Elephant
Elephants were known largely by reputation in the Middle Ages, and were seen as curious creatures of the East, like griffons and basilisks. However, there was a wealth of information about them gleaned from Latin literature and travel works such as The Travels of Marco Polo, which provided the source material for their inclusion in bestiaries. Some of the detail is surprisingly accurate, whereas other reported behavior is nothing short of fantasy. Medieval artists also had a fairly good idea of what they looked like, by strange contrast to confused renderings of more familiar creatures such as beavers.
Elephants are used by ‘Persians and Indians’ in war. Towers are built on their backs and javelins thrown from them as if from a castle. They use their proboscis (trunk) to carry food to their mouths, and defend themselves with ivory tusks. They are extremely intelligent, have long memories, and live for 300 years. They travel about in herds, like cattle, and are enormous, their name taken from the Greek word for mountain, eliphio. Their tusks have medicinal properties, and can be ground up and made into a drink for people who have haemorrhages, or burnt to ward off serpents.
Elephants have no joints in their knees, and so (like woodlice) are unable to get up if they fall over. When one does fall over a dozen of its friends first try to heave it back up, and a 13th arrives, which despite being small in stature can pick the fallen behemoth up by the trunk. In order to sleep they must lean against a sturdy tree. This sleeping habit, however, makes them vulnerable to hunters who use saws to weaken trees in order to make the elephant fall over, and slay them when they lie helpless on the ground.
Most interestingly, the male elephant has no desire to mate. When the female wishes to have a baby, she walks towards Paradise and eats some mandrake, taking some back to her mate. This plant seduces the male, who is then willing to procreate. The female elephant gives birth only in water because on land their young are vulnerable to dragons, which drink elephant blood to cool down their burning stomachs. The male also stands guard to prevent any potential fire-breathing infanticides from helping themselves to a chilled drink. Though capable of killing dragons, elephants are scared of mice.
The elephant’s peculiar method of mating made it a symbol of Adam and Eve. Like the elephants, they had no desire to copulate until Eve ate the Forbidden Fruit and then gave some to Adam, after which they were displeasing to God and ejected from Paradise. The 12 big elephants failing to pick up the fallen one represent the Hebrew Prophets, who could not raise up fallen man. The one little elephant who can do so represents Jesus, who was a misleadingly-humble and inglorious man physically who had the power to save all of mankind through the Crucifixion.