Manticore
The manticore or mantichore (Latin: mantichora; reconstructed Old Persian: *martyahvārah; Modern Persian: مردخوار mard-khar) is a Persian legendary creature similar to the Egyptian sphinx that proliferated in Western European medieval art as well. It has the head of a human, the body of a lion, and the tail of a scorpion or a tail of 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.
Etymology
The term "manticore" descends via Latin mantichora from
The ultimate source of manticore was Ctesias, Greek physician of the Persian court during the Achaemenid dynasty, and is based on the testimonies of his Persian-speaking informants who had travelled to India. Ctesias himself wrote that the martichora (μαρτιχόρα) was its name in Persian, which translated into Greek as androphagon[7] or anthropophagon (ἀνθρωποφάγον),[8] i.e., "man-eater".[9][3][b] But the name was mistranscribed as 'mantichoras' in a faulty copy of Aristotle, through whose works the notion of the manticore was perpetuated across Europe.[11]
Ctesias was also later cited by Pausanias regarding the martichoras or androphagos of India.[12]
Classical literature
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.[13]
The beast's name means "maneater", as already noted.[14][7] Aelian citing Ctesias adds that the Mantichora prefers to hunt humans, lying in wait, taking down even 2, 3 men at a time. And the Indians take their young captive, disabling its tail by crushing it with stone before the growth of sting begins.[7]
Pliny's Aethiopian beasts
Pliny also introduced the confused notion that the manticore might occur in Africa, because he had discussed this and other creatures (such as the
Legacy
Ctesias purportedly saw a martichora presented to the Persian king by the Indians.
Pliny did not share Pausanias' skepticism.[11] 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.[11] 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[11] some of which contained entries on the manticore.
Medieval sources
Bestiaries
The manticore has been included in some medieval
The thick-maned (and long-bearded) manticore wearing a Phrygian cap is a commonplace design (fig., top left).[25]
In most instances, the manticora is "coloured red or brown and has clawed feet".[26] Artists took the liberty of coloring the manticore blue at times.[27] One example is depicted "as a long-haired blond" (fig., top right).[29] Another has the face of a woman and the body of a blue manticore (fig., bottom right) .[31]
Most manuscripts do not bother detailing the scorpion tail[32] and simply draw a long cat's tail,[26] but in Harley MS 3244 the manticore has an "oddly pointed tail"[32] or an "extraordinary spike on the end" of it,[26] and a tail covered in spikes from end to end is shown on the manticore in several other second family manuscripts[36][26]
The three-rows of teeth are not faithfully represented except in some third family examples.[26]
Manuscripts and text
- Second Family
The manticore (
The text here describing the beast[39][40] differs little from Pliny's Latin version in language,[41] or the Greek version in content (paraphrased above).[42] This is naturally the case, since much of Solinus was recopied out of Pliny,[43][44] and the manticora is described as "bloody-colored" here[d] rather than "red like cinnabar".[c][h]
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[40] (neither the broadest space nor the widest barrier can hinder it)".[39]
- H text
Actually there are two candidate sources given for the passage, "Solinus 52.37" and "H iii.8";[45] this "H" being the pseudo-Hugh of Saint Victor De bestiis et aliis rebus, edited by Migne,[46][47] but this source has been regarded circumspectly as the "problematic De bestiis et aliis rebus" by Clark.[48]
- Transitional
The manticore also occurs in the earliest "Transitional" First Family bestiary (c. 1185),[i][28][50] and some Third Family codices as well, whose illustrations attempted to reproduce some of the finer details given in its text.[26]
Confounding with other hybrid beasts
As aforementioned, the manticore is one of three hybrids from Aithiopia described together by Solinus,[51] appearing in (nearly) successive chapters of the bestiary.[52][j] 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 mistransmission
The manticore is basically absent from the French bestiary of Pierre de Beauvais,[k] 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. ceucrocata[53]), which suggests manticore in name, but which is nothing like the standard manticore.[l][54][m] The name is thought to have arisen from misspellings of leucrocotta, compounded by the suffix replaced by -cora by scribal error.[55] 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.[57]
Neither manticore nor leucrotta (
Post-medieval natural history
Edward Topsell, in 1607, described the manticore as:
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,.. [64][62]
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".[62][10]
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.[62] This differs somewhat from the original sources which stated that they would crush the tail with stone to make them useless.
Heraldry
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,[66] 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),
[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.[67]
while he describes the mantyger as having "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", etc., and also noting that they may be horned or unhorned.[68]
The manticore first appeared in English heraldry in c. 1470, as a badge of William Hastings, 1st Baron Hastings; and in the 16th century.[69]
The mantyger device was later used as a badge by
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.[5] The Radcliffe family manticore appears to have human feet,[71] 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.[72] 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".[73][p]
The typical heraldic manticore is supposed to have not only the face of an old man, but spiraling horns as well,[5][71][75] although this is not really ascertainable in the Radcliffe family badge, where the purple manticore is wearing a yellow cap[65] (cap of dignity [71]).
Parallels
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 fiction
Dante Alighieri, in his Inferno, depicted the mythical Geryon as a manticore, following Pliny's description.[77]
Fine art
The heraldic manticore influenced some
Popular culture
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.[79] They are more specifically given "wings of a dragon" in the implementation of D&D′s 5th edition, according to the Monster Manual (2014),[q][r][81] though an earlier version of the manual described them as "batlike wings".[82]
In the animated sitcom television series, Krapopolis, the character of Shlub is depicted as a "mantitaur": half centaur, half manticore.[83]
See also
- Chimaera (mythology)
- Mythological lions
Explanatory notes
- ^ Early Middle Persian مارتیا mardya "man" (as in human) and خوار khowr- "to eat"
- ^ That mantichora was otherwise known as martiora, "which in the Persian tongue signifieth a devourer of men" was already pointed out by Edward Topsell in 1607.[10] (for further information on Topsell's manticore, cf. infra.
- ^ a b Greek, "red like cinnabar ἐρυθρός ὡς κιννάβαρι"; "light-blue eyes ὀφθαλμοὺς γλαυκοὺς"[14].
- ^ a b Pliny has "eyes light-blue, blood-colored body like a lion oculis glaucis, colore sanguineo, corpore leonis"[20].
- ^ Carl (Karl) Mayhoff (ed., 1857. Plinius Hist. Nat. viii.21., i.e.. Mayhoff ed. (1875), 8.21 (30) §75, p. 74) proposed an emendation of the text eosdem "the same" to apud Indos dein which would qualify the statements to be about India.
- ^ And considered to be based on the [laughing] hyena.[18]
- ^ In the base MS. Add. 11283, the manticore (fol. 8r) and the other hybrids around it has scholia marked "Solinus Cap. 65, p. 244".[38] But these are presumbly later scribal additions, not disclosure of source by the original creators.
- ^ While McCulloch translates literally as "bluish eyes, a lion's body the color of blood", Clark gives the freer translation "green eyes, a russet color lion".
- ^ Morgan Library, MS M.81 (The Worksop Bestiary)] (c. 1185).[49] Recognized in Badke's mss. containing the manticore.[50] Note it is not older than the early Second Family Additional MS 11283.
- ^ XXII. De Cocodrillo (crocodile) intervenes (but this is probably not a hybrid).
- ^ For Pierre de Beauvais's bestiary (in French), the probable direct source was Honorius Augustodunensis which derived from Pliny and Solinus.[53]
- pseudo Hugo de St. Victor, McCulloch's so-called "H" text, cf. explanatory note, supra.
- ^ At least in the Pierre mss. known in France. But the manticore is included in the Vatican codex of Pierre de Beauvais (longer version) according to Badke.[50]
- ^ Even though Badke lists Philippe de Thaun (MS Cotton Nero A V) as well as a manuscript of Image du Monde (the aforementioned testament to "centicore") as including manticore.[50]
- ^ The corruption of amalgamation of man and tiger suggests false etymology.
- ^ Related to the topic of the heraldic manticore/mantiger exhibiting "baboon" feet, it should be mentioned that there emerged a term "mantegar" meaning a "type of baboon", first attested in 1704.[74] This is also conjectured to derived from corruption of "manticore".[74] As a consequence, the term "mantyger" became an ambiguously variant of "manticore" or "mantegar",[66] after c. 1704, assuming that is the correct approximate dating when the word in that sense was coined.
- ^ Color illustration of the manticore by Jack Stella.[80]
- ^ Another embellished feature of this D&D version is that a "bristling mane stretches down [its] back".[81]
References
- Citations
- Matthäus Merian. Francofuerti ad Moenum: Impensis hæredum Math. Meriani. pp. 114–124 (p. 124a Tab. LII).
- ISBN 9789004279179.
- ^ a b Cf. μαρτιχόρας
- NED, apud McCulloch (1962), p. 142 n103
- ^ a b c d e "manticore". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.); Murray, James A. H. ed. (1908) A New Eng. Dict. VI, s.v."manticore"
- ISBN 1-57607-283-5
- ^ a b c d e Nichols tr. (2013), pp. 61–62. Ctesias Indica Frag. 45dβ Aelian, NA 4.21;
Scholfield, A. F. (tr.) (1918) Characteristics of Animals (Loeb Classical Library); Greek text. - ^ a b Ctesias (1825). "IV Ἐk tων του αυτου: Κτησίου Ἰνδικων Ἐκλογαι (Ex Photii Patriarchae Bibliothec. LXXII, pag. 144 seqq.)". In Baehr, Johann Christian Felix (ed.). Ctesiae Cnidii operum reliquiae. Francofurti ad Moenum: In Officina Broenneriana. pp. 248–249.
- ISBN 9780691217475.
- ^ a b White [1954] (1984), p. 48n.
- ^ JSTOR 1258298.
- ^ a b Nichols tr. (2013), pp. 62–63. Ctesias Indica Frag. 45dγ. Pausanias 9.21.4.;
Jones, W.H.S.; Ormerod, H.A. (tr.), (1918) Description of Greece, 9.21.4; Greek text - ^ Nichols tr. (2013), p. 11.
- ^ a b c Nichols tr. (2013), pp. 48–49. Ctesias Indica Frag. 45, Photius. Bibliotheca 72.
- Perseus Project. 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.
- ^ Nichols tr. (2013), p. 142.
- S2CID 244492082.
- ^ Bostock, John ed. "Chap. 45. The Crocotta. The Mantichora
- Jones, W.H.S.; Eichholz, D.E. – via Wikisource.;
Mayhoff ed. (1875), Latin text, p. 82 =e-text@Perseus Project - ^ Jones, W.H.S.; Eichholz, D.E. – via Wikisource.;
Mayhoff ed. (1875), Latin text, p. 74 =e-text@Perseus Project - ^ Flavius Philostratus, The Life of Apollonius of Tyana, translated by F. C. Conybeare, volume I, book III. Chapter XLV, pp. 327–329.
And inasmuch 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."
- ^ Nigg (1999), p. 79.
- ISBN 9783110245486.
- ^ "Bodleian Library MS. Bodl. 764". Oxford University, the Bodleian Libraries. Retrieved 2022-09-09., fol. 025r.
- ^ McCulloch (1962), p. 142: "more usual is its depiction as a heavily maned beast having a man's face topped by a Phrygian cap .."; Wiedl (2010): "mid thirteenth-century Salisbury bestiary with its pointed Phrygian hat, long beard and grotesque profile", citing Higgs Strikland, Debra (2003) Saracens, Demons, & Jews, 136, figure 60 and pl.3; Pamela Gravestock, "Did Imaginary Animals Exist?," The Mark of the Beast, p. 121.[23] Both name Bodl. 764 as example.[24]
- ^ a b c d e f George & Yapp (1991), p. 53.
- ISBN 1512805513.
- ^ a b c George & Yapp (1991), p. 51.
- ^ Roy.12 F xiii[28]
- ^ Dines, Ilya (2005). "A hitherto unknown bestiary (Paris, BnF, MS Lat. 6838 B)". Rivista di studi testuali. 7: 96.
- ^ BnF Latin 6838 B[30]
- ^ a b McCulloch (1962), p. 142.
- ^ "MS 120: Bestiary". News & Features. University College Oxford. 14 October 2016. Retrieved 2022-09-24. With illustrations of siren and manticore.
- ^ "Oxford, Bodleian Library MS. Ashmole 1511, fol. 22v (manticora)". Digital Bodleian. 2017-04-12. Retrieved 2022-09-24.
- ^ "Oxford, Bodleian Library MS. Douce 151, fol. 18v (manticora)". Digital Bodleian. 2018-01-08. Retrieved 2022-09-24.
- ^ University College Library (Oxford), MS. 120,[33] Ashmole 1511, fol. 22v.,[34] Douce 151, ol. 18v.[35]
- ^ Clark (2006), p. 26. Due to the "three Solinus hybrids" being clustered into successive chapters. More on their interrelationships below.
- ^ "British Library Add MS 11283". Bodleian Library MS. Bodl. 764. Retrieved 2022-09-06.. "leucrota (alias lecrocuta)" fol. 7v; "cocodrillus" "manticora" fol. 8r; "parandrum" fol. 8v. Marginal notes indicate Solinus as source.
- ^ a b Clark (2006). "XXIII De manticora/Chapter 23 Manticor", p. 139 (Latin text and English tr.). The base text is British Library MS Add. 11283, dated to 1180s by Clark.
- ^ a b McCulloch (1962) "Manticore", pp. 142–143
- ^ By comparison of Latin texts
- ^ By comparison of English translations
- ^ Clark (2006), p. 26.
- ^ McCulloch (1962), p. 28.
- ^ McCulloch (1962), pp. 142–143.
- ^ McCulloch (1962), p. 31.
- Migne, J.P. Felix(ed.). Sæculum XI Hugonis de S. Victore.. Opera omnia. Patrologiæ cursus completus. Vol. 3. Paris: Apud Garnieri Fratres. p. 85.
- ^ Clark (2006), p. 13.
- ^ "Workshop Bestiary MS M.81 fols. 38v–39r". Morgan Library and Museum. 27 February 2018. Retrieved 2022-09-09.
- ^ a b c d Badke, David (26 August 2022). "Manuscripts: Manticore". The Medieval Bestiary: Animals in the Middle Ages. Retrieved 2022-09-06.
- ^ Clark (2006), p. 26: "three Solinus hybrids"
- ^ Clark (2006), "XXI De leucrotar/Chapter 23 Manticor", p. 139; "XII De crocodrillo/Chapter 22 Crocodile", p. 140; "XXIII De manticora/Chapter 23 Manticor", p. 141; "XXIV De parandro/Chapter 24 Parandrus", p. 141.
- ^ a b c McCulloch (1962), p. 191, n205.
- ^ Académie des inscriptions & belles-lettres (France) (1914). "Titulus I. De Digitatis viviparis Feris. Caput. 1 De Leone.". Histoire littéraire de la France. Vol. 34. Paris: Imprimerie nationale. pp. 385–389.
- ^ The "leucrocota" is given written "ceucocroca" by Honorius, aforementioned as Pierre de Beauvais's source. The ceu- being misread as "cen- in a manuscript" is "not improbable". "And doubtless the ending -ticora was the result of a scribe's attention dropping down a few lines in his source to the word manticora".[53]
- ^ McCulloch (1962), p. 191.
- ^ As according to George C. Druce (1911) McCulloch explains that Gauthier (Gossouin de Metz), in his Image du Monde gave the name "centicore", "leucrota", followed by a chapter on the yale but leaving out a name. This later caused a merge of "centicore" with description of the yale.[56]
- ISBN 9782738483485.
- Philippe de Thaun (1841). "The Bestiary of Philipee de Thaun". In Wright, Thomas (ed.). Popular Treatises on Science Written During the Middle Ages: In Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-Norman and English. London: Historical Society of Science. pp. 74–131.. For example, "Cocodrille, p. 85" corresponds to folio 50r of Cotton MS Nero A Vdigitized @ British Library.
- ^ White [1954] (1984), p. 48 Fig. "The Mantichora".
- ^ Topsell, Edward (1658). The History of Four-footed Beasts and Serpents. London: E. Cotes, for G. Sawbridge [etc.] pp. 343–345.
- ^ a b c d Topsell (1658) is a two volume in one reprint, with the "§ Mantichora" text and woodcut reprinted in pp. 343–345[61]
- ISBN 9789069801155.
- ^ Topsell, Edward (1607). The Historie of Foure-footed Beasts. London. p. 442., quoted from this edition (partly omitted in middle) by Diekstra (1998).[63]
- ^ a b c Thomas Evelyn Scott-Ellis Baron Howard de Walden (1904). Banners, Standards, and Badges: From a Tudor Manuscript in the College of Arms. De Walden Library. pp. 211–212.
- ^ a b "mantyger". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.); Murray, James A. H. ed. (1908) A New Eng. Dict. VI, s.v."mantyger", variant of Mantegar, Manticore.
- ^ Holme, Randle (1688). "Second book, Chapter X, LIII". The Academy of Armorie and Blazon. Chester. p. 212., quoted in Dennys (1975), p. 115.
- ^ Holme (1688), Second book, Chapter IX, XVII-XIX, p. 175, quoted in Dennys (1975), p. 115.
- ^ a b Dennys (1975), pp. 115–116.
- ^ Baring-Gould, Sabine; Twigge, Robert, eds. (1898). An Armory of the Western Counties. J.G. Commin. p. 89., for "Radforde"
- ^ a b c Rothery, Guy Cadogan (1915). A. B. C. of Heraldry. London: Stanley Paul & Co. p. 74.
- ^ Cott. MS. Cleop. C. v. fol. 59.[65]
- ^ Dennys (1975), p. 116.
- ^ a b "mantegar". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.); Murray, James A. H. ed. (1908) A New Eng. Dict. VI, s.v."Mantegar".
- ^ Dennys (1975), pp. 114–117.
- South from Granada, 1957
- OCLC 1026178.
Dante's image was profoundly modified, however, by Pliny's description – followed by Solinus – of a strange beast called Mantichora (Historia Naturalis, VIII, 30) which has the face of a man, the body of a lion, and a tail ending in a sting like a scorpion's
- S2CID 192984544. traces the chimeric image of Fraud backwards from Bronzino.
- ISBN 978-1-3500-5925-2.
- ^ "manticore". Encyclopedia Exandria. 2 August 2022. Retrieved 2023-04-25.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7869-6561-8.
- ISBN 9781560766193.
The manticore.. with a leonine torso and legs, batlike wings, am man's head, a tail tipped with iron spikes,.. stns 6 feet at the shoulder and meausres 15 feet in length. It has a 25-foot wingspan
- ^ Bennett, Tara (September 23, 2023). "Krapopolis Review: Beware of Greeks bearing too many poop jokes". IGN.
the monster mantitaur – that's half manticore, half centaur, so human plus lion plus scorpion plus horse – Shlub
- Bibliography
- Clark, Willene B. (2006). A Medieval Book of Beasts: The Second-family Bestiary : Commentary, Art, Text and Translation. Boydell Press. ISBN 9780851156828.
- , Clarkson N. Potter, Inc. 1976
- George, Wilma B.; ISBN 9780715622384.
- Nigg, Joe (1999). The Book of Fabulous Beasts: A Treasury of Writings from Ancient Times to the Present. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195095616.
- McCulloch, Florence (1962) [1960]. Mediaeval Latin and French Bestiaries (revised ed.). Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 9780807890332.; [ Reprint], C. N. Potter, 1976
- Pliny (1875). "Liber VIII. §75". Naturalis historiae libri XXXVII 21. (39). Translated by Mayhoff, Carolus [in German]. Lipsiae: In aedibus B.G. Teubneri.
- ISBN 9780486246093. Translated from the Latin (Cambridge Univ. Library MS. Ii.4.26).
External links
- "Manticore". The Medieval Bestiary.
- "Mantikhoras". Theoi Project.