Later, in The Life of Apollonius of Tyana, Greek writer Flavius Philostratus (c.
He followed Aristotle's natural history by including the martichoras – mistranscribed as manticorus in his copy of Aristotle – among his descriptions of animals in Naturalis Historia 8:30, c. Pliny the Elder did not share Pausanias' skepticism. 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. The beast described by Ctesias in his Indian history, which he says is called martichoras by the Indians and "man-eater" by the Greeks, I am inclined to think is the tiger. The Romanised Greek Pausanias, in his Description of Greece, recalled strange animals he had seen at Rome and commented: At any rate after hearing of the peculiarities of this animal, one must pay heed to the historian of Cnidos. Ctesias declares that he has actually seen this animal in Persia (it had been brought from India as a present to the Persian King) – if Ctesias is to be regarded as a sufficient authority on such matters. The sound of their voice is as near as possible that of a trumpet. Now the Indians hunt the young of these animals while they are still without stings in their tails, which they then crush with a stone to prevent them from growing stings. That this creature takes special delight in gorging human flesh its very name testifies, for in the Greek language it means man-eater, and its name is derived from its activities. All other animals it defeats: the lion alone it can never bring down.
And according to the same writer the Mantichore for choice devours human beings indeed it will slaughter a great number and it lies in wait not for a single man but would set upon two or even three men, and alone overcomes even that number. Now Ctesias asserts (and he says that the Indians confirm his words) that in the places where those stings have been let fly others spring up, so that this evil produces a crop. These stings which it shoots are a foot long and the thickness of a bulrush.
Any creature that the missile hits it kills the elephant alone it does not kill.
If one pursues the beast it lets fly its stings, like arrows, sideways, and it can shoot a great distance and when it discharges its stings straight ahead it bends its tail back if however it shoots in a backward direction, as the Sacae do, then it stretches its tail to its full extent. But the tip of the tail gives a fatal sting to anyone who encounters it, and death is immediate. To the end of its tail is attached the sting of a scorpion, and this might be over a cubit in length and the tail has stings at intervals on either side. Its ears also resemble a man's, except that they are larger and shaggy its eyes are blue-grey and they too are like a man's, but its feet and claws, you must know, are those of a lion. Its face however is not that of a wild beast but of a man, and it has three rows of teeth set in its upper jaw and three in the lower these are exceedingly sharp and larger than the fangs of a hound. There is in India a wild beast, powerful, daring, as big as the largest lion, of a red colour like cinnabar, shaggy like a dog, and in the language of India it is called Martichoras.
It passed into European folklore first through a remark by Ctesias, a Greek physician at the Persian court of King Artaxerxes II in the fourth century BC, in his book Indica ("India"), which circulated among Greek writers on natural history but has survived only in fragments, or references by those other writers.Īelian, in his work Characteristics of Animals, had a complete section dedicated to the manticore: The manticore myth was of Persian origin. The Greeks called it androphagos ( ἀνδροφάγος), which also means "man-eater". The English term "manticore" was borrowed from Latin mantichora, itself derived from the Greek rendering of the Persian name, μαρτιχόρας, martichoras. Its name means "man-eater" (from early Middle Persian مارتیا mardya "man" (as in human) and خوار khowr- "to eat").