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Manticore
Sometimes also called
Manticora, Mantichora, Manticory, Martikora, Mantiserra,
Mancomorion, Memecoleous and Satyral (alternative
name for the one reputed to prowl the jungles of India).
A hybrid humanoid
monster in the legends of ancient Asia, medieval Europe and Mesopotamia,
the fearsome Manticore was said to be exceptionally fast, having the body of a
lion, the face of a man with a red mouth, and the stinging tail of a
scorpion — sometimes described as ending in a bony conglomerate of
poisoned spikes.
The Manticore's voice was like the
mingling of a flute and a trumpet, parodying the human voice. It was vermilion in color
and had blue eyes. Its huge jaws, however, were unique: They held three rows of
razor-sharp teeth, upper and lower, that interlocked like the teeth of a comb when the
beast closed its mouth. The teeth could slash nearly anything to ribbons, and the
Manticore was said to relish feasting on humans. The monster was dangerous from afar as
well. With its strangely segmented tail, it could fire lethal stingers that traveled as
much as a hundred feet.
This cruel, vicious creature lived in
the depths of the earth and could defeat all animals except the lion. The earliest account
of the Manticora is by Ctesias, a Greek
physician at the Persian court of King Artaxerxes Mnemon in the fifth century BC; its name derives from the Persian
martya (man) and xvar (to eat).
In his monumental
 Historia
Naturalis
(AD 77),
Pliny the Elder devotes a number of books to the cataloguing and description
of animals world-wide. This is how he described the Manticore:
"The fabulous beast is a hybrid,
half-human half-animal, with three rows of teeth which intertwine like the teeth of a
comb, the face and the ears of a human being, blue eyes, the purplish body of a lion and a
tail which ends with a sting, like a scorpion. It runs very fast and human flesh is its
favorite dish; its voice sounds like the flute and the trumpet mixed together."
During medieval times
the Manticore was frequently present in bestiaries, still retaining the
same depiction given by Pliny over a thousand years earlier. In later
Spanish folk tales, the Manticore developed into a child snatching type Werewolf.
Related
books.
Further info:
All
about manticores.
More
about manticores.
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