Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of
Speaker 1: My Heart Radio. Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and
Speaker 1: this is the Monster Fact, a short form series from
Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind, focusing in on mythical creatures,
Speaker 1: ideas and monsters in time. The gleam of my scarlet
Speaker 1: hair mingles with the reflection of the great sands. I
Speaker 1: breathe through my nostrils. The terror of solitudes. I spit
Speaker 1: forth plague. I devour armies when they venture into the desert.
Speaker 1: My claws are twisted like screws, my teeth shaped like saws,
Speaker 1: and my curving tail bristles with darts, which I cast
Speaker 1: to right and left, before and behind. See see These
Speaker 1: are the words of the Manticore, as related in Gustave
Speaker 1: Flaubert's eighteen seventy four dramatic poem The Temptation of Saint Anthony.
Speaker 1: The monster itself, however, is no mere French literary creation.
Speaker 1: It emerges from the pages and dreamscapes of antiquity and beyond.
Speaker 1: By virtue of its depictions and mythic riddles. The sphinx
Speaker 1: tends to enjoy far greater fame among fantastic lion human hybrids,
Speaker 1: but the manticore is even more fabulous in form. While
Speaker 1: it does possess the body of a lion and the
Speaker 1: head of a man, it also boasts a tale of
Speaker 1: fans spikes that may be launched at its adversaries like
Speaker 1: venomous missiles. The monster's face makes it even more chimerical,
Speaker 1: not perfectly human, but colored a deep red and possessing
Speaker 1: a cavernous maw full of interlocking teeth that Pliny the
Speaker 1: Elder compared to those of a comb. The Roman plain
Speaker 1: was fighting the work of earlier Greek physician Cetasius, who
Speaker 1: would have lived in Anatolia now part of Turkey during
Speaker 1: the fifth century b CE. He also states that the
Speaker 1: creature's cry is like that of a flute and a
Speaker 1: trumpet combined, and that above all else, it craves the
Speaker 1: taste of human flesh. While the Manticor's popularity in Western
Speaker 1: traditions and in the Christian Church would span centuries, the
Speaker 1: creature's origins seemed to date back to ancient Mesopotamia, perhaps
Speaker 1: as a distortion of the Persian mard cora, meaning man slayer.
Speaker 1: Noted scholar Dorothea McEwen also pointed to some of the
Speaker 1: similarities between the manticore and the Ethiopian Sebitat, a human
Speaker 1: headed lion with serpents for tales. It lacks only the
Speaker 1: teeth in its resemblance to the manticor, and to be sure,
Speaker 1: plenty points to Ethiopian origins for the Manticor as well. However,
Speaker 1: many sources speak of the manticore as a creature of
Speaker 1: ultimate Persian origins, but the manticore itself seems rather unconcerned
Speaker 1: with such distinctions. All human beings are equal in its eyes,
Speaker 1: creatures worthy of mockery, hunting, and ravenous consumption. Thanks to
Speaker 1: my son Sebastian for suggesting this episode as he was
Speaker 1: reading through the Dungeons and Dragons fifth Edition Monster Manual
Speaker 1: with me and had some questions about this fabulous creature.
Speaker 1: Tune into additional episodes of The Monster Fact each week.
Speaker 1: As always, you can email us at contact at stuff
Speaker 1: to Blow your Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your
Speaker 1: Mind is a production of I Heart Radio. For more
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