Manticores
Physically, the manticore
was know as having the body of a red lion, human face, ears and blue eyes,
three rows of teeth in each jaw, a fatal sting like a scorpion's in the end of
his tail, and poisoned spines along the tail which could be shot, like arrows
in any direction. The manticore was also attributed with having a voice that
was the mixture of pipes and a trumpet. The beast is very swift and has very
powerful leaps. The manticore is reputed to roam in the jungles of India, and
is known to have an appetite for humans. Like it's cousin, the Sphinx, it
would often challenge it's prey with riddles before killing.
The earliest accounts seem to be from Persian legend. The name itself is from
the old Persian martikhoras meaning 'man-eater'. The earliest accounts of the
existence of the manticore come from the Persian courts in the fifth century
B.C. documented by Ctesias, a Greek physician at the Persian court. Greek and
Roman authors (Aristotle, Pliny) described the beast the same way the Persians
had.
In the middle ages, the manticore was the emblem for the profit Jeremiah
because the manticore lives in the depths of the earth and Jeremiah had been
thrown into a dung pit. At the same time, the manticore became the symbol of
tyranny, disparagement and envy, and ultimately the embodiment of evil.
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