Toads and Frogs in Myth, Mythology, and Folklore

The number of superstitions connected with frogs and toads was virtually endless. At least since the time of Pliny and Aelian, toads have been widely considered poisonous. In William Shakespeare’s Richard III, the wicked king was called a “poisonous hunch-backed toad” (1.3). It has, however, also been popularly believed that toads had a precious stone inside their heads. This stone has been avidly sought by alchemists for its magical properties, especially for use in detecting or neutralizing poison. Up through most of the nineteenth century and even afterward, many books of natural history reported that frogs could survive for many centuries encased in stone. In China, toads were one of the five venomous animals, mentioned together with the scorpion, centipede, spider, and snake. A three-legged toad was often depicted on the moon, with one leg representing each of three lunar phases. According to legend, the hermit Liu Hai decontaminated a pool by luring out the toad Ch’an with a string of gold coins. He killed the toad, thus punishing the sin of avarice. Nevertheless, Liu Hai has often been painted with Ch’an sitting affectionately at his side as a sort of pet, and a toad with a coin in its mouth is a symbol of good fortune.

Sometimes people have envied the ability of frogs and toads to find contentment in a humble pond. The eighteenth-century Japanese philosopher Shoeki Ando, a relentless critic of human arrogance, wrote that the toad once prayed to walk upright like a person. This was granted to him, but then he found that, with his eyes focused only on Heaven, he could no longer see where he was going. When he regretted his request, Heaven returned him to his original state. He had, the toad explained, been like the sages such as Sakyamuni or Lao-tzu, for “looking only to the heights, they failed to see the eight organs of their own senses . . . ” (pp. 75-76).

In the modern period, people often found the perceived homeliness of frogs and toads endearing. An old story of a witch with a frog as her demonic companion evolved in the oral tradition to become “The Frog King” (or “The Frog Prince”), the first tale in the famous collection of German fairy tales by the Grimm brothers. It told of a talking frog that was disenchanted, became a prince, and married a lovely young girl. “Frog Went A-Courting” became one of the most popular of British and American folk songs. It told of a wedding feast of a frog and his mouse-bride, together with all the animals invited as guests. In The Call of the Toad, a novel written by the German Günter Grass as a sort of epitaph for the twentieth century, the primeval voice of a toad served much the same role as the chorus of frogs did for Aristophanes-an admonition against hubris.