Template:Short description Template:Distinguish {{#invoke:other uses|otheruses}}
The manticore or mantichore (Latin: mantichorās; reconstructed Old Persian: Template:Transliteration; Modern Template:Langx Template:Transliteration) is a legendary creature from ancient Persian mythology, similar to the Egyptian sphinx that proliferated in Western European medieval art as well. It has the face of a human, the body of a lion, and the tail of a scorpion or a tail covered in venomous spines similar to porcupine quills. There are some accounts that the spines can be launched like arrows. It eats its victims whole, using its three rows of teeth, and leaves no bones behind. Other accounts Template:Who also have it sporting the wings of a dragon.
EtymologyEdit
The English-language term manticore comes via Latin mantichorās<ref>Karl Ernst Georges: Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch. 8th ed., Hannover, 1918, vol. 2, col. 802, s.v. mantichorās. ([1])</ref><ref>Félix Gaffiot: Dictionnaire latin-français. 1934, p. 974. ([2] → [3])</ref> from Ancient Greek {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (martikhórās).<ref name="lsj-martichoras">Cf. Henry George Liddell & Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, Template:LSJ</ref> This in turn is a transliteration of an Old Persian compound word consisting of martīya 'man' and xuar- stem, 'to eat' (Mod. Template:Langx; mard + {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}; khordan);Template:Efn<ref><Old Persian martijaqâra according to the NED, apud Template:Harvp, p. 142 n103</ref><ref name="OED"/><ref name="ebergart-manticora"/> i.e., man-eater.
An early account of the manticore and of its naming occurs in Indica by Ctesias,<ref> Template:Cite book </ref> a Greek physician of the 5th century BC who worked at the Persian court during the Achaemenid dynasty. Ctesias based his report on the testimonies of his Persian-speaking informants who had travelled to India. He recorded the Persian-language name of the beast as martichora ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}), which translated into Greek as androphagon<ref name="aelian"/> or anthropophagon ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}),<ref name="photius-baehr-ed"/> i.e., "man-eater".<ref name="stoneman2021"/><ref name="lsj-martichoras"/>Template:Refn But the name was mistranscribed as 'mantichoras' in a faulty copy of Aristotle, through whose works the legend of the manticore was perpetuated across Europe.<ref name="robinson"/>
Ctesias was later cited by Pausanias regarding the martichoras or Template:Transliteration of India.<ref name="pausanias"/>
Classical literatureEdit
Template:Anchors An account of the manticore was given in Ctesias's lost book Indica ("India"), and circulated among Greek writers on natural history, but has survived only in fragments and epitomes preserved by later writers.Template:Sfnp
Photius's Myriobiblon (or Bibliotheca, 9th century) serves as base text, but Aelian (De Natura Animalium, 3rd century) preserves the same information and more:
<ref name="photius"/><ref name="aelian"/> Aelian, citing Ctesias, adds that the Mantichora prefers to hunt humans, lying in wait and even taking down even two or three men at a time. The Indians, he continues, take the young captive and disable the tail by crushing it with a stone before the sting begins growing.<ref name="aelian"/>
Pliny's Aethiopian beastsEdit
Pliny described the "mantichora" in his Naturalis Historia (c. 77 AD)<ref>Template:L&S lists Plin. 8, 21, 30, § 75; 8, 30, 45, § 107. So the same passage may be designated variously as 8.21 (30), or 8.30 or 8.75 depending on the editor.</ref> having relied on a faulty copy of Aristotle's natural history that contained the misspelling ("martikhoras").<ref name="robinson"/>
Pliny also introduced the confused notion that the manticore might occur in Africa, because he had discussed this and other creatures (such as the yale) within a passage on Aethiopia.Template:Sfnp<ref name="george"/>Template:Efn But he also described the crocotta and the mantichora of Aethiopia together, and while the crocotta imitated the voices of menTemplate:Efn the mantichora of Aethiopia too also mimicked human speech, on authority of Juba II,<ref name="pliny8.107"/> with a voice like the pipe (panpipe, fistula) mixed with trumpet.<ref name="pliny8.75"/>
LegacyEdit
Ctesias purportedly saw a martichora presented to the Persian king by the Indians.<ref name="aelian"/> The Romanised Greek Pausanias was skeptical and considered it an unreliable exaggerated account of a tiger.<ref name="pausanias"/><ref name="robinson"/> Apollonius of Tyana also dismissed the mantichore as a tall tale, according to the biography by Philostratus (c. 170–247).<ref name="philostratus"/>Template:Sfnp
Pliny did not share Pausanias' skepticism.<ref name="robinson"/> And for 1500 years afterwards, it was Pliny's account, also copied by Solinus (2nd century), which was held to be authoritative on matters of natural history whether real or mythological.<ref name="robinson"/> In the advent of Christianity, writings in the Holy Scripture combined with Plinian-Aristotelian learning gave rise to the Physiologus (also c. 2nd century), which later evolved into the medieval bestiaries<ref name="robinson"/> some of which contained entries on the manticore.
Medieval sourcesEdit
BestiariesEdit
The manticore has been included in some medieval bestiaries, with accompanying illustrations, though not all.
The thick-maned (and long-bearded) manticore wearing a Phrygian cap is a commonplace design (fig., top left).Template:Refn
In most instances, the manticora is "coloured red or brown and has clawed feet".Template:Sfnp Artists took the liberty of coloring the manticore blue at times.<ref name="rowland"/> One example is depicted "as a long-haired blond" (fig., top right).Template:Refn Another has the face of a woman and the body of a blue manticore (fig., bottom right) .Template:Refn
Most manuscripts do not bother detailing the scorpion tailTemplate:Sfnp and simply draw a long cat's tail,Template:Sfnp but in Harley MS 3244 the manticore has an "oddly pointed tail"Template:Sfnp or an "extraordinary spike on the end" of it,Template:Sfnp and a tail covered in spikes from end to end is shown on the manticore in several other second family manuscripts.Template:RefnTemplate:Sfnp
The three-rows of teeth are not faithfully represented except in some third family examples.Template:Sfnp
Manuscripts and textEdit
- Second Family
The manticore (Template:Langx) occurs in about half of the Second Family Latin bestiaries.Template:Sfnp The specific source used in this case was probably Solinus (2nd century),<ref>Template:Harvp. Due to the "three Solinus hybrids" being clustered into successive chapters. More on their interrelationships below.</ref>Template:Refn
The text here describing the beastTemplate:Refn<ref name="manticore-tr-mccullough"/> differs little from Pliny's Latin version in language,<ref>By comparison of Latin texts</ref> or the Greek version in content (paraphrased above).<ref>By comparison of English translations</ref> This is naturally the case, since much of Solinus was recopied out of Pliny.Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp The manticora is here described as "bloody-colored"Template:Refn rather than "red like cinnabar".Template:RefnTemplate:Refn
The text concludes by stating that the manticore "seeks human flesh, is active, and leaps so that neither large spaces nor broad obstacles can delay it<ref name="manticore-tr-mccullough">Template:Harvp "Manticore", pp. 142–143</ref> (neither the broadest space nor the widest barrier can hinder it)".Template:Refn
- H text
Actually there are two candidate sources given for the passage, "Solinus 52.37" and "H iii.8";Template:Sfnp this "H" being the pseudo-Hugh of Saint Victor De bestiis et aliis rebus, edited by Migne,Template:Sfnp<ref name="hugo-ed-migne"/> but this source has been regarded circumspectly as the "problematic De bestiis et aliis rebus" by Clark.Template:Sfnp
- Transitional
The manticore also occurs in the earliest "Transitional" First Family bestiary (c. 1185),Template:RefnTemplate:Sfnp<ref name="badke-mss-manticore"/> and some Third Family codices as well, whose illustrations attempted to reproduce some of the finer details given in its text.Template:Sfnp
Confounding with other hybrid beastsEdit
As aforementioned, the manticore is one of three hybrids from Aithiopia described together by Solinus,<ref>Template:Harvp: "three Solinus hybrids"</ref> appearing in (nearly) successive chapters of the bestiary.Template:RefnTemplate:Refn This created the groundwork for the beasts in adjacent chapters being confounded or amalgamated through scribal errors, as described below in the cases of bestiaries produced in France.
French mistransmissionEdit
The manticore is basically absent from the French bestiary of Pierre de Beauvais,Template:Refn which exist in the short versions of 38 or 39 chapters, and the long version of 71 chapters. Instead, there is a Chapter 44 on the "centicore" (or santicora, var. ceucrocataTemplate:Sfnp), which suggests manticore in name, but which is nothing like the standard manticore.Template:Refn<ref name="hist_litt_tome34"/>Template:Refn The name is thought to have arisen from misspellings of leucrocotta, compounded by the suffix replaced by -cora by scribal error.Template:Refn Due to further mistransmission, "centicore" became the French misnomer for the yale (eale), a mythic antelope which should be a separate entry in the bestiaries.Template:Refn
Neither manticore nor leucrotta (Template:Langx) appears in Philippe de Thaun's bestiary in Anglo-Norman verse.<ref name="uhl"/><ref name="philip-de-thaun"/>Template:Refn
Post-medieval natural historyEdit
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Edward Topsell, in 1607, described the manticore as:
<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />
bred among the Indians, having a treble rowe of teeth beneath and above, whose greatnesse, roughnesse, and feete are like a Lyons, his face and eares like unto a mans, his eies grey, and collour red, his taile like the taile of a Scorpion of the earth, armed with a sting, casting forth sharp pointed quills, his voice like the voice of a small trumpet or pipe, being in course as swift as a Hart; His wildnes such as can never be tamed, and his appetite is especially to the flesh of man. His body like the body of a Lyon, being very apt both to leape and to run, so as no distance or space doth hinder him,.. Template:RefnTemplate:Refn{{#if:|{{#if:|}}
— {{#if:|, in }}Template:Comma separated entries}}
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Topsell thought the manticore was described by other names elsewhere. He thought that it was the "same Beast which Avicen calleth Marion, and Maricomorion" and also, the same as the "Leucrocuta, about the bigness of a wilde Ass, being in legs and Hoofs like a Hart, having his mouth reaching on both sides to his ears, and the head and face of a female like unto a Badgers".Template:RefnTemplate:Sfnp
And Topsell wrote that in India they would "bruise the buttockes and taile" of the whelp or cub they captured, causing it to be incapable of using its quills, thus removing the danger.Template:Refn This differs somewhat from the original sources which stated that they would crush the tail with stone to make them useless.
HeraldryEdit
The likeness of manticore or similar creatures by another name (i.e. mantyger) have been used in heraldry, spanning from the late High Middle Ages into the modern period.
The mantyger is glossed as merely a variant reading of manticore in the OED,<ref name="OED-mantyger"/> though the 17th century heraldry collector Randle Holme made a fine distinction between manticore and mantyger. Holme's description of the manticore seems to derive directly from naturalist Edward Topsell (cf. above),<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />
[The manticore has] the face of a man, the mouth open to the ears with a treble row of teeth beneath and above; long neck, whose greatness, roughness, body and feet are like a Lyon: of a red colour, his tail like the tail of a Scorpion of the Earth, the end armed with a sting, casting forth sharp pointed quills.<ref>Template:Cite book, quoted in Template:Harvp.</ref>{{#if:|{{#if:|}}
— {{#if:|, in }}Template:Comma separated entries}}
{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:Blockquote with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | author | by | char | character | cite | class | content | multiline | personquoted | publication | quote | quotesource | quotetext | sign | source | style | text | title | ts }} while he describes the mantyger as having <templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />
the face and ears of a man, the body of a Tyger, and whole footed like Goose or Dragon; yet others make it with feet like a Tyger,{{#if:|{{#if:|}}
— {{#if:|, in }}Template:Comma separated entries}}
{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:Blockquote with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | author | by | char | character | cite | class | content | multiline | personquoted | publication | quote | quotesource | quotetext | sign | source | style | text | title | ts }}etc., and also noting that they may be horned or unhorned.<ref>Template:Harvp, Second book, Chapter IX, XVII-XIX, p. 175, quoted in Template:Harvp.</ref>
The manticore first appeared in English heraldry in c. 1470, as a badge of William Hastings, 1st Baron Hastings; and in the 16th century.Template:Sfnp
The mantyger device was later used as a badge by Robert Radcliffe, 1st Earl of Sussex, and by Sir Anthony Babyngton.Template:Sfnp The Radford[e]'s device was described as "3 mantygers argent" by one source, c. 1600.<ref name="baringould&twigge"/><ref name="OED"/> Thus in heraldic discourse the term "manticore" became usurped by "mantyger" during the 17–18th centuries, and "mantiger" in the 19th.<ref name="OED"/>Template:Refn
It is noted that the manticore/mantiger of heraldic devices has a beast of prey body as standard, but sometimes chosen to be given dragon feet.<ref name="OED"/> The Radcliffe family manticore appears to have human feet,<ref name="rothery"/> and (not so surprisingly), a chronicler described as a "Babyon" (baboon) the device by John Radcliffe (Lord Fitzwater) accompanying Henry VIII into war in France.Template:Refn It has also been speculated the Babyngton device is intended to represent the "Babyon, or baboon, as a play upon his name", and it too also has characteristically "monkey-like feet".Template:SfnpTemplate:Refn
The typical heraldic manticore is supposed to have not only the face of an old man, but spiraling horns as well,<ref name="OED"/><ref name="rothery"/>Template:Sfnp although this is not really ascertainable in the Radcliffe family badge, where the purple manticore is wearing a yellow cap<ref name="de_walden"/> (cap of dignity <ref name="rothery"/>).
ParallelsEdit
Gerald Brenan linked the manticore to the mantequero, a monster feeding on human fat in Andalusian folklore.<ref name="Brenan">Al Sur de Granada, pages 190-193, Gerald Brenan, 1997, Fábula - Tusquets Editores. Originally South from Granada, 1957</ref>
The Hindu god Narasimha is often referred to as a Manticore. Narasimha, the man lion, is the fourth avatar of Vishnu and is described as having a man’s torso and the head and claws of a lion.
In fictionEdit
Dante Alighieri, in his Inferno, depicted the mythical Geryon as having a similar appearance to a manticore, following Pliny's description where it has the face of an honest man, the body of a wyvern, the paws of a lion, and the stinger of a scorpion at the end of its tail.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Fine artEdit
The heraldic manticore influenced some Mannerist representations of the sin of Fraud, conceived as a monstrous chimera with a beautiful woman's face – for example, in Bronzino's allegory Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time (National Gallery, London),<ref>Template:Cite journal traces the chimeric image of Fraud backwards from Bronzino.</ref> and more commonly in the decorative schemes called {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (grotesque). From here it passed by way of Cesare Ripa's Iconologia into the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century French conception of a sphinx.
Popular cultureEdit
In some modern depictions, such as in the tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) and the card game Magic: The Gathering, manticores are depicted as having wings.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> They are more specifically given "wings of a dragon" in the implementation of D&D′s 5th edition, according to the Monster Manual (2014),Template:RefnTemplate:Refn<ref name="monster_manual_v5_2014"/> though an earlier version of the manual described them as "batlike wings".<ref name="monstrous_manual1993"/>
In the animated sitcom television series Krapopolis, the character of Shlub is depicted as a "mantitaur" which is a half-centaur, half-manticore creature where he was the result of a union between a female centaur and a male manticore. In this show besides the fact that the manticores are depicted with dragon-like wings like other depictions of them, the manticores are shown to have dragon-like horns on their head.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
See alsoEdit
Explanatory notesEdit
ReferencesEdit
Citations Template:Reflist
Bibliography Template:Refbegin
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book American edition, Clarkson N. Potter, Inc. 1976
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book, Aelian, pp. 61–62; Pausanias, pp. 62–63
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book; [ Reprint], C. N. Potter, 1976
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book Translated from the Latin (Cambridge Univ. Library MS. Ii.4.26).
External linksEdit
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