Manticore
The Manticore originates in Persian legend, where its name roughly translates to ‘man-eater’. However, in the centuries that followed its original attestation, the creature acquired some peculiar characteristics, and for these we defer to Ctesias: ‘it has a face like a man’s, a skin red as cinnabar, and is as large as a lion. It has three rows of teeth, ears, and light-blue eyes like those of a man; its tail is like that of a land scorpion, containing a sting more than a cubit long at the end… with which it inflicts a wound that is always fatal’.
Incredibly, the Manticore was deadly even from great distances: ‘[it] launches its stings in a direct line to the distance of 30 metres’. The only creature which can survive being stung by one of its foot-long barbs is the elephant, and ‘although it preys upon other animals, it kills and devours a greater number of human beings’. It lives far away in the largely-unknown land of India. As a straightforward monster, its predation on humans and dangerous nature simply serves to mark where the sacred, civilised world ends, killing people as if to defend its sinful realm from them.
From an allegorical perspective, the Manticore represented Satan. In depictions of the Garden of Eden, the snake that tempts Eve is often given a human face to ensure that it is identified with the devil, which for many recalled the Manticore. The beast’s habit of preying on humans in this sense also recalls Satan as the enemy of mankind, hoping to tempt them into condemning themselves to eternal damnation. Having a human head, in medieval physiology, also confirmed that the Manticore could think rationally, defining it as especially evil, since rationality meant that it had a choice about killing men.