The cinnamon bird, also known as Cinnamologus, Cinomolgus, or Cynnamolgus is a mythical creature described in various bestiaries as a giant bird that collected

cinnamon Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several tree species from the genus ''Cinnamomum''. Cinnamon is used mainly as an aromatic condiment and flavouring additive in a wide variety of cuisines, sweet and savoury dishes, breakfa ...

to build its nests.

According to Herodotus

According to Herodotus in his ''The History'', the cinnamon bird inhabited Arabia, the only country known to produce cinnamon at the time. The giant cinnamon birds collected the cinnamon sticks from an unknown land where the cinnamon trees grew, and used them to construct their nests, fastened to sheer cliffs. The Arabians employed a trick to obtain the cinnamon. They cut

oxen An ox ( : oxen, ), also known as a bullock (in BrE British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Oxford Dictionaries, "English as used in Great Britain, as distinct from that used elsewhere". More narrowly, it can refer spec ...

and other

beasts of burden A working animal is an animal, usually domesticated, that is kept by humans and trained to perform tasks instead of being slaughtered to harvest animal products. Some are used for their physical strength (e.g. oxen and draft horses) or for t ...

into pieces, laid them near the birds' nests and withdrew to a distance; the birds were then tempted down to carry the chunks of meat back to their nests, where the weight of the carcasses broke them from the cliffs, leaving the Arabians to collect the fallen cinnamon.

According to Aristotle

In Aristotle's '' Historia Animalium'' (''History of Animals''), one of his works of natural history, he explains that the cinnamon bird brought the cinnamon from unknown locations to build its nest on the slender branches in the tops of high trees. The inhabitants of the bird's home attached leaden weights to their arrowtips to topple the nests, collecting the cinnamon sticks within. Aristotle referred to the bird as .

According to Pliny the Elder

Pliny the Elder adopted a more skeptical view of the cinnamon bird, erroneously named ''cinnamolgus''. He discredited Herodotus specifically and antiquity in general in his ''Naturalis historia'' (''Natural History'') by asserting that the tales were invented by the natives to raise the price of their commodities.

Other appearances in classical literature

*''De Natura Animalium'' (''On Animals'') by Claudius Aelianus *

Solinus Solinus may refer to: * Gaius Julius Solinus, a 3rd century Latin author * Solinus (horse), a British racehorse (1975–1979) * Solinus, Duke of Ephesus, a character in William Shakespeare's play ''The Comedy of Errors'' See also * Salinas (disam ...

' ''Collectanea Rerum Memorabilium'' (''Collection of Remarkable Facts'') *'' Physiologus'', a collection of moralized animal tales expanded upon over 1000 years *A Latin prose bestiary from the 12th century with Aristotle's version of the cinnamon bird *''How We Visited the Land of Satin'' from '' Gargantua and Pantagruel'' by

François Rabelais François Rabelais ( , , ; born between 1483 and 1494; died 1553) was a French Renaissance writer, physician, Renaissance humanist, monk and Greek scholar. He is primarily known as a writer of satire, of the grotesque, and of bawdy jokes and ...

, referred to as cinnamologi

References

* Nigg, Joseph. ''The Book of Fabulous Beasts: A Treasury of Writings from Ancient Times to the Present''. Oxford University Press, 1999. * Françoise Lecocq, ** « L’œuf du phénix. Myrrhe, encens et cannelle dans le mythe du phénix », ''L’animal et le savoir, de l’Antiquité à la Renaissance'', 2009, Presses univ. de Caen ; preprint on line : , p. 107-130

{{Bare URL PDF, date=May 2022 ** « ''Kinnamômon ornéon'' ou phénix ? L’oiseau, la viande et la cannelle », ''Prédateurs dans tous leurs états. Evolution, biodiversité, interactions, mythes, symboles'', XXXIe Rencontre Internationale d'Archéologie et d'Histoire d’Antibes, dir. J.-P. Brugal, A. Gardeisen, A. Zucker, Éditions APDCA, Antibes, 2011, p. 409–420. Legendary birds Greek legendary creatures Roman legendary creatures Cinnamon