Case file · Cryptid
Ctesias hears of the manticore
Ctesias, a Greek physician at the Persian court in Susa, described about 398 BC the martichora: a red, man-faced beast with three rows of teeth and a tail that shot stings.
398 BCE · 32.19, 48.26 · status: legend
The account
He said he had seen one brought to the Persian king. The name comes from Old Persian for 'man-eater'. Through Aristotle and Pliny it entered medieval bestiaries.
The sceptical view
Most historians think Ctesias was describing a tiger, inflated by travellers' tales; he was already mocked as unreliable in antiquity.