Manticore
A man-faced lion with three rows of teeth and a scorpion tail that shot venomous spines
The Myth of Manticore
Ctesias brought it back from Persia — or rather, he brought back the description. The manticore had the body of a red lion, the face of a man with blue-grey eyes, three rows of teeth in each jaw like a shark, and a tail that ended in a scorpion's sting capable of launching venomous spines at a distance. It was fast enough to outrun a horse and strong enough to carry off an ox.
The name came from the Persian martikhora — "man-eater" — which told you its primary habit. It lived in the Indian mountains, and it ate humans by preference, bones and all. The triple rows of teeth ground everything to nothing, leaving no remains. This, Ctesias noted, explained why so many people vanished without trace in the regions it inhabited.
Appearance and Powers
Aristotle was skeptical. He mentioned the manticore only to express doubt, noting that Ctesias was known for unreliable reporting. Pausanias similarly treated it as a traveller's exaggeration, possibly based on the Indian tiger — an animal the Greeks had never seen but heard described in terms that grew wilder with each retelling.
Pliny accepted it more readily and added details: its voice was a hissing whistle, like a trumpet played through reeds. Aelian elaborated that it could shoot its tail-spines in any direction and that they regrew immediately.
Encounters with Heroes
The manticore persisted into medieval bestiaries and from there into modern fantasy. Ctesias would be astounded to learn that his dubious Persian report, written around 400 BC, was still generating creatures in games and novels twenty-four centuries later.
Parents
Persian origin (martikhora)
Symbols
Fun Fact
Aristotle specifically called out the manticore as probably fake — making it one of the earliest creatures in history to receive a formal scientific debunking
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth. See our full guide to English words from Greek mythology.
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