The Myrmecoleon or Ant-lion is a fantastical animal from classical times, possibly derived from an error in the

Septuagint The Septuagint ( ), sometimes referred to as the Greek Old Testament or The Translation of the Seventy (), and abbreviated as LXX, is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible from the original Biblical Hebrew. The full Greek ...

version of the

book of Job The Book of Job (), or simply Job, is a book found in the Ketuvim ("Writings") section of the Hebrew Bible and the first of the Poetic Books in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. The language of the Book of Job, combining post-Babylonia ...

, reappearing in the Greek Christian ''

Physiologus The ''Physiologus'' () is a didactic Christian text written or compiled in Greek by an unknown author in Alexandria. Its composition has been traditionally dated to the 2nd century AD by readers who saw parallels with writings of Clement of Alexa ...

'' of the 3rd or 4th century A.D. It is found in Medieval bestiaries such as the ''

Hortus Sanitatis The ''Hortus Sanitatis'' (also written ''Ortus''; Latin for ''The Garden of Health''), a Latin natural history encyclopaedia, was published by Jacob Meydenbach in Mainz, Germany in 1491. It describes species in the natural world along with their ...

'' of Jacob Meydenbach. It is also referenced in some sources as a Formicaleon (Antlion), Formicaleun or Mirmicioleon. Myrmecoleon comes from the Greek words for ant (μύρμηξ yrmeks and lion (λέων eon. Note that the ''

Aberdeen Bestiary The ''Aberdeen Bestiary'' (Aberdeen University Library, Univ Lib. MS 24) is a 12th-century England, English illuminated manuscript bestiary that was first listed in 1542 in the inventory of the Old Royal Library at the Palace of Westminster. Du ...

'' describes "There is a stone in the sea which is called in Latin ''mermecoleon'' and in Greek ''concasabea'', because it is both hollow and round. It is, moreover, divided into two parts, so that if it wants to, it can close up. The stone lies at the bottom of the sea and comes to life early in the morning. When it rises from its resting-place to the surface of the sea, it opens its mouth and takes in some heavenly dew, and the rays of the sun shine around it; thus there grows within the stone a most precious, shining pearl indeed, conceived from the heavenly dew and given lustre by the rays of the sun."

Interpretations

There are two interpretations of what a Myrmecoleon is. In one version, the

antlion The antlions are a group of about 2,000 species of insect in the neuropteran family (biology), family Myrmeleontidae. They are known for the predation, predatory habits of their larvae, which mostly dig pits to trap passing ants or other prey. ...

is so called because it is the "lion of ants", a large ant or small animal that hides in the dust and kills ants. In the other version, it is a beast that is the result of a

mating In biology, mating is the pairing of either opposite-sex or hermaphroditic organisms for the purposes of sexual reproduction. ''Fertilization'' is the fusion of two gametes. '' Copulation'' is the union of the sex organs of two sexually repr ...

between a lion and an ant. It has the face of a lion and the body of an ant, with each part having its appropriate nature. Because the lion part will only eat meat and the ant part can only digest grain, the ant-lion starves. The ant-lion story may come from a mistranslation of a word in the

version of the

Old Testament The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...

, from the

. The word in

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

is ''la'ish'' (ליש), an uncommon word for lion, which in other translations of Job is rendered as either lion or tiger; in the Septuagint it is translated as ''mermecolion'', ant-lion.

References

{{reflist, 30em Medieval European legendary creatures Mythological hybrids Mythological insects