Rare Monsters

  While most people know panthers as a jungle cat today in medieval bestiaries it was a very strange beast indeed. Just like other ‘mythical’ creatures like the calopus and the crocatta, the panther in medieval bestiaries is an example of a real animal from far off lands gaining a mythical status, to the point where it barely resembled it’s real life counterpart. The panther was first known to the ancient Greeks. To them it was still very cat like, being almost identical to a normal leopard, but with a multicolored coat. It was considered the mount of Dionysus. The panther was handed down from Greek records to medieval bestiaries, but by this time Europe was cut off from areas of the world where leopards actually lived, and the details of panther’s nature was largely forgotten. Instead the panther was made into an allegory about Christ gathering the people of the world. The panther would feast and then sleep for three days in a cave. On the third day the panther emerges and emits a...

  There's not much information on this creature. The zheng is mentioned in The Classic Of Mountains And Seas, which is a compilation of mythic geography and beasts, similar to the medieval bestiaries from Europe. The zheng was described as a red leopard with a single horn and five tails. It was ferocious and brutal, as you would expect from a large cat. And it sounded like striking stones. It lived high up on Mount Zhang'e, above the tree and grass line, where there was only stone. In spite of it's fanciful appearance, the zheng was considered a natural animal.