Have I missed something? What the bejesus is a ketos?

I hate people who take happiness out of causing others misery.

Ketos is a long necked, aquatic sea monster/dragon believed in all over the mediterranean world and became the prototype for the dragons in medieval art. Jesus called the creature that swallowed Jonah a Ketos. Nessie may be a Ketos, as "she" even is described having a mane like these creatures.

Oh. Thankyou.

Why do I feel that this KETOS somehow resembled a kelpie?

Draconic Chronicler, I'm very interested in your writings and your upcoming book. Should I want them, can I get it here in Indonesia? Might've been a good reference. I was on the lake, you see, and it was cold and softly breezing. I didn't see any motion on the water but I'm pretty sure, if there is something underneath the lake, it won't be Plesiosaurs, not even an evolved plesiosaur that allowed its neck to stand upright. Plesiosaur is staying well off by bottom feeding and fish feeding...why a neck upright?

I was thinking, you know...ever heard of Henodus? What if the animal within the lake is a actually a surviving Henodus of a sort...or maybe a Tanystropheus?

I doubt it was either... and why compare them? They are radically different animals!

Henodus:
Tanystropheus:

Well, I'm just making a guess, and unscientific one at that...thanx SJOD!

Well i gotta say ancient people were pretty terrible at interpreting sealife. I've seen depictions of sharks as looking like dogs with flippers, similar to that Jonah statue. I think it's pretty hard to use these ancient depictions as accurate evidence.

That's nonsense. Look at the rest of the sea life in the Jonah mosaic. The fish are so detailed you can identify the species, and this is typical of most anceint marine mosaics. These people were intimately familiar with the sea, which makes such a firm belief in this often maned, "nessie-like" creature so interesting.

These mosaics sometimes also depict sharks, and the sharks look like real animals. If you see a sea creature with clawed feet it is not a shark, it is a Ketos, or "sea dragon". Some look very "realistic" probably by people who have seen such a creature, and others are more stylized, taking attributes of the only carnivores the artist is familiar with, like a wolf, and then making it into an aquatic animal by giving it a fish-like tail.

If any of the ancient artists that depicted the Jonah story believed the creature was a whale or fish, it would have been depicted as such. They depicted it as a sea dragon/ketos because the New Testament scriptures calaim that it was Jesus called it. This creature was part of that culture for centuries, and everyone back then understood what he meant. And it made more sense than the modern Christian interpetation, for the ancients believed this was an intelligent servant creature that could delibarately preserve the life of a human, unlike a whale, shark or fish.
But back to topic, many of these creatures look just like descriptions of "nessie".

We know Plesiosaur was sometimes a bottom feeder becasue of the shellfish in its stomach, though the long sharp teeth suggest fish in its diet as well. It was always silly to claim Nessie is a plesiosaur becasue the lake was not even there in the Cretaceous, but the plesosaur shape could be assumed by other animals becasue it was a succesful body design. This is why there is the Tanystropheiu. In fact, the short necked Mososaur body was very succesful, so one type of Plesiosaur evolved into the pliosaurs, which look a bit like Mosasaurs but are entirely different animals. Also compare the similarities between the Ichthyosaur and dolphin. This called convergent evolution, so Nessie could be a mammal that assumed this highly succesful body shape, or a warmblooded archosaur.

But it is foolish to think that a "tradition" Nessie type periscoping neck would be unsuitable for fishing. You need only look at most of the birds that catch fish, such as pelicans, herons, commorants, etc, all with a long "Nessie" type neck. And then there are many land dwelling carnivorous dinosaurs with such a long neck, and some of these may have been semi aquatic.

Yes, a Kelpie might be a Ketos, but in the celtic culture. Both, like Nessie seem to have stringy manes in some accounts.

The book will be an Ebook as well so anyone anywhere will be able to read it. I will also have a website with a forum for discussions. I'll mention it when it is ready, I hope soon now, but always a new bit of infomation is discovered that must be included.

what are your thoughts on other mythological beasts such as the kraken? which was probably the giant squid by the way. . .

Forgive me DC, but I think the question hasn't been answered(from what I've read)...If it IS a Ketos...what is it doing here? Shouldn't it be in "heaven"? Again, forgive me if you've answered this question already.

what about the kraken?

In reference to Loch Ness?.... ......Ships haven't gone missing, just people claiming to have seen SOMETHING.....on The Kraken, Im'ma gonna have to go with nooooooooo.

During the exact Dark Ages time period Nessie if first reported, the Christian population of the former Roman province of Britain was being decimated by invading Saxons. This would have been an ideal location to destroy saxon raiders coming from the north sea into the channel. All would not have been destroyed, but a few Ketos, or even one would have evened the odds. All of these northern raiders see,ed to have had a terror of "Sea dragons", and often decorated the prows of their ships with similar dragons in hopes of frightening the real ones. Perhaps the one or more in the Loch never received the recall order, or was allowed to stay if they stayed out of "mischief."

Interesting theory....as far as it "staying out of mischief", I'm not so sure that it's holding-up it's side of the bargain....theoretically.