Monopod (creature)

The same people are also called Sciapodae, because they are in the habit of lying on their backs, during the time of the extreme heat, and protect themselves from the sun by the shade of their feet.

Reference to the legend continued into the Middle Ages, for example with Isidore of Seville in his Etymologiae, where he writes: The race of Sciopodes are said to live in Ethiopia; they have only one leg, and are wonderfully speedy.

After sailing for a long time, while moored on the south side of a west-flowing river, they were shot at by a one-footed man (einfœtingr), and Thorvald died from an arrow wound.

[7][9] According to Carl A. P. Ruck, the Monopods' cited existence in India refers to the Vedic Aja Ekapad ("Not-born Single-foot"), an epithet for Soma.

In the story, a tribe of foolish dwarves known as Duffers inhabit a small island near the edge of the Narnian world along with a magician named Coriakin, who has transformed them into monopods as a punishment.

They are (re)discovered by explorers from the Narnian ship, the Dawn Treader, which has landed on the island to rest and resupply, and at their request Lucy Pevensie makes them visible again.

In Umberto Eco's novel The Name of the Rose, the abbey's chapter house is decorated with carvings of "the inhabitants of unknown worlds," including "sciopods, who run swiftly on their single leg and when they want to take shelter from the sun stretch out and hold up their great foot like an umbrella.