Carthaginian war elephant by Zig Zlick on deviantART…
I first thought of putting together this image collection about war elephants months ago, when listening to In Our Time with Melvin Bragg, in which he and guests were talking about Hannibal of Carthage and his invasion of Italy, 218-203 BC.
Hannibal, son of Hamilcar, is famous for leading his army, which included war elephants, across the Pyrenees and Alps from what is now Spain. For all his fame, he used elephants only briefly and they had first been utilised in India, by at least the 4th century BC, the battle elephant idea spreading from there to the Mediterranean in the west and to the Far East.
There’s a certain sadness in using a living creature as a weapon, especially one as intelligent-seeming as the elephant. And especially when it is out of its comfort zone and risks falling into Alpine crevasses…
Hannibal’s crossing of the Alps was not without incident! Original picture source unknown – image from Wikimedia Commons…
You can find out more about what was called the Second Punic War on one of the links I have highlighted, but for now I will stick with some images of armoured and richly-caparisoned elephants. Quite a few are from the excellent deviantART website. In every case click on the picture to go to the original source…
Hannibal’s war elephants by Miguel Coimbra…
Rather cute ‘Realistic’ Battle of Cannae (one of Hannibal’s victories) by Tarmo Flake…
Hannibal had African elephants (Loxodonta africana), small African forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis) and big, imported Indian elephants (Elephas maximus). One of the big Indian elephants was called The Syrian and had a bronze tusk. As a child at the zoo I always recognised African elephants by their bigger ears, although there are other differences.
Here are some more Africans…
War Elephant by Kory Hamaker…
Beautifully-drawn war elephant by ~marvel10…
War elephant by H-Ell…
Stylised war elephant by Vitogoni…
And here are some Indian battle elephants…
Indian armour now in the Royal Armouries in Leeds, England, from Random Acts…
Sinhala war elephant by Prasanna Weerakkody…
This painting from the 16th century Book of Akbar shows war elephant Citranand attacking another, Udiya, during the Mughal campaign against rebel forces in 1567…
King Naresuan of Siam also used war elephants in his battles to overturn Burmese rule of his country (now called Thailand) in the 16th century.
Memorial to King Naresuan the Great at Don Chedi, Thailand – image by Lek…
Then there is a world of fantasy war elephants…
Brother of Conflict by Ashley Luttrell – click on the image to see the Lord Byron poem this is based on…
War elephant after battle from the Deadliest Fiction Wiki…
A war mammoth – click on the picture to see how Mark Bulahao created this image…
Incredibly HUGE four-tusked oliphants from Lord of the Rings…
More fantasy four-tuskers, by Afda Trihatma…
Fantasy war elephant in iridescent insect colours by ~carnivore-art…
Armed to the tusk – Foggy Night for Ambush by Izzal Suhaimi…
I’m not sure if this one looks Aztec or Japanese Samurai – a war elephant by Clayton Kashuba…
Indian elephant used in battle in Persia, from the Age of Mythology Heaven site…
Sri Lankan ebony and silver armoured elephant from Nirvana Oriental Antiques on Trocadero…
Finally a few happier elephants…
Decorated elephant in Jaipur, Rajasthan, from Wikimedia Commons…
And these are armoured only in jewels…
Jewelled silver elephant from Sophisticated Stones…
Swarovski jewelled elephant by Michal Negrin from Saffron Marigold…
This Edwardian ivory and jewel elephant sold for $170,500 at Christies in New York…
Shiny! And perhaps it will take our minds off all those poor elephants being used as battering rams and tanks…
You may be pleased to hear that elephant dung is being used to create journals/notepads. How do I know this? I recently bought a gift of one for a friend’s birthday who loves elephants!
I seem to remember hearing that a while back. And I understand it doesn’t smell, either! Great idea.
Here in Wales we have “sheep poo paper” – but not as sophisticated 🙂
Poor old elephants. The jewelled ones are beautiful.
Thanks for your comments. Yes, I could have done a whole blog post just on elephant brooches and pendants!
Really interesting post…
Thank you – and I’m glad that your convalescence is coming along OK and you are taking an interest in nature again on your blog. Roll on the Spring 🙂
Extraordinary and heart-breaking to think of these magnificent, enslaved animals crossing Europe to go into battle. Of course, it is also heart-breaking to think of the many tens, or hundreds, of thousands of human soldiers who died in these wars.
I suppose the difference might be that the elephants had no choice. Although in those days I suspect the human soldiers were conscripted, too…
Best wishes 🙂