Talk:Roc (mythology)

Wasn't there some enormous flightless bird in Madagascar (Dinornis? Elephant-bird?)? -- Error

Is there some relation between the Roc and the Chinese 鹏 (Peng, which Unicode defines as a "fabulous bird of enormous size")? --Gro-Tsen 12:32, 2 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Possibly. That translation is an exotic one, and not commonly used. --Buddhasmom (talk) 18:32, 17 February 2008 (UTC)

See the page Kun for information on Peng. The animal in question was a shapeshifting fish/bird, and the bird form's size was never specified, so it's not really that likely. More likely might be a relationship with the Fenghuang, aka the Chinese Phoenix. 82.69.37.32 18:38, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

Rook / Rokh

The article mentions that "Rook" is from this mythological bird, or that it's from a siege-tower mounted on an elephant. The dominant hypothesis, i believe, is that "Rook" comes from the Persian for "chariot", thus corresponding with Indian / Chinese etc. versions of the chess piece. I'm making a change to reflect that. 82.69.37.32 11:31, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

Cruft

Is there anything in the following that adds one iota of understanding to the subject of this article (Wetman 17:29, 31 August 2006 (UTC)):

• A Roc is one of the mounts available in the online text-based game Legend of the Green Dragon.
• Roc and a Hard Place is the nineteenth book of the Xanth series by Piers Anthony which tells the story of Roxanne Roc, a virtuous bird charged with a crime.
• Roc is Monster in My Pocket #34.
• Rukh Egg is a card in Magic: The Gathering: Arabian Nights.
• The Roc's Feather is a recurring item in the Legend of Zelda video game series. When used it allowed Link to jump great heights, dodge enemy attacks and over certain pitfalls.
• Roc is a trainable mythological character in Age of Mythology, a popular PC game. It carries a birdcage-like object to transport other units.

Many, many articles on Wikipedia have a section similar to or exactly "Uses in popular culture," just like the one below. For example, see griffin which has a section "Griffins in Literature" I suggest adding it back to the main article. (Scottcmu 08:14, 1 September 2006)

Many, many articles in Wikipedia do need to be cleaned of similar childish junk that doesn't actually add anything to understanding their subjects. When they are separated as subsidiary articles, they are immediately put up as candidates for a vote for deletion: that really means something, doesn't it. Monster in My Pocket #34 may need a link to Roc (mythology), to explain what's up: the converse is not true. --Wetman 19:06, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

Wetman, there is no need to be condescending to the editors-at-large of Wikipedia. (Scottcmu 05:18, 4 September 2006)

There was nothing condescending in my remark describing the concept of relevance: it is simply not a reciprocal concept. I drew my obvious example from Pokemon so that we could all understand. --Wetman 09:42, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

Although I don't have any interest in either toy, Monster in My Pocket =/= Pokemon. If you read the articles, you'll see how different they are. I do agree, however, that the pop culture stuff doesn't really add to the article. But, some people like that kind of thing, and Wikipedia is quickly turning into a pop culture encyclopedia--Geekopedia if you will--rather than a cultured encyclopedia. See List of Naruto episodes for example. As if we really need that list... 24.14.198.8 17:49, 25 June 2007 (UTC) Chris G.

There's certainly room for everything in its place at Wikipedia. Infantile intrusions on articles covering serious topics are distracting from the genuine purpose of the articles, and their presence is undermining, sometimes I'm quite sure, intentionally so. --Wetman 09:49, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

"Often" white

I suppose this (spurious?) insertion was inspired by gazing upon the illustration from a children's version of "Sinbad the Sailor" we have for an illustration. In fact, is there any mention of the roc's white plumage? --Wetman 09:49, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

"This roc is a white bird, of a monstrous size; his strength is such, that he can lift up elephants from the plains, and carry them to the tops of mountains, where he feeds upon them." From the "Aldine" Edition of The Arabian Nights Entertainments, 1890 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 97.120.156.150 (talk) 01:30, 27 February 2022 (UTC)

Roc رخ in Arabic

in arabic we said frok - frak (small Chick) if you add just (f) to Roc it means the baby bird such as Falcon baby! رخ فرخ the word is used until today for the samll birds

http://www.baheth.info/all.jsp?term=فرخ Mewoone (talk) 18:45, 28 June 2010 (UTC)

Argentavis

I see my reference to the probable identity between the Roc and the giant flying bird Argentavis magnificens has been deleted. Could it be somebody interested in "mythology" doesn't want to consider the possibility - likelihood - that the factual descriptions by Marco Polo and others are good descriptions of a bird they actually saw, and not mythological at all? Although fossils found so far are a few million years old and from Argentina, it's no stretch to expect that such huge birds would have flown to all the continents and wouldn't have died out everywhere at once. The "piglike elephants" described would of course be Indonesian pygmy mammoths which also existed to a late date in these regions, notably on and around islands such as Komodo, where the giant "Komodo dragons" that also preyed on them still exist. craig at saers dot com. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.50.110.30 (talk) 17:39, 1 November 2013 (UTC)

Please do not begin accusing other editors of bias. As far as I can see, you have not yet provided a reliable source that explicitly claims the Argentavis is connected to the Roc. Without such a source, it looks as though you are simply coming up with your own original hypothesis. -- Fyrael (talk) 20:22, 1 November 2013 (UTC)

Pop culture reference

Was linked here from XKCD, and noticed the naming similarity with the Rakk giant bird creatures from the Borderlands video game series.

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Onomatopoeia?

I wonder if the name 'roc' is an onomatopoeic rendition of the cry of the elephant bird in Madagascar? Many large birds (especially raptors) go 'raack!' or similar. If so, the bird may have been extant when arab merchants got to Madagascar, or at least they recorded folk legends from the local people of the roc.

Related mythologies

• The "Ath Kadha Lihiniya" (Warana) of Sri Lankan mythology, a large elephant headed bird who hunted elephants and soared above casting a shadow as big as a cloud. A painting depicting the mythological creature can be found here https://www.facebook.com/prasannaweerakkody.paintings/photos/a.369401029798463/2935284129876794/?type=3&theater

(I added the above but was reverted. Just wondering why it was removed?) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dasiths (talk • contribs) 12:02, 18 June 2019 (UTC)