Manticore is a mythical beast usually depicted with the head of a man and the body of a lion. Sometimes it is shown with a scorpion tail and long, sharp teeth. Stories of the manticore originated in ancient Persia. The word manticore comes from an old Persian word for man-eater. The creature is said to devour its victims whole. The manticore is known from myths and legends since ancient times.
The Greek writer Ctesias and the Roman scholar Pliny the Elder wrote early accounts of the manticore. Medieval writers often included the manticore in bestiaries (books about beasts and animals). These later accounts describe the manticore as having red skin and blue eyes. The manticore is sometimes said to have three rows of sharklike teeth. Its voice is a combination of trumpets and pipes. In other accounts, manticores have wings, which may be webbed and batlike. In European heraldry, manticores appeared on family crests and badges in the Middle Ages. Later artistic interpretations of the manticore merged this beast with the sphinx. Over time, the myths and images of the manticore became less popular.
Today, the manticore is a popular figure in fantasy literature, appearing in J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” books and in Rick Riordan’s “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” series. In games, manticores appear as monsters to be slain in role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons and Pathfinder. The book and video game series “The Witcher” also includes a number of manticore encounters. In these, the manticore is portrayed as a deadly, brutal beast. In 1956, Italian composer Gian Carlo Menotti premiered a musical called “The Unicorn, the Gorgon, and the Manticore.” The main character in this musical is a poet who keeps the three named creatures as pets. The beasts function metaphorically as reminders of morality.
