Manticore

Manticore
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Greek Mythology Wiki: Manticore
The Manticore (Early Middle Persian: Martyaxwar) is a big, legendary creature of

Greek and Persian myths. It is similar to the Sphinx in that they are both evil and
mashups of different animals.
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Origin and Etymology

The manticore myth was of Persian origin, where its name was "man-eater" (from
early Middle Persian ‫ مارتیا‬martya "man" (as in human) and ‫ خوار‬xwar- "to eat"). The
English term "manticore" was borrowed from Latin "mantichora", itself derived from
the Greek rendering of the Persian name, "μαρτιχώρα", "martichora".
In Mythology
It passed into European folklore first through a remark by Ctesias, a Greek physician
at the Persian court of King Artaxerxes II in the fourth century BC, in his notes on
India ("Indika"), which circulated among Greek writers on natural history but have
not survived. The Romanised Greek Pausanias, in his Description of Greece, recalled
strange animals he had seen at Rome and commented,The beast described by Ctesias
in his Indian history, which he says is called martichora by the Indians and "man-
eater" (androphagos) by the Greeks, I am inclined to think is the tiger. But that it has
three rows of teeth along each jaw and spikes at the tip of its tail with which it defends
itself at close quarters, while it hurls them like an archer's arrows at more distant
enemies; all this is, I think, a false story that the Indians pass on from one to another
owing to their excessive dread of the beast. (Description, xxi, 5) Pliny the Elder did
not share Pausanias' skepticism.
The manticore but on 4 legs and with wings.
He followed Aristotle's natural history by including the martichoras—mistranscribed

as manticorus in his copy of Aristotle and thus passing into European languages—
among his descriptions of animals in Naturalis Historia, c. 77 AD.Later, in The Life
of Apollonius of Tyana Greek writer Flavius Philostratus (c. 170–247) wrote: And in
as much as the following conversation also has been recorded by Damis as having
been held upon this occasion with regard to the mythological animals and fountains
and men met with in India, I must not leave it out, for there is much to be gained by
neither believing nor yet disbelieving everything. Accordingly Apollonius asked the
question, whether there was there an animal called the man-eater (martichoras); and
Iarchas replied: "And what have you heard about the make of this animal ? For it is
probable that there is some account given of its shape." "There are," replied
Apollonius, "tall stories current which I cannot believe; for they say that the creature
has four feet, and that his head resembles that of a man, but that in size it is
comparable to a lion; while the tail of this animal puts out hairs a cubit long and sharp
as thorns, which it shoots like arrows at those who hunt it."Pliny's book was widely
enjoyed and uncritically believed through the European Middle Ages, during which
the manticore was sometimes illustrated in bestiaries.
The manticore made a late appearance in heraldry, during the 16th century, and it
influenced some Mannerist representations, as in Bronzino's allegory The Exposure of
Luxury, (National Gallery, London) [2]— but more often in the decorative schemes
called "grotteschi"— of the sin of Fraud, conceived as a monstrous chimera with a
beautiful woman's face, and in this way it passed by means of Cesare Ripa's
Iconologia into the seventeenth and eighteenth century French conception of a sphinx.
Description
The Manticore is a large humanoid hybrid animal creature that has a lion's head,
though some depictions have a humanoid face, a lion's body and a barbed, poisonous,
scorpion-like tail. Other aspects of the creature vary from story to story. It may be
horned, winged, or both. The tail is that of a scorpion, and it shoots poisonous spines
to either paralyze or kill its victims. It devours its prey whole and leaves no clothes,
bones, or possessions of the prey behind. The creature is bigger than a man with semi-
dexterous arms and hands with lion claws at the fingers. It is usually 7-8 feet tall and
its tail is usually the same length as its body. It has many long, pointed teeth that are
extremely sharp and may or may not excrete venom!

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This subject is also available on

The Manticore (Early Middle Persian: Martyaxwar) is a big, legendary creature of

Origin and Etymology

The manticore but on 4 legs and with wings.

He followed Aristotle's natural history by including the martichoras—mistranscribed

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