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The Myrmecoleon or Ant-lion is a fantastical animal from classical times, possibly by error from the Septuagint version of the book of Job, reappearing in the Greek Christian Physiologus of the 3rd or 4th century A.D.
It is found in Medieval bestiaries such as the Hortus Sanitatis of Jacob Meydenbach. also referenced in some sources as a Formicaleon (Antlion), Formicaleun or Mirmicioleon.
Interpretations
There are two interpretations of what a Myrmecoleon is. In one version, the antlion 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 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 Septuagint version of the Old Testament, from the book of Job. The word in Hebrew is laiisch (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.