This is the best title for an Ovarit post that I've ever seen! LOLOL.

Also, fascinating article. Thanks for sharing.

I wonder if snails having their own "suit of armor" has anything to do with it.

Snails

It never fails, those pesky snails

are always in the pudding.

Lousy guests, those nasty pests,

they're always up to something.

I've tried like mad to find their nest

but snails are smart I must confess.

The trails they leave can fool the best,

and snails are good at hiding.

Oh well, at least they don't make threats,

they don't eat meat,

they don't place bets,

they almost always pay their debts

and never puff on cigarettes.

I think I'll keep those snails as pets

and feed them lots of pudding.

~Calef Brown

There's something innately hilarious about going to battle against large warlike snails. I think these illustrations need to come back to books. I'd love to see a mainstream author demand these kinds of illustrations in their book margins.

My first guess would have been that it was related to the deadly cone snail! I could certainly see how a few unlucky fishermen or such would inspire mythology about snails. But I think I like more the idea that they just thought it was funny.

Obviously, the imagery is simply charming I remember learning about this quite a while back and how delightful I found it.

The other issue is how the meaning of specific things are lost to time. My husband was reading Don Quixote and it was a translation from the 18th century (I think). Anyway, in the footnotes, the translator/editor mentions that he has no idea what is being referenced in specific passages, it’s thought to be some current politician or public figure, but it’s lost to time. Then the 20th century footnotes point out that the translator’s footnotes have citations which a modern reader can’t decipher and that’s just for a couple hundred years!

And all if that coincided during the pandemic with that ZOOM call where the lawyer had a cat superimposed on his face and was saying, “Your honor, I am NOT a cat.” It still makes me laugh, but when will these current ephemera float away?

Bet they admired them for their natural armor 🐌

Very interesting. I do quite like Western manuscripts, they're quite lovely. I wonder if there are any Roman examples of the same snail phenomenon

I thought this was going to be related to that snail copypasta from Reddit