Manticore

Come back to Ancient Persia with me in this week's episode, as we're looking at the terrifying Manticore! How did you (attempt) to kill this monster? How has it been linked to the Greeks? Find out this week!

Transcript

INTRO:

Hello and welcome to Myth Monsters, my name is Erin and I’ll be your host for these little snack bite size podcasts on folklore and mythical monsters from around the world. 

These podcasts focus on the actual cryptids, folklore and mythic monsters from global mythology, rather than focusing on full stories of heroes and their big adventures.

I’ll also be dropping in some references that they have to recent culture and where you can see these represented in modern day content so you can learn more, and get as obsessed as I am about these absolute legends of the mythological world.

It’s the last week of April if you can believe it - I’m all moved into my new place when you’re listening to this, although I’m recording two weeks in advance so that’s pretty wild! I’ve had such a busy few weeks personally, it’s been crazy - I hope you all had a wonderful few weeks and I’m glad to be present again!

DESCRIPTION:

This week we’re heading back over to Persia to look at a fearsome creature from Persian and also strangely, Greek mythology - that’s the horrible Manticore.

You’ve most likely heard of this legendary monster, especially if you know about the most similar monsters, the Sphinx or the Chimaera. The Manticore is described as having the body of a lion or tiger, the tail of a scorpion or a barbed poisonous tail with the face of a man. It has three rows of sharp teeth, able to eat its prey whole with no bones remaining and massive claws to help rip at the flesh. It’s sometimes said that the Manticore has bat-like wings that span massively, but it’s more of a modern adaptation, but I think it adds some cool monstrosity to this creature so I’m mentioning it. It can be extremely swift, with a taste for human flesh.

It’s said that the poisonous barbs on its tail can be fired like arrows, and if the Manticore instead has a scorpion tail, just one prick would be immediately fatal or even paralytic. They are exceptionally intelligent, and are able to mimic speech from the people around it, and its call is said to be melodious, like the low notes from a flute blown together with a trumpet - animals apparently know when to steer away from it because of this call. It will also not run from a fight, apparently having the power to take on several men at once, so probably give this one a miss if you can. 

In fact, don’t take it from me - take it from the guy the original myth came from the Byzantine Patriarch of Constantinople, Photius in his book Bibliotheca back in at least the 9th century;

The Martikhora...has a face like a man's, a skin red as cinnabar, and is as large as a lion. It has three rows of teeth, ears and light-blue eyes like those of a man; its tail is like that of a land scorpion, containing a sting more than a cubit long at the end. It has other stings on each side of its tail and one on the top of its head, like the scorpion, with which it inflicts a wound that is always fatal...to all animals except the elephant. The stings are about a foot long and about as thick as a small rush.

Now he didn’t call it the Manticore, this is because Martikhora was another word for this monster, and I’ll go onto why that’s relevant in the etymology section. 

So if you accidentally came across this monster, could you take it? If you’re an average Tom, Dick or Harry - probably not to be honest, I’m not sure why you would ever think you have a chance against a lion with a scorpion tail - if you did think that, I’m concerned you’re either delusional or potentially a demi-god, stranger things have happened. The only chance a person would have against a Manticore is the hope that when it was young and undeveloped, its stinger was crushed - rendering it weaker than normal. Or if you are an elephant - it’s said that elephants are the only creature that Manticores could not kill, and this is never explained so, hopefully you’re an elephant. I hate to say it, but if neither of these apply to you, you may as well accept your fate as fighting this monster really was considered a futile battle.

And where would you find this monster? Usually in a cave somewhere, I’m not sure it would be as mythical if it was blasé about its location. However, it was found mostly in the jungles India, Pakistan or sometimes even in Mesopotamia, which is what I mean when I say Persian, it’s now mostly Iraq, but historically includes Iran, Turkey, Syria and Kuwait. To be honest though, if you’re around one, it’ll find you first - by cunningly sticking just its head out of tall grass, tricking you into believing it’s a person - then it’ll attack you by surprise.

ORIGIN:

Now from that lovely topic, let’s move onto etymology. The word Manticore actually comes from a Persian word for the monster, Mantichoras, which roughly translates from mardya meaning man, and khowr meaning to eat, culminating into man-eater. However, the anglicised version comes from the Greek and Latin names for these monsters, which was Mantichora, also meaning man eater, so Manticore became a thing for ease realistically. Although the Greeks did also call it androphagos which also means maneater, but sounds cool.

There is actually another etymological link to this word, which is mantyger - which is quite obviously an amalgamation of man and tiger, which does work with the idea of a Manticore. However, this was a different monster altogether and was actually a monkey-like being, with tusks and horns that apparently looked a bit like a baboon. So if you see this anywhere, now you know. 

Now I have said numerous times that this monster is Persian in descent, but it’s not 100% true. The Manticore is very often considered a Greek myth monster, as the Greeks were the first scholars who wrote about this creature. However, the monster is founded in the same story, using both cultures - so it’s only because the Greek’s wrote about it first that it gets associated with them.

The first historical mention of the Manticore was by a Greek philosopher called Ctesias, in the court of a Persian King in the fourth century BC in a book called Indica. Although he never actually said that he saw this monster, this is the description given by the Persian King - and actually Ctesias didn’t believe him, which I think is pretty funny considering how gullible the Ancient Greeks were to folklore. 

To follow this, the Greek traveller Pausanias said in the second century BC in his book Description of Greece was that ‘The beast described by Ctesias in his Indian history, which he says is called martichoras 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.’

However, the famous Pliny the Elder disagreed with him entirely, and wrote in the infamous Naturalis Historia that the creatures existed in 77AD, which to be fair, is where we get a lot of our folklore tales about mythical beasts from in the modern era. It’s the longest lasting Roman text that we have, so it’s a pretty cool book.

Although, Pausanias wasn’t on his own in thinking it might be tigers. It was very much believed that the idea of the manticore was derived from the tiger, as it’s something that the Greeks would not have seen before, although they would have been familiar with lions, so we can see how the Manticore ended up with a lion’s body in this case. We can also understand that tigers and lions are the apex predators of both of these places, so it totally makes sense that people would try and get their loved ones to steer away from areas where these roamed. 

Also, the same as lions and tigers, the Manticore would eat the body of the victim - which could explain the origin of this story, if people were venturing into the jungle and did not return, it was a believable story when it could have realistically been a tiger, rather than a wonderfully created monster such as the Manticore, bit boring but hey - I think I know what I’d prefer to find. 

Now in real life, other than the lion and tiger comparison, there is actually a beetle called the Manticora, which are massive! They can grow up to two inches long, have huge mandibles and they eat scorpions and tarantulas for dinner, which really works with our scorpion tailed monster. They’re actually considered a symbol of death in some places in Africa - and they were named after the monster. They’re considered evil creatures and bad omens as the mandibles are apparently reminiscent of the scythe of death - so do keep an eye out if you’re ever in Africa and spot one hell of a beetle. 

They’re actually really cool looking, kind of like a stag beetle - and looks like they’re native to South Africa mostly, and also completely harmless to humans - so I think we’re good.

The Manticore has lived on in history though, as a sign of heraldry in France and other European countries. It’s on a whole load of coat of arms across the EU and is revered as one of the most famous and ingrained mythical creatures like the Gryphon, Dragon or Unicorn. 

CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE: 

Now onto modern media, for art this week there are a couple of heraldry bits you can have a look at, but they’re not really named - so I would love to suggest them, but it’s kind of an unknown! Otherwise, catch some of the awesome independent artwork, which is just super cool and really captures what these beasts would have looked liked.

For movies, we only really have two and that’s The Last Unicorn and Disney’s Onward, other movies mention them, such as in the Harry Potter universe, and in the Fantastic Beast movies but not featured. I believe they’re also mentioned in the Percy Jackson series, but not 100% sure. 

Fun fact for any Potter nerds, if you remember Blast Ended Skrewts in the books, they were actually the result of the mating of a Manticore and Fire Crabs - so there’s that too. They’re even featured in Hagrid's Motorcycle ride in the Harry Potter world, even though they were never brought to screen. You can look up pictures of this hideous, imaginary creature online.

For TV, there’s much more such as; RWBY, Adventure Time, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Tangled the Series, Wishfart, The Marvellous Misadventures of Flapjack, One Piece, Magic: Labyrinth of Magic, Grimm, Merlin & Power Rangers Mystic Force. 

There is also talk of Manticore’s being in the next Witcher series, as one of the Witcher schools is the Manticore, whilst our main man Geralt is from the school of the Wolf.

Now in video games, they’re featured really heavily - as most Greek/Persian monsters of this calibre. These include; Digimon, Civilisation: Beyond Earth, Cadash, Which Way Adventure, Age of Mythology, ARk: Survival Evolved, Dark Souls, Dragon's Dogma, Age of Wonder, Minecraft, Monster Hunter, Might and Magic, The Legend of Dragoon, The Witcher 3, Grim Dawn, God of War: Ascension, Dragon Crawl, Golden Sun, Warcraft, Total War: Warhammer, Monster Sanctuary, Titan Quest, Scribblenauts and Outward.

For my book recommendation this week, I would suggest looking at Myths from Mesopotamia Creation, The Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others by Stephanie Dalley, which perfectly goes over some brilliant elusive myths that really capture the Mesopotamian culture when it was a thing!

DO I THINK THEY EXISTED? 

Now it’s time for, do I think they existed? Right, well I think this one is a bit obvious - it’s a CGI nightmare gone wrong and I just can’t say that I think this one exists. Much like Ammit in Egyptian mythology (although, she’s a goddess, so it’s kind of different), it’s an amalgamation of monstrous creatures from the Persian and Greek world, and totally makes sense that it’s in folklore. 

However, did it ever exist - I think it’s gonna be a no from me here. I think potentially any ideas of it existing are a case of mistaken identity or just plain exaggeration, seems people were really quite scared of big cats and to be fair, I get it. 

These stories were most likely created to stop people from venturing into jungle areas without protection, especially rural based communities with children, who are the perfect lunch for a hungry tiger and her cubs. They were very much a one shot kill hungry monster, and unfortunately, we know that so are tigers if they’re pushed to that level of desperation. Although, I imagine back in the first century, there was so much more forestation, and tiger populations were huge - so I don’t imagine eating humans happened too often. 

I remember reading about Manticore when I was a kid within the Greek mythology, so it’s interesting to know that actually they existed within more than one mythos and actually, it was exactly the same monster - it’s definitely a first for the podcast in this regard.

But what do you think? Did Manticores roam the earth many moons ago? Let me know on Twitter!

OUTRO: 

What an awesome monster, I do like the crazy hybrid monsters that just seemingly come vomited out of folklore - it’s so fun to pull them apart and look at how they got there in the first place! This monster is definitely one that sticks out to me too, so it was really good to cover.

Next week, we’re not really heading anywhere as we’re looking at a world mythology figure as they’re not from a specific place, and are in a whole load of mythologies and that’s the wonderful Mermaid because what? It’s Mer-May, baby! Come swimming into our world next Thursday! 

For now, thank you so much for listening, it’s been an absolute pleasure. If you enjoyed this podcast, please give it a rating on the service you’re listening on - I’ve got the twitter for any questions, or suggestions on what monsters to cover next and I’d love to hear from you. The social media handles for Tiktok, Youtube and Instagram are mythmonsterspodcast, and twitter is mythmonsterspod. But all of our content can be found at mythmonsters.co.uk - you can also find us on Goodpods and Patreon if you want to help me fund the podcast, ya know if you feel like it.

Come join the fun and share this with your pals, they might love me as much as you do.

But for now, stay spooky and I’ll see you later babes.