Crocotta, Rochester Bestiary, c.1230
The cocrotta or leucrocotta is an imaginary beast that results from the crossbreeding between a hyena and a lioness that devours anything and digest it immediately in its stomach.
Pliny the Elder (VIII, 30) described it as such:
“a wild beast of great swiftness, the size of the wild ass, with the legs of a stag, the neck, tail, and breast of a lion, the head of a badger, a cloven hoof, the mouth slit up as far as the ears, and one continuous bone instead of teeth; it is said, too, that this animal can imitate the human voice.”
nitudine. cervi; clunibus. pectore ac cruribus; leonis.
capite equi. bisulca; ungula. ore usque ad aures dehis-
cente. Dentium locus osse perpetuo. Hec quidem ad formam
am voce; loquentium sonos emulatur.
The crocotta1 is a beast that originates in India and that outruns all other wild animals. It has the size of a donkey, the hindquarters of a stag, chest and legs of a lion and the head of a horse. It is cloven-hoofed and its mouth opens right back to the ears. Ridges of bones are found in place of rows of teeth. This beast imitates human speech in form and voice, mimicking the sounds of those who speak.
Bibliography
David Badke, The Bestiary Blog: Animals in the Middle Ages, Leucrota, November 6 2023, https://bestiary.ca/beasts/beast160.htm
Josh Goldenberg (BA 2012) and Matt Shanahan (BA 2014, Logeion, November 2022, https://logeion.uchicago.edu/
Castiglioni, L. and Mariotti, S. (1996). Vocabolario della Lingua Latina: Latino-Italiano Italiano-Latino. Terza Edizione. Loescher Torino
Borges, J. L.; trans. di Giovanni, N. T. (2002) The Book of Imaginary Beings. Vintage Classics, Random House, London.
Matthews, J. and Matthews C., (2010), The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures, HarperCollins UK, London
Curley, M. J., Physiologus: A Medieval Book of Nature Lore (University of Chicago edition 2009)
Rackham, H., M.A., Pliny Natural History Volume III, Libri VIII-XI (London: William Heinemann Ltd, 1949)
Collins, A. H., M.A., Symbolism of Animals and Birds (New York: McBride, Nast & Company, 1913)
Henderson, C., The Book of Barely Imagined Beings (London: University of Chicago Press, 2013)
White, T. H., The Bestiary: A Book of Beasts (New York: G.P Putnam’s Sons, 1960)
Barney, S. A., Lewis, W. J., Beach A., Berghof O., The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006)
Footnotes
1 This beast has various names such as corocotta, crocuta or leucrocotta.