Ahoy, sailors of the knowledge sea! And welcome to this installment of An Assemblage of Grandiose and Bombastic Grandiloquents. To the seas we go, to find today’s creature of the ocean, and today’s word: blue glaucus.
The blue glaucus, or ‘glaucus atlanticus’ is a species of small, blue sea slug, a shell-less gastropod mollusk in the family Glaucidae. Its other names include the sea swallow, blue angel, blue dragon, blue sea slug, and blue ocean slug. A rose by any other name, no?
The blue glaucus floats upside down by using the surface tension of the water to stay up, where they are carried along by the winds and ocean currents. They make use of a technique known as countershading; the blue side of their body faces upwards, blending in with the blue of the water, whilst the silver or grey side of the sea slugs faces downwards, blending in with the sunlight reflecting on the ocean's surface when viewed upwards underwater. This sea slug stores stinging nematocysts from the siphonophores it eats within its own tissues as defence against predators. Humans handling the slug can receive a very painful and potentially dangerous sting.
The word ‘glaucaus’ comes from the Greek word ‘glaukos’ meaning ‘blue-grey’ or, in some interpretations, ‘sparkling or glimmering’. In Greek mythology, Glaucus was a prophetic sea-god, born mortal and turned immortal upon eating magical herb. When he realised that this herb would bring dead fish back to life, he decided to eat it himself. As a result, he became immortal and started getting fish-like features, and ended up living in the sea, where the major deities Oceanus and Tethys accepted him in their realm. It was believed that he came to the rescue of sailors and fishermen in storms, having earlier earned a living from the sea himself.
Written by Taylor Davidson, Read by Zane C Weber
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