The head is usually depicted as a human male’s head. The body and torso, then, are that of a lion, while the manticore tail can be either a scorpion’s tail or a cat’s tail. Finally ...

The manticore had a lion’s body and, often, a human face; as one 13th-century scholar put it, “among all the beasts of the earth is none found more cruel, nor of more wonderly shape.” ...