Field of Dreams

Let your imagination fly, swim and run wild with the Field Museum’s “Mythic Creatures” exhibition

By Paul M. Banks

The overwhelmingly popular new Field Museum exhibition “Mythic Creatures: Dragons, Unicorns & Mermaids” highlights the most extraordinary creatures of the human imagination by organizing them according to their homes within the basic elements of our planet: earth, wind and water.

Mythic Creatures features fossils of prehistoric animals and preserved specimens to both investigate and illustrate how they could have — through imagination, speculation and even fear — inspired the development of legendary beings. Paintings, life-size models and cultural objects from around the world shed light on the ways natural history has moved people to depict strange and wonderful creatures. Because of the immense popularity of the “Harry Potter” and “Lord of the Rings” franchises, expect a big demand all summer long.

Land Rover
There are interactive exhibits here. Using touch-screens, you can create your own dragon and then watch it come to life in a virtual environment. Scale models of mammoth bones can be rearranged into a giant human skeleton, and Protoceratops bones can be transposed into a griffin. In the “Creatures of Land” section, extraordinary beings seem to blend a number of different animals to create a fabulous griffin. This colossal beast, part eagle and part lion, was possibly inspired when Scythian miners in southeastern Europe discovered the fossil of a Protoceratops, a four-legged, beaked dinosaur, around 2,000 years ago. On display is the skeleton of a Protoceratops, discovered by Roy Chapman Andrews, as well as an Egyptian statuette of a griffin, circa 150 CE.

The ever-popular unicorn is also featured here. Of course, unicorns are too “girly” for me, so I didn’t spend much time on them. Most of the mythic creatures explored in this exhibit have ancient roots going back hundreds or even thousands of years, but the Chupacabra is an exception. This very new mythical creature, whose name means “goat sucker” in Spanish, started gaining notoriety in the late 1980s. Stories of the creature’s glowing red eyes and vicious fangs, as well as its penchant for drinking the blood of farm animals, are told today throughout Latin America and the southwestern United States.

Air Raid
In this section, visitors discover the fabled winged horse, Pegasus, from Greek mythology; and they have the opportunity to view several artifacts, including an Egyptian scarab with the image of a bird that resurrects itself: the precursor to the Phoenix. Overhead is an 11-foot-long Roc with a wingspan of nearly 20 feet and huge talons possessing the ability to pick up and carry an elephant. I also came face to face with an old friend from my freshman year of college: Quetzalcoatl, the “feathered serpent,” worshipped by the ancient Aztecs. During my first year at the University of Illinois, choices for advanced electives were sparse. Therefore, I enrolled in an Aztec Civilization course and spent a lot of my Champaign-Urbana days with a list of vocabulary words that had more Xs, Vs and Zs in them than the product of a giant pharmaceutical corporation. Quetzalcoatl was linked to the movement of the planet Venus and was often depicted with sharp fangs, a fiery gaze, a snake’s body and the deep green feathers of the quetzal, a tropical bird.

Water World
Mermaids are possibly the most popular and intriguing creatures across all cultures. And therefore, they occupy their own section in the exhibition. In Europe, Africa and the Americas, mermaids, or “Mama Wata,” are a personification of the sea itself: powerful, seductive and dangerous. Stories and images of mermaids were transported to the Americas by sailors and slaves who spoke of beautiful, oceanic women. Captain John Smith of “Pocahontas” fame, described the mermaid he supposedly saw as “by no means unattractive.” The exact same can be said of the chesty and topless masthead mermaid on display here. Also, this exhibit reminded me that the “Little Mermaid” story was actually a novel written in Danish by Hans Christian Andersen long before it was an animated Disney musical.

Unleash the Dragon
The most famous of mythic creatures, dragons, have a separate section. Dragons remind me of White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen in that both are creatures reviled by some and worshipped by others. Many fear what comes out of the mouth of both. Dragons are regarded in very different roles in the cultures of Asia, Europe and the Americas. In Asia, dragons fill the sky every spring, move the seasons and control the waters of rivers, lakes and seas. The ocean floor is where they sleep in wintertime. The dragon is the Imperial symbol of China, with the Emperor being to humans what the dragon is to all other animals: absolute supreme ruler. A 120-foot-long Chinese parade dragon, recently used in New York City’s Chinatown at a Lunar New Year celebration, looms overhead.

In Europe, however, the dragon is a powerfully wicked and dangerous creature that nests in caves guarding treasure, capturing princesses and devouring sheep. In tales like “Beowulf,” the dragon is usually slain by a brave and virtuous knight representing the ultimate battle of good versus evil.

“There is a lot of iconography and allegory associated with dragons, and that allows it to be a very popular creature,” said Tom Skwerski, Field Museum project manager for exhibitions. “From sea serpents to komodo dragons, there’s a great deal of imagination that goes into them.”

I agree with Emily J. Waldren, the museum’s public relations coordinator, in that the final dragon nesting at the exit looks to be female. She looks to have eye shadow on and resembles the female dragon from “Shrek.” The audio tour I’m listening to brings up this animated film dragon at exactly the same time. Perhaps the narrator sees what we see.

Tickets to “Mythic Creatures: Dragons, Unicorns & Mermaids” include Field Museum admission and are priced at $22 for adults, $19 for seniors and students with ID and $12 for children 4-11. Discounts are available for Chicago residents. Visit www.fieldmuseum.org or call (312) 922-9410 for details. The Field Museum is located at 1400 S. Lake Shore Drive, and the exhibit runs through Sept. 1.

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