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All Critters of Myth beginning with M-N-O will be placed here when found. |
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The Mermecolion
he Mermecolion is an inconceivable animal defined by Flaubert in this way: "lion in its foreparts, ant in its hind parts, with the organs of its sex the wrong way." The history of this monster is also strange. In the Scriptures (Job IV: II) we read: "The old lion perisheth for lack of prey."
The Hebrew text has layish for lion; this word, an uncommon one for the lion, seems to have produced an equally uncommon translation. The Septuagint version, harking back to an Arabian lion that Aelian and Strabo call myrmex, forged the word Mermecolion. After centuries, the origin of this was forgotten. Myrmex, in Greek, means ant; out of the puzzling words "The ant-lion perisheth for lack of prey" grew a fantasy (translated below by T. H. White) that medieval bestiaries succeeded in multiplying:
The Physiologus said: It had the face (or fore-part) of a lion and the hinder parts of an ant. Its father eats flesh, but its mother grains. If then they engender the ant-lion, they engender a thing of two natures, such that it cannot eat flesh because of the nature of its mother, nor grains because of the nature of its father. It perishes, therefore, because it has no nutriment. |
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NYMPHS IN MYTHOLOGY:
MINTHE
Minthe or Menthe was a naiad ( the fresh water nymphs in mythology) who attracted the roving eye of the god Pluto. Pluto was the god of the underworld but apparently was taking a vacation from Hades that day. In any case, he saw Minthe and immediately fell in lust with her. Persephone, Pluto's wife, discovered the affair and jealousy bloomed. She attacked Minthe kicking her and stepping on her, and finally turning her into a plant. Pluto, unable to break Persephone's spell, gave to the plant a wonderful smell that becomes stronger when stepped on.
Notes: The plant Minthe was transformed into is today called mint or peppermint. In ancient times it was part of a drink used in religious rituals. Ovid says that Minthe was changed into the mint plant by Venus to save her from Persephone's fury. The other form of Minthe's name, Menthe, is the origin of our word menthol. |
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The Legend of the Mermaid
The legend of the mermaid includes everything from folk tales to the myths and poetry of modern times. The stories from Africa and the new world are really believed by people right now. I put the poems here because they are inspired by the old tales.
In the stories you can see the history of where the mermaid has been and what she became in different countries. She runs the gamut from meek and docile to confident and strong-willed. You will see the word "powerful" a lot in these stories. It is a holdover from the goddess the mermaid evolved from. You will also find the goddess' mirror, comb, long hair, beauty and medical knowledge!
As you read the European folk tales remember that originally these stories were told to amuse adults not children. Absolutely horrendous things occur in some of them. Also remember that at one time people really did believe in mermaids, fairies and all the rest. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle believed in fairies and he was an intelligent, well-educated man, as well as the creator of Sherlock Holmes. |
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Mermaid Transformation:
Thessalonica and the Gorgona
Giant, Psychotic Mermaid Terrorizes the Aegean
Greek folklore has an interesting mermaid transformation story about the sister of Alexander the Great.
After conquering the world, Alexander decided that he would conquer death as well. He asked the wise men how to go about this. They said that the water of life would grant him immortality if he could kill the dragon that guards it.
Alexander accomplished this feat and brought the water back to his home.
Tired he took a nap.
While sleeping his sister Thessalonica found the water and thought it was only regular water. She took a sip for herself and watered some plants. Those plants never died but changed and became perennials.
When Alexander woke he discovered what his sister had done and cursed her horribly.
She was to live forever in the sea growing larger with each passing year. Her form a woman from the waist up, but from there down she was to have two tails instead of legs.
Now, her mermaid transformation complete, she roams the Aegean and Black Seas. She has become gigantic and can lift an entire ship with one hand.
When she encounters sailors she asks them if Alexander is still alive.
If they say he is dead she raises great waves and their ship is lost.
If they say he still lives and rules as always she allows them to pass in peace.
In Greece she is called the Gorgona. |
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Real Mermaid Timeline
First Century AD, Pliny the Elder writes about Nereids �?women with rough scaly bodies like fish, a mythological precursor to mermaids.
Fifth Century AD, Physiologus in his Bestiary describes the real mermaid with the upper body of a woman and the lower of a fish, split at about the navel. The book is a study of animals and their natures and remains influential until the 18th century.
13th Century, Bartholomew Angelicus in his book De Propietatibus Rerum described the mermaid as a femme fatale stealing sailors from their ships. Click here for more on the medieval mermaid.
1493, January 4, Christopher Columbus reports seeing three mermaids playing about and jumping out of the water. He says, "They were not as beautiful as they are painted, although to some extent they have a human appearance in the face...."
1560, Bosquez, aide to the Viceroy of Goa, performed autopsies on 7 mermaids caught by fishermen in Ceylon.
1599, in the book Historia Monstrorum a real mermaid and her mate are reported embracing near the Nile River delta.
1608, June 15, Henry Hudson, explorer and discoverer of the Hudson River, records seeing a real mermaid near Russia. He wrote in his log: Two crew members - Thomas Hilles and Robert Rayner - sighted a mermaid at 75° 7' N, and shouted at the rest of the crew to come and look. Hudson further recorded it as having a "tail of a porpoise and speckled like a mackerel." She was "looking earnestly on the men" who gathered on the side to see her. The description Hudson wrote says she was "speckled like a macrell" (mackerel) with long black hair, white skin and a woman's breasts.
1614, John Smith sees a real mermaid off the coast of Massachusetts
1718, a "sea wife" is caught off the island of Borneo and put in a large vat, where it died after a few days. It was heard to utter cries like a mouse.
1739, sailors of the ship Halifax caught and ate several mermaids in the East Indies. Said they tasted like veal.
1811, a farmer near Kintyre reported spotting a real mermaid washing herself and combing her hair.
1830, a farm woman in the Outer Hebrides spotted a mermaid frolicking in the water. They were unable to capture her alive but did manage to kill her with a rock. The corpse was seen and described in detail by Alexander Carmichael, a well-known scholar.
1842, Phineas T. Barnum displays the famous Feejee Mermaid at his American Museum on Broadway in New York City. Click here for more details.
1857, June 4, a reliable (?) report of a real mermaid with "full breast, dark complexion and comely face" seen off the coast of Britain.
1946, Weeki Wachee, the City of Live Mermaids is started by ex-navy man Newton Perry. Perry, who trained SEALS in the navy, taught pretty girls to breathe from air hoses underwater and put on shows. Using an air hose instead of a tank strapped to the back makes a girl look more like a real mermaid. The result was one of Florida's first and most famous attractions. Severely hurt by Disney World and other major theme parks in the 1970s, Weeki Wachee is now enjoying a renaissance of interest. They are probably only one or two lucky breaks away from regaining the title of major attraction. For more see their website at Weeki Wachee.
1947, Island of Muck, 80-year-old man reports seeing a real mermaid sitting on a lobster trap and combing her hair.
1951, Aquarena Springs opens, a resort and amusement park built near the San Marcos Springs in San Marcos, Texas. The Springs featured underwater mermaid ballets and Ralph, the Famous Swimming Pig. Incredibly, Ralph was the most popular attraction up till his retirement in 1991.
1971, Starbucks, with it's mermaid logo, opens it's first store in Seattle's Pike Place Market.
1994, Aqarena Springs bought by Texas State University. Big changes are soon to follow.
1996, Aquarena Springs is closed. Unhappy with the commercialization of what they saw as a great natural wonder, the Texas State University closed the resort and amusement park. The University converted the Springs into the Aquarena Center. The Center offers environmental tours and scientific dive training. The Aquarena Center and San Marcos River are home to many endangered species but not a single real mermaid.
2004, wild internet reports of a real mermaid corpse seen in Chennai, India, after the famous Christmas tsunami. Photographs were included, but research shows that the pictures had been circulating for some time before the tsunami.
2005, Milagros Cerron operated on for mermaid syndrome. |
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Manticore
The manticore is a legendary creature similar to the Egyptian sphinx. It has the body of a red lion, a human head with three rows of sharp teeth, and a trumpet-like voice. Other aspects of the creature vary from story to story. It may be horned or not. The tail is either of a dragon or a scorpion, and it may shoot poisonous spines to either paralyze or kill its victims.
Origin
The manticore was of Persian origin, where its name was "man-eater" (from early Middle Persian martya "man" (as in human) and xwar- "to eat"). The English term "manticore" was borrowed from Latin mantichora, itself borrowed from Greek mantikhoras—an erroneous pronunciation of the original Persian name. It passed into European folklore first through a remark by Ctesias, a Greek physician at the Persian court of King Artaxerxes II in the fourth century BC, in his notes on India ("Indika"), which circulated among Greek writers on natural history, but have not survived. The Romanised Greek Pausanias, in his Description of Greece, recalled strange animals he had seen at Rome and commented,
�?The beast described by Ctesias in his Indian history, which he says is called martichoras by the Indians and "man-eater" by the Greeks, I am inclined to think is the tiger. But that it has three rows of teeth along each jaw and spikes at the tip of its tail with which it defends itself at close quarters, while it hurls them like an archer's arrows at more distant enemies; all this is, I think, a false story that the Indians pass on from one to another owing to their excessive dread of the beast. �?BR>
Pliny the Elder did not share Pausanias' skepticism. He followed Aristotle's natural history by including the martichoras—mistranscribed as manticorus in his copy of Aristotle and thus passing into European languages—among his descriptions of animals in Naturalis Historia, c. 77 AD.
Pliny's book was widely enjoyed and uncritically believed through the European Middle Ages, during which the manticore was sometimes illustrated in bestiaries. The manticore made a late appearance in heraldry, during the 16th century, and it influenced some Mannerist representations, as in Bronzino's allegory The Exposure of Luxury, (National Gallery, London)[1]�?but more often in the decorative schemes called "grotteschi"�?of the sin of Fraud, conceived as a monstrous chimera with a beautiful woman's face, and in this way it passed by means of Cesare Ripa's Iconologia into the seventeenth and eighteenth century French conception of a sphinx.
Legacy
Nowadays, the manticore is said by the natives to inhabit the forests of Asia, particularly Indonesia. The manticore can kill instantly with a bite or a scratch, and will then eat the victim entirely, bones and all. Whenever a person disappears completely, it is said that the locals consider it the work of the manticore.
The manticore is also known as the "mantícora", the "mantichor", or by a folk etymology, even the "mantiger". Outside occultist circles, the manticore was still an arcane creature in the Western world when Gian Carlo Menotti wrote his ballet The Unicorn, the Gorgon, and the Manticore in 1956.
Manticores appear frequently in fiction, invoked by authors as diverse as Salman Rushdie, Samit Basu, Piers Anthony and J.K. Rowling, among many others. They have appeared in films (e.g. Manticore (2005)), video games (such as Final Fantasy XI, Archon, and Age of Mythology), role-playing games, and music (for example, in Emerson, Lake & Palmer's "Tarkus" suite).
In 1781, the scientific name Manticora was given to a group of large, flightless tiger beetles from Africa; they are voracious predators with large jaws.
Fictional allusions
In Salman Rushdie's novel called The Satanic Verses, one of the characters has a short series of encounters with what he calls a manticore in the streets of Jahilia, an ancient Arabian town which is the setting of some of the flashback-cum-dream sequences.
"Manticore" was the name of the fictional military project/facility in the Fox Network's television series, Dark Angel. The name Manticore was chosen because the company was in the business of combining DNA from several species into a single being. The title character of the series, was said to possess, amongst others, feline DNA.
Piers Anthony's first Xanth novel, A Spell for Chameleon, features a manticore guarding the Good Magician Humphrey's magical demesnes, and poses one of the challenges protagonist Bink must pass to meet the wizard. The paperback printed by Del Rey features this scene with the manticore on the cover.
Canadian writer Robertson Davies wrote a novel entitled The Manticore, published in 1972. The manticore figures into protagonist David's psycho-analysis under Jungian analyst Dr. VonHaller. David's dream of the manticore is reflective of himself and the roles he plays interacting with other people and society.
In the Honorverse novels by David Weber, the Star Kingdom of Manticore is a fictional nation. The three habitable planets in the Manticore system bear the names Manticore, Sphinx, and Gryphon, references to chimerical beasts.
The Sci-Fi Channel recently released a DVD named Manticore, the creature itself seems to be faithful to what a manticore should look like. |
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METIS
Metis, one of the sea nymphs in mythology, was an oceanid (daughter of Oceanus and Tethys). She was associated with Wednesday and was said to be the wisest of the gods. Metis was also a Titaness, one of the older gods who ruled Olympus before Zeus and his children.
Cronus, the leader of the older gods, ate his own children. This was because of a prophecy that one of his offspring would kill and dethrone him. His wife, Rhea, grew angry with this and once fooled him by substituting a rock for the newest baby. This baby was Zeus, who was raised in secret by Mother Earth. When he had matured, Metis gave him a potion he was to feed to Cronus. When Cronus drank the potion he became nauseous and vomited up Zeus' older brothers and sisters, and the stone. Zeus then killed Cronus with a thunderbolt.
Later, Zeus fell in love with Metis, who rejected his advances. Like all sea nymphs in mythology she had the power to change form and used it to hide from him. In the end, however, he found her and got her pregnant.
Now Mother Earth made a new prophecy. She said that Metis' first child would be a girl who would equal her father in wisdom and strength. Her next child would be a boy who would depose Zeus. Unwilling to give up the leadership of the gods, Zeus ate Metis! Zeus said that Metis did not die but lived in his stomach advising him with her wisdom.
Some time later, Zeus developed a terrible headache. He cried and screamed till it echoed from the heavens. Hermes, realizing what was happening, split his head open and Athena leaped forth with a shout. She was full grown and armed as a warrior. |
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The Mothman
The Mothman was a grey, winged, man-shaped being with glowing red eyes that was seen on several occasions4 between 1960 and 1966 in the Point Pleasant area of West Virginia, USA. Shrieking loudly, the creature was said to be able to fly at speeds of up to 100 miles per hour. The last sightings occurred in December 1966, after which the Mothman seemed to disappear.
One Researcher recalls:
I grew up on Route 2, between Ravenswood and Point Pleasant. It is of note - and always ignored, overlooked or suppressed - that this little area is a hotbed of odd, occult activity. There is a lot to do with mass sacrifices of large animals around bonfires by old (60 to 80-year-old) men in hooded, black robes, whose attire and ritual manner do not conform to any religion I know of. The Mothman was neither the first nor the last of the phenomena of that sort reported in the area, only the most famous. There is a large metal-processing facility in the area with extensive electrical power transforming equipment. In the 1950s and 60s, before people understood plasma physics, the plasma vortices that would infrequently - though spectacularly - appear above the transformers would cause a rash of UFO sightings several times each year.
This part of West Virginia (the Ohio Valley) isn't the 'stereotypical' West Virginia, being within shouting distance of Ohio (or Pennsylvania for the northern reaches). Its culture, accent et al are decidedly Midwestern, with some Mid-Atlantic influences in the areas near Pittsburgh, being isolated from the rest of the state by the mountains.
The legend of the Mothman was revived in 2002 in the form of the film The Mothman Prophecies, starring Richard Gere. |
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