinating sea creature with the power to make anything it touches go numb. Its electric shock is so powerful that even if someone prods it with a spear, it will still render the body of that person numb. Remarkably, its electric charge is so strong that it can even affect its own limbs. This mysterious power makes the torpedo both a marvel and a cautionary tale of nature’s electrical wonders.

Torpedo; corpus tangentis torpescere facit. Si
hasta quoque tangatur; corpus tangentis tor-
pescere facit. ita ut pedes tangentis illigari pu-
tentur. Tantaque vis eius est; ut etiam auro corpo-
ris sui afficiat membra.

The torpedo[1] causes the body that it touches to go numb. If anyone touches it with a spear, it makes the body that touches it go numb as well to the extent that even the feet of the person holding the spear might become numb. Its power is so great that it can even affect the limbs of its own body with its electric charge.

Further Reading

David Badke, The Bestiary Blog: Animals in the Middle Ages, Torpedo, November 6 2023, https://bestiary.ca/beasts/beast285.htm

Josh Goldenberg (BA 2012) and Matt Shanahan (BA 2014, Logeion, November 2022, https://logeion.uchicago.edu/

Castiglioni, L. and Mariotti, S. (1996). Vocabolario della Lingua Latina: Latino-Italiano Italiano-Latino. Terza Edizione. Loescher Torino

Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., Wikipedia: The Elephant, 28 November 2023, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant

Matthews, J. and Matthews C., (2010), The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures, HarperCollins UK, London

Curley, M. J., Physiologus: A Medieval Book of Nature Lore (University of Chicago edition 2009)

Rackham, H., M.A., Pliny Natural History Volume III, Libri VIII-XI (London: William Heinemann Ltd, 1949)

Collins, A. H., M.A., Symbolism of Animals and Birds (New York: McBride, Nast & Company, 1913)

Henderson, C., The Book of Barely Imagined Beings (London: University of Chicago Press, 2013)

White, T. H., The Bestiary: A Book of Beasts (New York: G.P Putnam’s Sons, 1960)

Barney, S. A., Lewis, W. J., Beach A., Berghof O., The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006)

Endnotes

This fish is also called electric ray. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_torpedo