Manticore
The mantichora reported by Pliny
A blood-coloured animal with a human face, a lion’s body, interlocking rows of teeth, and a scorpion-like sting: Pliny’s report attributed to Ctesias.
Quick answer
In Pliny’s account attributed to Ctesias, the mantichora is a swift animal of Æthiopia, especially fond of human flesh. It has a man’s face and ears, a lion’s body, three interlocking rows of teeth, and a tail tipped with a sting like a scorpion’s. Its voice combines the sounds of flute and trumpet.[1]
Quick facts
| Record type | Roman natural history: reported animal |
|---|---|
| Source markers | Pliny the Elder, Natural History 8.30 and 8.45, using Bostock and Riley’s chapter numbering |
| Name in the translation | Mantichora; indexed here under Manticore |
| Source realm | Æthiopia in Pliny’s account |
| Colour and eyes | Blood-coloured body; azure eyes (8.30) |
| Reported movement | Exceptional swiftness; no measured speed (8.30) |
| Food preference | Human flesh (8.30) |
| Separate vocal report | Juba’s claim that it imitates human speech (8.45) |
These are claims preserved by the text, not verified zoological observations.[1][2]
What Pliny reports
Chapter 30 surveys animals assigned to Æthiopia. Near its close, Pliny introduces the mantichora through Ctesias and gives its appearance, voice, speed, and appetite. The preceding sentences about wild bulls, pitfalls, and death from rage concern the bulls; they are not instructions for capturing a manticore.[1]
Chapter 45 supplies a separate, brief notice attributed to Juba: the mantichora of Æthiopia can imitate human speech. The chapter first describes the corocotta, including its parentage and continuous bony teeth. Those details belong to that other animal and are not part of Juba’s manticore notice.[2]
Description and reported abilities
The teeth in chapter 30 fit together like a comb. Bostock and Riley render the eyes as azure and the animal’s colour by comparison with blood. The human resemblance is specifically in its face and ears; Pliny gives the body of a lion, not a human torso. He supplies no numerical size or lifespan in these passages.[1]
The tail ends in a scorpion-like sting, but this passage does not describe fired spines, a venom mechanism, or a range of attack. Nor does it give the mantichora wings. The winged horses mentioned earlier in chapter 30 are other animals. Juba’s speech-imitation claim does not specify words, a conversation, or a method of luring prey.[1][2]
Mantichora preserves the spelling in this English edition. Manticore is the profile’s discovery heading, not the name of an individual animal. These passages do not explain the name’s derivation; this record therefore does not use an etymology to establish a different source tradition.
Source realm: Æthiopia in Pliny’s account
Chapter 30 places the animal among the Æthiopians already being discussed; chapter 45 explicitly names Æthiopia again. This profile retains that ancient geographical label without assigning modern borders, a precise habitat, or an independently documented local tradition.[1][2]
The archive groups this report under Folklore places, as it does Pliny’s basilisk and monoceros. The textual tradition remains Roman natural history. Their shared author does not make their stated locations one habitat or one invented world.
Books and references
- 1Pliny the Elder, The Natural History of Pliny, Volume II
Ancient work: first century CE. Translated with notes by John Bostock and H. T. Riley. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1855. Book 8, chapter 30 (also headed “(21.)”), “The Lynx, the Sphinx, the Crocotta, and the Monkey,” mantichora passage on p. 280. Public-domain edition transcribed as Project Gutenberg ebook 60230. Main text used; editorial footnote 1720 is not treated as Pliny’s own explanation.
Read Volume II, Book 8, chapter 30 ↗ - 2Pliny the Elder, Natural History 8.45
Same edition and translation, 1855. Chapter 45, “The Corocotta; the Mantichora,” p. 297: the closing sentence attributes speech imitation to Juba. This notice is distinguished from the preceding corocotta description and from the Ctesias report in chapter 30.
Read Volume II, Book 8, chapter 45 ↗ - 3Manticore illustration in Edward Topsell, The Historie of Foure-footed Beastes (1607)
Later image reference only; the Wikimedia Commons file record identifies the subject, book, and date, but not an individual image-maker. Public-domain historical artwork, published in 1607, reproduced in the file ManticoraTHoFFB1607.png. It is not used to reconstruct the ancient animal.
Image provenance and public-domain declaration ↗
