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The manticore or mantichore (Latin: mantichorās; reconstructed Old Persian: ; Modern ) 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.
An early account of the manticore and of its naming occurs in Indica by Ctesias, 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 (μαρτιχόρα), which translated into Greek as androphagon or anthropophagon (ἀνθρωποφάγον), i.e., "man-eater". 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.
Ctesias was later cited by Pausanias regarding the martichoras or of India.
Photius's Myriobiblon (or Bibliotheca, 9th century) serves as base text, but Aelian ( De Natura Animalium, 3rd century) preserves the same information and more:
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.
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. But he also described the crocotta and the mantichora of Aethiopia together, and while the crocotta imitated the voices of men the mantichora of Aethiopia also mimicked human speech, on authority of Juba II, with a voice like the pipe (panpipe, fistula) mixed with trumpet.
Pliny did not share Pausanias' skepticism. 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. 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 bestiary some of which contained entries on the manticore.
The thick-maned (and long-bearded) manticore wearing a Phrygian cap is a commonplace design (fig., top left).
In most instances, the manticora is "coloured red or brown and has clawed feet". Artists took the liberty of coloring the manticore blue at times. One example is depicted "as a long-haired blond" (fig., top right). Another has the face of a woman and the body of a blue manticore (fig., bottom right) .
Most manuscripts do not bother detailing the scorpion tail and simply draw a long cat's tail, but in Harley MS 3244 the manticore has an "oddly pointed tail" or an "extraordinary spike on the end" of it, and a tail covered in spikes from end to end is shown on the manticore in several other second family manuscripts.
The three-rows of teeth are not faithfully represented except in some third family examples.
The text here describing the beast differs little from Pliny's Latin version in language,By comparison of Latin texts or the Greek version in content (paraphrased above).By comparison of English translations This is naturally the case, since much of Solinus was recopied out of Pliny. The manticora is here described as "bloody-colored" rather than "red like cinnabar".
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 "Manticore", pp. 142–143 (neither the broadest space nor the widest barrier can hinder it)".
Neither manticore nor leucrotta () appears in Philippe de Thaun's bestiary in Anglo-Norman verse.
Topsell thought the manticore was described by other names elsewhere. He thought that it was the "same Beast which Avicenna calleth Marion, and Maricomorion" and also, the same as the " Leucrocuta, about the bigness of a Asinus, 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 Badger".
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. This differs somewhat from the original sources which stated that they would crush the tail with stone to make them useless.
The mantyger is glossed as merely a variant reading of manticore in the OED, 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), while he describes the mantyger as having etc., and also noting that they may be horned or unhorned., Second book, Chapter IX, XVII-XIX, p. 175, quoted in .
The manticore first appeared in English heraldry in c. 1470, as a badge of William Hastings, 1st Baron Hastings; and in the 16th century.
The mantyger device was later used as a badge by Robert Radcliffe, 1st Earl of Sussex, and by Sir Anthony Babyngton. The Radforde's device was described as "3 mantygers argent" by one source, c. 1600. Thus in heraldic discourse the term "manticore" became usurped by " mantyger" during the 17–18th centuries, and " mantiger" in the 19th.
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. The Radcliffe family manticore appears to have human feet, 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. 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".
The typical heraldic manticore is supposed to have not only the face of an old man, but spiraling horns as well, although this is not really ascertainable in the Radcliffe family badge, where the purple manticore is wearing a yellow cap (cap of dignity ).
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 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.
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