Editing Salamander (section)

===Myth and legend===
{{Main|Cultural depictions of salamanders}}
[[File:A salamander unharmed in the fire.jpg|thumb|left|A salamander unharmed in the fire, 1350]]

Legends have developed around the salamander over the centuries, many related to fire. This connection likely originates from the tendency of many salamanders to dwell inside rotting logs. When the log was placed into a fire, the salamander would attempt to escape, lending credence to the belief that salamanders were created from flames.<ref name="Ashcroft">{{cite book | last= Ashcroft| first= Frances | title = Life at the Extremes: The Science of Survival | url= https://archive.org/details/lifeatextremes0000ashc| url-access= registration| publisher = University of California Press| year = 2002| page = [https://archive.org/details/lifeatextremes0000ashc/page/112 112]| isbn = 978-0-520-22234-2}}</ref>

The association of the salamander with fire appeared first in Antiquity with [[Aristotle]] (''History of Animals'' 5, 17) and with [[Pliny the Elder]] writing in his ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Natural History]] '' (10, 86) that "A salamander is so cold that it puts out fire on contact. It vomits from its mouth a milky liquid; if this liquid touches any part of the human body, it causes all the hair to fall off, and the skin to change color and break out in a rash."<ref>{{cite book | title=Natural History | author=Pliny the Elder | author-link=Pliny the Elder | year=c. 100 | pages=Book 10, 86 | url=http://bestiary.ca/beasts/beast276.htm | access-date=2014-01-08 | archive-date=2008-10-18 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081018032957/http://bestiary.ca/beasts/beast276.htm | url-status=live }}</ref> The ability to put out fire is repeated by [[Saint Augustine]] in the fifth century and [[Isidore of Seville]] in the seventh century.<ref>{{cite book | title=City of God | author=Saint Augustine | year=c. 500 | pages=Book 21, 4}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | url=http://bestiary.ca/beasts/beast276.htm | title=Etymologies | author=Isidore of Seville | year=c. 700 | pages=Book 12, 4:36 | access-date=2014-01-08 | archive-date=2008-10-18 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081018032957/http://bestiary.ca/beasts/beast276.htm | url-status=live }}</ref><!--(Salamander and Fire) ... mentioned in the [[Talmud]] and by [[Leonardo da Vinci]], [[Paracelsus]], [[Conrad Lycosthenes]], [[Benvenuto Cellini]] and [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]], and more recently by [[Victor Hugo]], [[Ray Bradbury]], [[David Weber]] and [[J. K. Rowling]]. Obviously each one of these would need a citation-->

[[File:Hanagami Danjo no jo Arakage fighting a giant salamander.jpg|thumbnail|upright|''[[Ukiyo-e]]'' print by [[Utagawa Kuniyoshi]] (1797–1861) depicting a giant salamander being stabbed by the [[samurai]] Hanagami Danjō no jō Arakage]]

The mythical ruler [[Prester John]] supposedly had a robe made from alleged salamander hair, in fact [[asbestos]] fibre, already known by ancient Greece and Rome (the ''linum vivum'' of [[Pliny the Elder]] ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Naturalis historia]]'', 19, 4).<ref>{{cite journal | doi=10.1179/004049603235001454 | title=Salamander's Wool: The Historical Evidence for Textiles Woven with Asbestos Fibre | date=2003 | last1=Browne | first1=Clare | journal=Textile History | volume=34 | pages=64–73 | s2cid=191599472 }}</ref> The "Emperor of India" possessed a suit made from a thousand skins; [[Pope Alexander III]] had a tunic which he valued highly and [[William Caxton]] (1481) wrote: "This Salemandre berithe wulle, of which is made cloth and gyrdles that may not brenne in the fyre."<ref name= White>{{cite book | last= White| first= T. H. | author-link=T. H. White | title=The Book of Beasts: Being a Translation From a Latin Bestiary of the Twelfth Century | year=1992 |orig-year=1954| pages= 183–184 | publisher=[[Alan Sutton]] |isbn=978-0-7509-0206-9}}</ref> The salamander was said to be so toxic that by twining around a tree, it could poison the fruit and so kill any who ate them and by falling into a well, could kill all who drank from it.<ref name="White"/>

Wealthy [[Persians]] amazed guests by cleaning a cloth by exposing it to [[fire]]. For example, according to [[Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari|Tabari]], one of the curious items belonging to [[Khosrow II]] Parviz, the great [[Sassanian]] king (r. 590–628), was a napkin ({{langx|fa|منديل}}) that he cleaned simply by throwing it into fire. Such cloth is believed to have been made of asbestos imported over the [[Hindu Kush]].<ref>New Encyclopædia Britannica (2003), vol. 6, p. 843</ref> According to [[Biruni#ref-16|Biruni]] in his book ''Gems'', any cloths made of asbestos ({{langx|fa|آذرشست}}, ''āzarshost'') were called ''shostakeh'' ({{langx|fa|شستكه}}).<ref>[[Dehkhoda Dictionary|Dehkhoda Persian Dictionary]]</ref> Some Persians believed the fiber was the fur of an animal called the ''[[Salamander (legendary creature)|samandar]]'' ({{langx|fa|سمندر}}), which lived in fire and died when exposed to water;<ref name="Ucalgary">{{cite web|url=http://www.iras.ucalgary.ca/~volk/sylvia/Asbestos.htm|title=University of Calgary|date=30 September 2001|publisher=Iras.ucalgary.ca|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091105005311/http://www.iras.ucalgary.ca/~volk/sylvia/Asbestos.htm|archive-date=5 November 2009|access-date=12 January 2010}}</ref><ref>[http://environmentalchemistry.com/yogi/environmental/asbestoshistory2004.html A Brief History of Asbestos Use and Associated Health Risks] EnvironmentalChemistry.com website</ref> this may be where the belief originated that the salamander could tolerate fire.<ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.wired.com/2014/08/fantastically-wrong-homicidal-salamander/|title=Fantastically Wrong: The Legend of the Homicidal Fire-Proof Salamander|magazine=WIRED|language=en-US|access-date=2016-05-03}}</ref> [[Charlemagne]], the first [[Holy Roman Emperor]] (800–814), is also said to have possessed such a tablecloth.<ref name="TIME1926">{{Cite magazine|date=29 November 1926|title=Science: Asbestos|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,729732,00.html|magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110131223759/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0%2C9171%2C729732%2C00.html|archive-date=31 January 2011|access-date=11 January 2011}}</ref>

[[Marco Polo]] recounts having been shown, in a place he calls ''Ghinghin talas'', "a good vein from which the cloth which we call of salamander, which cannot be burnt if it is thrown into the fire, is made&nbsp;..."<ref name="PoloMoule1938">{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/stream/descriptionofwor01polo#page/156/mode/2up/search/salamander|title=Marco Polo: the Description of the World: A.C. Moule & Paul Pelliot|last1=Polo|first1=Marco|author2=A C. Moule|author3=Paul Pelliot|publisher=G. Routledge & Sons|year=1938|pages=156–57|access-date=31 January 2013}}</ref>

In his [[autobiography]], [[Benvenuto Cellini]] relates:

{{blockquote|When I was about five, my father was sitting alone in one of our small rooms, singing and playing his viol. Some washing had just been done there and a good log fire was still burning. It was very cold, and he had drawn near the fire. Then, as he was looking at the flames, his eye fell on a little animal, like a lizard, that was running around merrily in the very hottest part of the fire. Suddenly realizing what it was, he called my sister and myself and showed it to us. And then he gave me such a violent box on the ears that I screamed and burst into tears. At this he calmed me as kindly as he could and said: 'My dear little boy, I didn't hit you because you had done wrong. I only did it so that you will never forget that the lizard you saw in the fire is a salamander, and as far as we know for certain no one has ever seen one before.'<ref>{{Cite book|last=Cellini|first=Benvenuto|title=The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini|publisher=Penguin Books|year=1998|isbn=0140447180|location=England|pages=34}}</ref>}}

The Japanese giant salamander has been the subject of legend and artwork in Japan (e.g. the ''[[ukiyo-e]]'' work by [[Utagawa Kuniyoshi]]). The well-known Japanese mythological creature known as the [[Kappa (folklore)|''kappa'']] may be inspired by this salamander.<ref>{{cite episode | title = River Monsters | series = Programme 6, Series 3 | credits = Director: Duncan Chard | network = [[ITV (TV network)|ITV]] | station = [[ITV1]] | airdate = 2012-02-14 }}</ref>