Although the manticore is rarely mentioned in ancient scientific books, medieval bestiaries abound in its descriptions. From there, the manticore migrated into folklore. Thus, in the 13th century, Bartholomew of England wrote about it, and in the 14th century, William Caxton wrote about it in his book “The Mirror of the World.” For Caxton, the manticore's three rows of teeth became "a palisade of huge teeth in her throat," and her voice, like the melody of a pipe, became "the sweet hiss of a snake, with which she attracts people to herself in order to then devour them."
In the 20th century, ideas about the manticore continued to evolve. For example, in the bestiary of the Polish science fiction writer Andrzej Sapkowski, the manticore acquired wings and learned to shoot in any direction with its poisoned spines. And in the novel by the English writer J. Rowling “Magical Beasts and Where to Find Them,” the manticore “after absorbing its next victim begins to purr quietly.” Also, according to Rowling, "the skin of a manticore reflects almost every known spell." In the story “Demon Hunter” by Russian science fiction writer Nikolai Basov, the manticore has the ability to heal its wounds almost instantly. In the film “Manticore” (2005), a manticore cannot be killed by anything, and only the gaze of another manticore (or its reflection) can turn it into stone. In the Grimm series (s3e11 "The Good Soldier" and s4e12 "The Gendarme"), manticores are depicted as dangerous and deadly creatures, devoid of the fear of death. The image of the Manticore is also found in modern animation. For example, in the animated American series “The Amazing Misadventures of Flapjack”, in one of the episodes the manticore is presented in the form of a lion with the face of a man and small wings, which becomes docile if tickled. The manticore was found in computer games series "Disciples", "Dark Souls" and "Might and Magic" - in "Heroes of Might and Magic III" and "Might and Magic 7" she looked like a lion with a scorpion tail and wings (looks similar in the animated series "My little pony" (s1e2 and s5e6)), in “Heroes of Might and Magic V” a human face was added to the image, and is also a non-player monster in the game “Allods Online” (also a lion with a scorpion tail and wings). The manticore is one of the key characters in the novel of the same name by Canadian writer Robertson Davis. Manticore was also reflected in one of the albums of the popular British group (Cradle Of Filth), namely in the 2012 album "The Manticore And Other Horrors".
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Excerpt characterizing the Manticore (monster)
“These are perfect robbers, especially Dolokhov,” said the guest. - He is the son of Marya Ivanovna Dolokhova, such a respectable lady, so what? You can imagine: the three of them found a bear somewhere, put it in a carriage and took it to the actresses. The police came running to calm them down. They caught the policeman and tied him back to back to the bear and let the bear into the Moika; the bear is swimming, and the policeman is on him.“The policeman’s figure is good, ma chere,” shouted the count, dying of laughter.
- Oh, what a horror! What's there to laugh about, Count?
But the ladies couldn’t help but laugh themselves.
“They saved this unfortunate man by force,” the guest continued. “And it’s the son of Count Kirill Vladimirovich Bezukhov who is playing so cleverly!” – she added. “They said he was so well-mannered and smart.” This is where all my upbringing abroad has led me. I hope that no one will accept him here, despite his wealth. They wanted to introduce him to me. I resolutely refused: I have daughters.
- Why do you say that this young man is so rich? - asked the countess, bending down from the girls, who immediately pretended not to listen. - After all, he only has illegitimate children. It seems... Pierre is also illegal.
The guest waved her hand.
“He has twenty illegal ones, I think.”
Princess Anna Mikhailovna intervened in the conversation, apparently wanting to show off her connections and her knowledge of all social circumstances.
“That’s the thing,” she said significantly and also in a half-whisper. – The reputation of Count Kirill Vladimirovich is known... He lost count of his children, but this Pierre was beloved.
“How good the old man was,” said the countess, “even last year!” I have never seen a more beautiful man.
“Now he’s changed a lot,” said Anna Mikhailovna. “So I wanted to say,” she continued, “through his wife, Prince Vasily is the direct heir to the entire estate, but his father loved Pierre very much, was involved in his upbringing and wrote to the sovereign... so no one knows if he dies (he is so bad that they are waiting for it) every minute, and Lorrain came from St. Petersburg), who will get this huge fortune, Pierre or Prince Vasily. Forty thousand souls and millions. I know this very well, because Prince Vasily himself told me this. And Kirill Vladimirovich is my second cousin on my mother’s side. “He baptized Borya,” she added, as if not attributing any significance to this circumstance.
– Prince Vasily arrived in Moscow yesterday. He’s going for an inspection, they told me,” the guest said.
“Yes, but, entre nous, [between us],” said the princess, “this is an excuse, he actually came to Count Kirill Vladimirovich, having learned that he was so bad.”
“However, ma chere, this is a nice thing,” said the count and, noticing that the eldest guest was not listening to him, he turned to the young ladies. – The policeman had a good figure, I imagine.
And he, imagining how the policeman waved his arms, laughed again with a sonorous and bassy laugh that shook his entire plump body, as people laugh who have always eaten well and especially drunk. “So, please, come and have dinner with us,” he said.
There was silence. The Countess looked at the guest, smiling pleasantly, however, without hiding the fact that she would not be at all upset now if the guest got up and left. The guest’s daughter was already straightening her dress, looking questioningly at her mother, when suddenly from the next room several men’s and women’s feet were heard running towards the door, the crash of a chair being snagged and knocked over, and a thirteen-year-old girl ran into the room, wrapping her short muslin skirt around something, and stopped in the middle rooms. It was obvious that she accidentally, with an uncalculated run, ran so far. At the same moment a student with a crimson collar, a guards officer, a fifteen-year-old girl and a fat, ruddy boy in a children's jacket appeared at the door.
The count jumped up and, swaying, spread his arms wide around the running girl.
- Oh, here she is! – he shouted laughing. - Birthday girl! Ma chere, birthday girl!
“Ma chere, il y a un temps pour tout, [Darling, there is time for everything,” said the countess, pretending to be stern. “You keep spoiling her, Elie,” she added to her husband.
“Bonjour, ma chere, je vous felicite, [Hello, my dear, I congratulate you,” said the guest. – Quelle delicuse enfant! “What a lovely child!” she added, turning to her mother.
A dark-eyed, big-mouthed, ugly, but lively girl, with her childish open shoulders, which, shrinking, moved in her bodice from fast running, with her black curls bunched back, thin bare arms and small legs in lace pantaloons and open shoes, I was at that sweet age when a girl is no longer a child, and a child is not yet a girl. Turning away from her father, she ran up to her mother and, not paying any attention to her stern remark, hid her flushed face in the lace of her mother’s mantilla and laughed. She was laughing at something, talking abruptly about a doll that she had taken out from under her skirt.
– See?... Doll... Mimi... See.
And Natasha could no longer speak (everything seemed funny to her). She fell on top of her mother and laughed so loudly and loudly that everyone, even the prim guest, laughed against their will.
- Well, go, go with your freak! - said the mother, feigning angrily pushing her daughter away. “This is my youngest,” she turned to the guest.
Natasha, taking her face away from her mother’s lace scarf for a minute, looked at her from below through tears of laughter and hid her face again.
The guest, forced to admire the family scene, considered it necessary to take some part in it.
The manticore is perhaps the most bloodthirsty and dangerous of creatures. She has the body of a lion, a human face, blue eyes and a voice like the sound of a pipe. But its main and most terrible features are three rows of teeth in its mouth, a poisonous sting at the end of its tail, like a scorpion, and poisonous spines on its tail, which the manticore can shoot in any direction. Finally, “manticore” translated from Farsi means “man-eater”.
We find the first mention of the manticore in the books of the Greek physician Ctesias, already well known to the reader. Thanks to Ctesias, many Persian myths became known to the Greeks. Further Greek and Roman descriptions repeat the main characteristics of the man tikora given by Ctesias - a lion's body covered with red hair, three rows of teeth and a tail with a poisonous sting and poisoned spines. Aristotle and Pliny directly refer to Ctesias in their writings.
However, the most complete ancient description manticores made in the 2nd century AD. e. Elian. He gives several interesting details: “She strikes anyone who approaches her with her sting... The poisonous spines on her tail are comparable in thickness to the stem of a reed, and are about 30 centimeters long... She is capable of defeating any animal, with the exception of a lion.” . Although it is clear that Aelian, like Aristotle and Pliny, derived his knowledge of the manticore from Ctesias, he adds that detailed information about this monster is contained in the work of the historian Cnidus. In the 2nd century AD e. Philostratus of Lemnos mentions the manticore as one of the miracles about which Apollonius questions Iarchus on the Hill of the Sages.
Although the manticore is rarely mentioned in ancient scientific books, medieval bestiaries abound in its descriptions. From there, the manticore migrated to natural science works and folklore. In the 13th century, Bartholomew of England wrote about it, and in the 14th century, William Caxton wrote about it in his book “The Mirror of the World.” For Caxton, the manticore's three rows of teeth become "a palisade of huge teeth in her throat," and her pipe-like voice becomes "the sweet hiss of a serpent, with which she draws people to her in order to devour them." This appears to be the only time a manticore has been confused with a siren.
During the Renaissance, the manticore found its way into the pages of Conrad Gesner's "History of Animals" and Edward Topsell's "History of Quadruped Beasts." Since the 18th century, the manticore has not been mentioned in any serious scientific work, with the exception of those devoted to the study of myths.
As already mentioned, over the centuries only minor details have been added to the description of the manticore. For example, Pliny writes that her eyes are not blue, but green, Bartholomew of England says that “she has the furry body of a bear,” and on some medieval coats of arms the manticore is depicted with a crooked or spiral horn on its head, and sometimes with a tail and dragon wings. However, such changes made by different authors had little effect on the general idea of the manticore - since the time of Ctesias, there has been only one “species” of the manticore.
Although they have repeatedly tried to connect the origin of the manticore with the Indian beast “makara”, the European werewolf and other creatures, it would be most correct, obviously, to say that it “comes” from the Indian tiger. This assumption was made back in the 2nd century AD. e. commentator Ctesias Greek writer Pausanias. He believed that the jaws with teeth in three rows, the human face and the tail of a scorpion were nothing more than “the fantasy of Indian peasants who are terrified of this animal.” According to Valentine Ball, the legend of three rows of teeth could arise from the fact that the molars of some predators have several sharp rows on each, and the sting of a manticore is a keratinized area of skin at the tip of a tiger's tail, reminiscent of a claw in appearance. In addition, according to Indian belief, the tiger's whiskers are considered poisonous. Wilson believes that the ancient Persians saw the human face of a manticore on Indian sculptures of a tiger deity.
In the Middle Ages, the manticore became the emblem of the prophet Jeremiah, since it is an underground creature, and Jeremiah was thrown into a deep pit by his enemies. In folklore, the manticore has become a symbol of tyranny, envy, and evil in general. Back in the late 30s of this century, Spanish peasants considered the manticore “a beast of bad omens.”
Since the Middle Ages, the manticore comes to fiction. The 13th century novel “Tsar Alexander” says that off the coast of the Caspian Sea, Alexander the Great lost 30 thousand of his warriors in battles with lions, bears, dragons, unicorns and manticores. In John Skelton's poem "Philip the Sparrow" (18th century), a little girl, addressing the cat who killed her favorite bird, says: "May the mountain manticores eat your brain." In George Wilkins's play The Misfortunes of Forced Marriage, one of the characters compares moneylenders to "manticores, the enemies of mankind, who have two rows of teeth."
The manticore is one of the tempting beasts in Flaubert's novella The Temptation of Saint Anthony. Flaubert's manticore is also a red lion with a human face and three rows of teeth; In addition, she spreads the plague.
In Piers Anthony's fantasy story "The Chameleon's Spell," a manticore, "a creature the size of a horse, with the head of a man, the body of a lion, the wings of a dragon, and the tail of a scorpion," guards the home of a good wizard.
Images of the manticore are no more common than mentions of it in literature. Most of them are book illustrations. Unlike scientists and writers, artists allowed themselves to treat the image of a manticore with a greater degree of imagination. The manticore was depicted with long female hair and with arrows on its tail. The only depiction of three rows of teeth can be seen in the Westminster bestiary. A manticore graces a 13th-century world map of Hereford. The most detailed illustration is reproduced in a 17th-century bestiary. It depicts a creature with the head of a man, the body of a lion, the tail of a scorpion, the wings and claws of a dragon, the horns of a cow and the udder of a goat.
Pictures from bestiaries inspired many decorators Christian churches. An image of a manticore can be seen on the octagonal column in Suwiny Abbey, on mosaics in cathedrals in Aosta and Cahors, where the manticore personifies Saint Jeremiah.
Over its more than two thousand-year history, the manticore has changed little and, despite attempts made in the current century to give it virtuous traits, it remains a symbol of bloodthirstiness.
Manticore
Boris Vallejo - Manticore
(Mythical monster (Manticore)
Material from Wikipedia
Manticore(Mythical monster (Manticore)
Manticore- a fictional creature, a monster the size of a horse, with the head of a man, the body of a lion and the tail of a scorpion.
Manticore(lat. Manticora, Epibouleus Oxisor) - a fictional creature - a monster with the body of a red lion, the head of a man and the tail of a scorpion. The creature has a red mane, three rows of teeth and bloodshot eyes. The manticore's tail ends in spikes, the poison of which kills instantly.
The Indians called the man-eating tiger manticore (translated from Farsi as cannibal). The sharp edges of the teeth of many carnivores can create the feeling that there are several rows of teeth in the mouth. The black, keratinized tip of the tail resembles a claw. In addition, according to ancient beliefs, tiger whiskers were considered poisonous. The Persians saw a human face in the image of a tiger-deity and passed on the resulting description of the manticore to the Greeks.
It was believed that the manticore is a predator and can hunt people. Therefore, in medieval miniatures you can often see an image of a manticore with a human hand or foot in its teeth.
The first mention of the manticore is found in the books of the Greek physician Ctesias, thanks to whom many Persian myths became known to the Greeks. Aristotle and Pliny the Elder directly refer to Ctesias in their writings.
He (Ctesias) assures that the Indian beast “martichora” has a triple row of teeth on both lower and upper jaws, and it is the size of a lion and just as hairy, its legs resemble the legs of a lion; his face and ears resemble those of a human; his eyes are blue, and he himself is bright red; its tail is the same as that of an earthen scorpion - it has a sting in its tail and it has the ability to shoot needles attached to its tail like arrows; his voice is a cross between the sound of a pipe and a trumpet; he can run as fast as a deer and he is also wild and a cannibal.
(Aristotle's History of Animals)
However, the most complete of the ancient descriptions of the manticore was made in the 2nd century AD. e. Elian. He gives several interesting details: “She strikes anyone who approaches her with her sting... The poisonous spines on her tail are comparable in thickness to the stem of a reed, and are about 30 centimeters long... She is capable of defeating any animal, with the exception of a lion.” . In the 2nd century AD e. Flavius Philostratus the Elder mentions the manticore as one of the miracles about which Apollonius of Tyana questions Iarchus on the Hill of the Sages.
Although the manticore is rarely mentioned in ancient scientific books, medieval bestiaries abound in its descriptions. From there, the manticore migrated into folklore. Thus, in the 13th century, Bartholomew of England wrote about it, and in the 14th century, William Caxton wrote about it in his book “The Mirror of the World.” For Caxton, the manticore's three rows of teeth became "a palisade of huge teeth in her throat," and her voice, like the melody of a pipe, became "the sweet hiss of a snake, with which she attracts people to herself in order to then devour them."
In the 20th century, ideas about the manticore continued to evolve. For example, in the bestiary of the Polish science fiction writer Andrzej Sapkowski, the manticore acquired wings and learned to shoot in any direction with its poisoned spines. And in the novel by the English writer J. Rowling “Magical Beasts and Where to Find Them,” the manticore “after absorbing its next victim begins to purr quietly.” Also, according to Rowling, “the skin of a manticore reflects almost every known spell.” In the story “Demon Hunter” by Russian science fiction writer Nikolai Basov, the manticore has the ability to heal its wounds almost instantly. The image of the Manticore is also found in modern animation. For example, in the American animated series “The Amazing Misadventures of Flapjack,” in one of the episodes the manticore is presented in the form of a lion with the face of a man and small wings, which becomes docile if tickled. The manticore was found in the computer games of the "Might and Magic" series - in "Heroes of Might and Magic III" and "Might and Magic 7" it looked like a lion with a scorpion tail and wings (it looks similar in the latest animated series "My Little Pony"), in "Heroes of Might and Magic V" a human face has been added to the image, and is also a non-player monster in the game "Allods Online" (also a lion with a scorpion tail and wings). The manticore is one of the key characters in the novel of the same name by Canadian writer Robertson Davis.
Manticore - Manticore - The story of this terrible creature can be found in Aristotle (IV century BC) and Pliny the Elder (1st century AD). The manticore is the size of a horse, has a human face, three rows of teeth, a lion's body and a scorpion's tail, and red, bloodshot eyes. The manticore runs so fast that it covers any distance in the blink of an eye. This makes it extremely dangerous - after all, it is almost impossible to escape from it, and the monster feeds only on fresh human meat. Therefore, in medieval miniatures you can often see an image of a manticore with a human hand or foot in its teeth.
In medieval works on natural history, the manticore was considered to be real, but living in deserted places.
The proof that the manticore exists was the disappearance of people. Moreover, if they disappeared without a trace, this was considered the presence of a monster, because it ate its victims without a hundred dollars, along with their clothes.
Manticore
India and Indonesia are most often called the habitat of the manticore, since quite a lot of people disappear in the jungle there.
The earliest legends are considered to be Persian. The name itself comes from the old Persian martikhoras meaning “ogre.” This word went into European mythology.
Pausanias, in his Description of Greece, recalled in his pages the strange animals he saw in Rome:
"The animal described by Ctesias in his Indian History is called martichoras, which means man-eater. I am inclined to think it is a lion, but it has three rows of teeth along each jaw and spines at the tip of its tail, which it can throw like arrows at enemies; all this, I think, is a false story invented by the Indians due to their excessive fear of this animal." 
During the Middle Ages, the Manticore was an extremely popular animal and was often illustrated in bestiaries with body parts in its teeth.
Manticore - illustration of a medieval bestiary
The thirteenth-century novel about Alexander the Great, King Alexander, states that he lost 30,000 men to animals such as snakes, lions, bears, dragons, unicorns, and manticores. However, already in the second century AD, authors began to think that mythical monster was nothing more than a man-eating Indian tiger.
The last manifestation of the munticore was in 16th century heraldry. This often influenced Mannierist artists, who included this animal in their works. But more often in decorative paintings called grotesques. The manticore signified the sin of fraud - a chimera with the face of a beauty. Then this image passed on to the 17th-18th centuries as a sphinx
In the Middle Ages, the mythical monster was an emblem for the prophet Jeremiah. At the same time, the mythical monster became a symbol of tyranny, envy, and ultimately the embodiment of evil.
500 BC e. a young native of Sparta, Ctesias, was captured by the Persians. There it occurred to him to write historical works about different countries. The sources of information were slaves of different nationalities. Returning to his homeland, Ctesias compiled his works into several historical treatises. In a work called "Indica" he mentioned a terrible monster called the manticore.
general description
Even in ancient times, the works of Ctesias raised doubts about their reliability. The ancient Greek philosopher Plutarch openly declared the distortion of facts by the historian. The works of Ctesias have survived to this day in rewritten form. Researchers have proven that the bulk of the text is fictitious. In this case, questions arise: did the manticore exist and whether Ctesias could have confused it with other mythical creatures.
Appearance
According to the descriptions, the manticore looked like this:
- human head;
- the body and paws of a lion;
- scorpion tail;
- red mane;
- blood red fur;
- 3 rows of sharp teeth;
- claw-daggers;
- Blue eyes.
The size of the monster was like a large horse. The manticore's voice was like the sounds of a pipe and a trumpet at the same time. She could hiss like a snake. The scorpion's tail, 30 cm long, was completely covered with poisonous spines the size of reed stems.
Later, the monster acquired wings and skin that reflected magic spells. The blue eyes turned red and the teeth moved from the mouth to the throat. The manticore began to be depicted with a part human body in her teeth in confirmation of her cannibalistic tendencies.
Interpretation of the role of the manticore in myths
There are several versions of the interpretation of the role of such a creature as the manticore.
- Man-eating beast.
- Avatar of the god Vishnu.
- Sphinx.
- Chimera.
Due to the fact that the sources in which this creature is described are definitely questionable, each version has the right to exist.
Manticore beast
Based on this version, it can be argued that the manticore is an ancient creature, a fiend of hell. The animal's favorite delicacy was fresh human flesh. The monster could only be tamed with the help of magic. Black magicians used her as a guard. But the manticore guard was not very good: having caught a person, she did not give him to the sorcerers, but immediately devoured him. The monster had the following qualities:
- high speed of movement in space;
- mastery of hypnosis;
- throwing poisonous spikes at a distance;
- instant regeneration of lost thorns;
- silent movement;
- so much strength that you can rip a person's body with claws;
- cunning and deceit.
In the Middle Ages, the beast was considered a real creature living in India. It was believed that the monster lives in crowded places. At night, the insidious beast tracked down a lonely victim and devoured him, not leaving even a scrap of clothing. All those missing were attributed to the tricks of the manticore.
According to legend, the monster was afraid only of lions, and willingly entered into battle with all other animals. A medieval source describes a case of a manticore killing a basilisk. People believed that if you cut off a monster's poisonous tail, it would die, so the bravest men in India hunted the manticore.
The fourth avatar of the god Vishnu
Hindus believed that before the creation of the world, 3 powerful gods united to form the Trimurti (Hindu trinity). Brahma created the Universe, Shiva brought evil there, and Vishnu brought good. The duty of the god Vishnu was to maintain the balance of good and evil in the Universe. Each time, descending to earth to restore justice, he took on a new appearance (avatar). There are 9 avatars of the god Vishnu:
- Matsya fish;
- Kurma turtle;
- boar Vasaha;
- manticore Narasimha;
- dwarf Vamana;
- common man Parashurama;
- Prince Rama;
- warrior Krishna;
- Buddha.
Hindus believe that there will be a tenth reincarnation. God Vishnu in his usual appearance will descend to earth on a white horse with the sword of justice in his hands. With the help of this sword he will restore order on earth forever. In Indian legends there is a legend about the Fourth Avatar. According to her, Vishnu took the form of a lion man. This reincarnation was called Narasimha manticore.
When Hiranyakasipu satisfied Brahma, he endowed him with unlimited power: with the exception of the Trimurti trio, all the gods were subordinate to Hiranyakasipu. The demon reveled in power, bathed in luxury, and committed lawlessness and debauchery.
The last straw of his lawlessness was the attempt to kill his own son, a devotee of the god Vishnu. A moment before the massacre, Vishnu appeared from the column in the form of a manticore. He attacked Hiranyakasipu with lightning speed and absorbed him. Manticore restored justice.
Image of the Sphinx
In the myths of Persia, the manticore is described as a creature that loved to ask riddles to lonely wanderers. If the traveler guessed the riddle, the monster let him go; if not, he devoured him. This description is very reminiscent of the Greek Sphinx - a relative of the popular Egyptian watchman of the same name.
According to ancient Greek myths, the Theban king Laius brought down the wrath of the goddess Hera, the patroness of family and marriage, for sodomy. As punishment, Hera sent the Sphinx to Thebes to guard the only road leading to the city. The inhabitants of Thebes found themselves cut off from other places, and very soon famine began in the city.
The only opportunity to pass by the Sphinx was given to the one who guessed her tricky riddle: “Who walks on 4 legs in the morning, 2 legs at lunchtime, and 3 legs in the evening?” Nine muses, the goddesses of art and reason, came up with such a riddle for the Sphinx, but none of the Thebeans could find it. the right decision, and they were strangled by the monster. When the wise Oedipus answered the Sphinx that the answer was man, the proud creature threw itself off the cliff, freeing the city.
In addition to the passion for asking deadly riddles, the Sphinx and the manticore have similarities in appearance. The ancient Greeks depicted a mythical creature with the body of a lion, which symbolized the extraordinary physical strength, and the head of a woman, as a symbol of intelligence and cunning.
Manticore and Chimera
Still the same Ancient Greece knew another creature that could be confused with a manticore. Daughter of Typhon and Echidna, sister of Cerberus, Hydra and Sphinx, Chimera is the most ridiculous mythical creature from ancient Greek mythology. The evil creature spent his entire life doing harm to people, destroying fields, gardens and livestock.
The Chimera had the body of a goat and the head of a lion. Like the manticore, she had a red lion's mane and a poisonous tail. True, in the description of the ancient Greek mythical monster, the tail is similar to that of a snake, but, given the length of the manticore’s tail, they can be safely identified.
The chimera could spew flames from its mouth, which it used to destroy the human economy. When the king got tired of her latest trick, he sent the hero Bellerophon to destroy the monster. To help the noble husband, the king gave a winged Pegasus. According to legend, Bellerophon soared into the sky so high that the fiery breath of the Chimera could not reach him. Then the hero began to shoot arrows at the monster and every single one of them pierced the Chimera’s body. In terrible agony, the monster fell onto a rock and died.
In the description of the death of the Chimera, analogies can also be drawn with the manticore. At the beginning of the fight, she growled menacingly, then hissed furiously, and, struck by Bellerophon’s arrows, she squealed like a goat. The manticore could make trumpet sounds similar to a growl and pipe sounds similar to the bleating of a goat. The hiss of a manticore is similar to that of a snake. In the myth, the Chimera, studded with arrows, from a height of flight appears to the hero as a creature bristling with black needles.
The image of a creature in art
Indian mythology is still considered an underexplored area. This is due to its unsystematic nature. Similar new ones are added to the old mythical creatures, but under different names. One gets the feeling that Indians themselves do not remember their myths.
The image of the manticore is still a mystery. One can only imagine what a manticore looks like, but it is impossible to understand what kind of animal it is. On the one hand, this is a cruel, bloodthirsty monster, on the other, an irreconcilable fighter for justice.
Nowadays, the image of the manticore is actively used in literature and cinema in the genre of mysticism and fantasy. The popular English writer J. K. Rowling used this image in her latest book, and in the acclaimed series “Game of Thrones,” the dragon lord Daenerys Stormborn in one of the episodes talks about manticores as sacred magical creatures.
An ancient mythical creature, a dangerous predator with a blood-red lion's body and a human head. Its tail is crowned with a scorpion sting.
Origin of the manticore
This creature came to us from India, but Ctesias, a Greek physician, first described it in his writings. According to him, the manticore or “manticore” (in the Indian manner) reached the size of a lion and had an equally thick coat of fur, which shone bright red, like blood. The head of the manticore looked more like a human, its bright blue eyes hypnotized the victim so that she could not move from fear. Horror was inspired by her sharp teeth, three rows of which crowned the mouth of a terrible predator, and the tail of a scorpion, in the needle of which there was a terrible poison. Ctesias also noted that in addition to the scorpion's sting, the manticore's tail had needles with which the monster could pierce its victim from a distance, like arrows. The manticore's voice was like the sounds of a pipe and a trumpet at the same time. During the hunt, the manticore hid in the jungle and attacked large animals and people passing by. Of all the creatures on earth, she was most afraid of fighting a lion, because only he could defeat her.
Many of Ctesias’s contemporaries, and even scientists of a later time, were skeptical of his words, suggesting that the frightened Hindus mistook the most ordinary tiger for a terrible monster, because in movement the stripes of this big cat merged, which is why it seemed that the tiger’s skin turned red shade. And the creepy teeth and tail are inventions of frightened residents.
And yet the description of a predator is found in the works of such great people as Aristotle in his “History of Animals”, Pausanias in the pages of “Description of Hellas”, Pliny in “Natural History” and Solinus in “Collection of Landmarks”. Thanks to the light hand of the last two authors, the formidable predator manticore lost its tail, studded with sharp spines, with which it could hit a target at a distance. The poor predator was left to be content with a scorpion sting, but Solin immediately notes in his work that this cat (and the manticore can easily be classified as a member of the cat family), is distinguished by incredible jumping ability and its jump is so far that no distances or obstacles can stop it.
On the pages of the Middle Ages
The manticore has become firmly entrenched in many books over the centuries, especially medieval bestiaries. And although it has undergone some changes over the years, the main features of this mythical creature have remained unchanged - blood-red skin, rows of knife-sharp teeth, a scorpion tail and a love of human flesh. In medieval miniatures, this predator was most often depicted with some part of a person in its teeth to emphasize its cannibal nature.
But that’s where the resemblance to the ancient image ended. In the Middle Ages, the manticore was rewarded with a snake hiss, which it used to lure its prey. The triple row of teeth, according to some writings, turned into a palisade going straight into the throat.
Some scientists, inspired by the works of their ancient colleagues, added new abilities to the manticore. Thus, Honorius Augustodunsky endowed the mythical creature with the ability not only to jump long distances, as Solin wrote, but also to fly.
The place of the manticore in the modern world
Many writers, such as Andrzej Sapkowski and Joanne Rowling, could not remain indifferent to such a ferocious and formidable creature and placed the manticore on the pages of their own bestiaries.
There is no limit to human imagination, and Sapkowski returned to the manticore its tail with sharp needles, with which it can strike the enemy in absolutely any direction, and a pair of wings grew on its back. The formidable predator has become even more dangerous.
Rowling, in her book Magical Beasts and Where to Find Them, endowed the manticore's skin with immunity to magic. Now any spells are useless against this creature. Writer David Robertson gave the manticore human consciousness and the ability to speak, and Russian science fiction writer Nikolai Basov made it capable of regeneration.
In addition to books, the manticore also appeared on television screens in the film "Manticore" and the television series "Grimm". Many are familiar with it from such famous and beloved games as “Heroes of Might and Magic III”, “ Titan Quest", "The Age of Mythology", "Artorias from the Abyss". Similar characters are found in the World of Warcraft universe.