The turtle has a prominent position as a symbol of important concepts in religion, mythology, and folklore from around the world, including steadfastness and tranquility. Turtles appear in rock art in many places around the world, including polychrome paintings at
Dhambalin in
Somaliland, dated to ca 5000-3000 BCE; and petroglyphs at such places as
Ute Tribal Park, Mancos Canyon,
Colorado (ca 1000 years old),
Easter Island or Rapa Nui and
Murujuga or the Burrup Peninsula in
Western Australia. The psychoanalyst
Carl Gustav Jung interpreted the turtle as the primordial chaos, the alchemical
massa confusa, noting that the Hindi
Trimurti has a turtle at the bottom, from which everything else grows through transformation.
Africa In tales told by a number of African ethnic groups, the
tortoise is the cleverest animal. Turtle fossils are the most common reptiles found in the
Fayoum, including
Gigantochersina ammon, a tortoise as large as those living on the Galapagos Islands today. Predynastic slate palettes represent freshwater (soft carapace,
Trionyx triunguis) turtles, as does the hieroglyph for "turtle", 𓆉,in which the animal is always represented from above. were commonly made in the shapes of turtles. A
stone vase in the form of a turtle was found in
Naqada. The earliest representations of the Nile turtle are from pre-dynastic times; they had magical significance and were meant to ward off evil. Amulets and objects depicting the turtles represent them as a force to defend health and life. Many relics from the Middle Kingdom such as magical knives depicted turtles and were inscribed to protect the women and children of the house. Among Ptah's many creatures, Shetyw was neither especially remarkable nor esteemed. Though excluded from lists of animal offerings to the deities, there are nevertheless great quantities of turtle bones at the great ceremonial complex at Heirakonpolis in Upper Egypt. Sacrifices of turtles may have served some ritual or liturgical purpose within the ancient Egyptian ceremonial system. As an aquatic animal, the turtle was associated with the Underworld. The turtle was associated with
Set, and so with the enemies of
Ra who tried to stop the solar barque as it traveled through the underworld. Since the XIXth Dynasty, and particularly in the Late and Greco-Roman periods, turtles were ritually speared by kings and nobles as evil creatures. An ointment made from the brain of a turtle was the treatment for squinting. Parts of turtles were used to grind eye paint, which was applied both as a cosmetic and to protect eyes from infection and over-exposure to sun, dust, wind, and insects. The flesh of
Trionyx was eaten from Predynastic times to as late as the Old Kingdom; later the flesh of turtles began to be considered an "abomination of Ra" and the animals were thought of as evil. Turtle carapaces and scutes from Red Sea turtles (
Eretmochelys imbricata) were used in rings,
bracelets, dishes, bowls, knife hilts, amulets, and combs. Carapaces from
Kleinmann's tortoise were used as sounding boards for lutes, harps and mandolins. , Cambodia, shows
Samudra manthan-Vishnu in the center and his turtle
Avatar Kurma below While eaten in
Predynastic, Archaic, and Old Kingdom periods, turtles were used only for medicinal purposes after the Old Kingdom. Carapaces were used well into the
New Kingdom. In reliefs and paintings of the Old, Middle, and Early New Kingdoms, the turtle is depicted rarely, and as an innocuous reptile. After Dynasty XIX, the turtle is usually depicted as a malignant creature associated with
Apophis and subject to
ritual extermination. In Predynastic and Archaic times, objects of daily use, such as cosmetic palettes, dishes, and vessels, were made in the shapes of turtles, while after the Old and Middle Kingdoms representations of turtles are more often found on amuletic objects and furniture. After the Middle Kingdom, the turtle's shape is rarely associated with any object which would come into close contact with a person, reflecting the increasing explicit hostility shown to turtles in scenes and texts.
Ancient Mesopotamia In ancient
Mesopotamia, the turtle was associated with the god
Enki and was used on
kudurrus as one of Enki's symbols. In the myth of
Ninurta and the Turtle, Enki thwarts an attempt by the god
Ninurta to seize absolute power by creating a giant turtle and releasing it behind Ninurta, so it bites the hero's ankle.
Ancient Greece and Rome , and with her foot resting on a tortoise (
Musée du Louvre).One of
Aesop's fables is
The Tortoise and the Hare. The tortoise was the symbol of the ancient Greek city of
Aegina, on the island by the same name: the seal and coins of the city shows images of tortoises. The word Chelonian comes from the Greek
Chelone, a tortoise god.
Aphrodite Ourania, is draped rather than
nude Aphrodite with her foot resting on a tortoise at
Musée du Louvre. The playwright
Aeschylus was said to have been killed by a tortoise dropped by a bird. A massive sea turtle is used by the bandit
Sciron to dispose of his victims after he pushes them into the sea. Sciron is defeated by Theseus pushing him into the sea before being eaten by the turtle. In Hermes' origin story, the
Homeric Hymn to Hermes,
Hermes invented the
Lyre by killing a turtle or a tortoises and using its shell. In the account of Zeus and Hera's wedding, the
nymph Chelone, was disinclined to leave her house to attend, so Zeus, or Hermes on Zeus' behalf, threw Chelone and her house, which stood on the bank of a river, into the water, and transformed her into a lazy tortoise, who had henceforth to carry her house on her back, to punish her.
Asia Malaysia Ketupat penyu is made from a
coconut leaf to appear like a turtle. It is used in a ritual to banish the ghosts in Malay traditional medicine.
China For the Chinese, the tortoise is sacred and symbolizes longevity, power, and tenacity. It is said that the tortoise helped
Pangu (also known as P'an Ku) create the world: the creator goddess
Nuwa or Nugua cuts the legs off a sea turtle and uses them to prop up the sky after
Gong Gong destroys the mountain that had supported the sky. The flat plastron and domed carapace of a turtle parallel the ancient Chinese idea of a flat earth and domed sky. For the Chinese as well as the Indians, the tortoise symbolizes the universe. Quoting Pen T'sao, "the upper dome-shaped part of its back has various signs, which correspond with the constellations on the sky, and this is Yan; the lower part has many lines, which relate to the earth and is the Yin. The tortoise and the tiger are the only real animals of the four, although the tortoise is depicted with supernatural features such as dragon ears, flaming tentacles at its shoulders and hips, and a long hairy tail representing seaweed and the growth of plant parasites found on older tortoise shells that flow behind the tortoise as it swims. The Chinese believe that tortoises come out in the spring when they change their shells, and hibernate during the winter, which is the reason for their long life. with the
tiger,
phoenix, and
dragon representing the other three elements. According to the principles of
feng shui the rear of the home is represented by the Black Tortoise, which signifies support for home, family life, and personal relationships. A tortoise at the back door of a house or in the backyard by a pond is said to attract good fortune and many blessings. Three tortoises stacked on top of each other represent a mother and her babies. The tortoise is a symbol of longevity. In
Hinduism,
Akupara is a
tortoise who carries the world on his back, upholding the Earth and the sea.
Vietnam in
Hanoi,
Vietnam. Many legends of
Vietnam connect closely to the turtle. During the time of
Emperor Yao in China, a Vietnamese King's envoy offered a sacred turtle (Vietnamese:
Thần Quy) which was carved in
Khoa Đẩu script on its carapace writing all things happening from the time Sky and Earth had been born. Yao King ordered a person to copy it and called it Turtle Calendar. Another legend told that
Kim Quy Deity (Golden Turtle Deity) came into sight and crawled after
An Dương Vương's pray. Following the Deity's foot prints, An Dương Vương built
Cổ Loa Citadel as a spiral. An Dương Vương was given a present of Kim Quy Deity's claw to make the trigger (Vietnamese:
lẫy), one part of the
crossbow (Vietnamese: nỏ) named
Linh Quang Kim Trảo Thần Nỏ that was the military secret of victorious
Zhao Tuo. A 15th-century legend tells that
Lê Lợi returned his sacred sword named
Thuận Thiên (Heaven's Will) to
Golden Turtle in
Lục Thủy lake after he had defeated the
Ming army. That is why
Lục Thủy lake was renamed Sword Lake (Vietnamese: Hồ Gươm) or Returning Sword lake (
Hoàn Kiếm Lake). This action symbolizes taking leave of weapons for peace.
Taiwan In Taiwanese villages, paste cakes of flour shaped like turtles are made for festivals that are held in honor of the lineage patron deity. People buy these cakes at their lineage temple and take them home to assure prosperity, harmony, and security for the following year. For this reason many Indigenous peoples of the continent refer to it as
Turtle Island. Use of term "Turtle Island" for the North American continent expanded beyond those groups carrying these story traditions into more widespread pan-Indigenous use during
Indigenous rights activism in the 1970s. Most turtles have thirteen scales, or
scutes, on the backs of their shells. In many Native American cultural traditions these scutes represented the thirteen full moons in each year, including those of the
Haudenosaunee, the
Anishinaabe other related
Algonquian peoples, and the
Wabanaki/Abenaki. In
Cheyenne tradition, the great creator spirit Maheo kneads some mud he takes from a
coot's beak until it expands so much that only Old Grandmother Turtle can support it on her back. In
Haudenosaunee tradition, the trembling or shaking of the Earth is thought of as a sign that the World Turtle is stretching beneath the great weight that she carries.) In most versions of this story, this takes place after a
Great Flood covers the world, and the land created on Turtle's back is the first to re-emerge, on which the Anishinaabeg will live from then on.
South America Turtles are beloved by many Indigenous South American cultures and have thus entered their mythologies. According to many of these myths, the Jebuti (, , "land turtle") obtained its mottled shell in a fall to earth as it attempted to reach the heavens with the help of an eagle in order to play a flute at a celebration there.
Oceania In the Tahitian islands, the tortoise is the shadow of the gods and the lord of the oceans. In
Polynesia the tortoise personifies the war god Tu. Drawing tattoo marks of a tortoise was a traditional custom among warriors. In a story from
Admiralty Islands, people are born from eggs laid by the World Turtle. There are many similar creation stories throughout
Polynesia. File:Armband, Papua New Guinea, hawksbill sea turtle shell, sennit and natural pigments, Honolulu Academy of Arts.JPG|Turtle Armband, Papua New Guinea File:Rock-painting-turtle.jpg|Rock-painting-turtle, Kakadu National Park, Australia File:Possibly echidna from aboriginal art.JPG|Turtle or echidna in Aboriginal art File:Sea turtle - Google Art Project.jpg|Sea turtle, Australia ==Religion==