The Manticore

The Manticore is depicted to have the body of a red lion, the blue-eyed head of a human, and the tail of a scorpion that is said to shoot poisonous darts at its victims. The monster’s origins are questionable since it is uncertain what mythology the Manticore is from. The best possible conclusion found was that, “It originated in Persian literature but was portrayed as a creature from Indian mythology.” (Miate)

From a Greek Historian named Ctesias, in a writing called the Indica, one of the first mentions of the Manticore, made in 5^th century BCE, describes the appearance and how the Manticore sounds. It sounds like a pipe sound mixed with a trumpet sound. 

The creature originally preyed on livestock but soon became known as a ‘maneater’ that eats its prey whole. The Manticore is known to be very intelligent, hiding in tall grass so people would walk up to the Manticore thinking it was another person but were tricked and eaten alive. The Manticore’s intelligence is from its human head giving it a brain it could use to think and produce ideas. The creature’s strong and fast lion body, and poisonous scorpion tail, has made the Manticore one of the strongest creatures in mythology. 

The Manticore is clever and will often attack people from behind with its claws or with the poisonous darts from its tail. The stinger grows back when one has been used. As strong as they are, the Manticore can not defeat a lion, as the lion would overpower and kill the Manticore. Humans can also kill the Manticore if they know how. The best way to kill a Manticore is to remove its scorpion tail, causing the creature to become so weak to the point you can easily cut its human head off. To stop Manticores from killing more humans, the Indians would hunt baby Manticores and smash their scorpion tails with rocks. As a result, the Manticores lived in burrows underground to hide from humans and other prey. 

The Manticore is mentioned in several books, movies, shows, games etc. The most recent known depictions of them in the media are in the Percy Jackson series, the Harry Potter Series, and Grimm, an amazing TV show that I recommend.