{{For, the grass moth genus, Pyrausta (moth)
Pyrausta or pyrallis (πυραλλίς) (also called in Greek pyrigonos) is a
mythological
Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrat ...
insect from
Cyprus
Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...
. It is a four-legged insect with filmy wings. It lived in the fire like a
salamander
Salamanders are a group of amphibians typically characterized by their lizard-like appearance, with slender bodies, blunt snouts, short limbs projecting at right angles to the body, and the presence of a tail in both larvae and adults. All ten ...
and died if it went away from the fire.
Janssens identifies it with the
Melanophila acuminata
''Melanophila acuminata'', known generally as the black fire beetle or fire bug, is a species of metallic wood-boring beetle in the family Buprestidae. It is found in the Caribbean, Europe and Northern Asia (excluding China), Central America, No ...
.
See also
*
Salamanders in folklore
The salamander is an amphibian of the order Urodela which, as with many real creatures, often has been ascribed fantastic and sometimes occult qualities by pre-modern authors (as in the allegorical descriptions of animals in medieval bestiaries) no ...
*
Dragons in Greek mythology
Dragons play a significant role in Greek mythology. Though the Greek ''drakōn'' often differs from the modern Western conception of a dragon, it is both the etymological origin of the modern term and the source of many surviving Indo-European m ...
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic '' ...
Book 11, Chapter 42 ; the Latin text reads ''pyral(l)is'' and either ''pyrausta'' or ''pyrotocon''.
* Aelian, ''On the nature of animals'' 2, 2 : ''pyrigonos''.
* Em. Janssens, "Le « pyrotocon » de Pline l'Ancien", ''Latomus'', 9, fasc. 3 (juillet-septembre 1950), pp. 283-286 (Société d'Études Latines de Bruxelles).
Greek dragonsGreek legendary creaturesMythological insects