Panotti
Encyclopedia
Ear
The ear is the organ that detects sound. It not only receives sound, but also aids in balance and body position. The ear is part of the auditory system....
s that covered their entire bodies.
Pliny the Elder
In A.D. 77-79, the classical writer Pliny the ElderPliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...
published his thirty-seven volumes of encyclopedic works known as the Natural History containing entries of both the real and the imaginative.
In the Natural History, Pliny writes about the strange race of people known as the Panotti who live in the "All-Ears Islands" off of a place known as Scythia
Scythia
In antiquity, Scythian or Scyths were terms used by the Greeks to refer to certain Iranian groups of horse-riding nomadic pastoralists who dwelt on the Pontic-Caspian steppe...
. These people there have bizarrely large ears that are so huge that the Panotti use them as blankets to shield their body against the chills of the night. Their ears were used in lieu of clothing.
Other mentions
- Pomponius MelaPomponius MelaPomponius Mela, who wrote around AD 43, was the earliest Roman geographer. He was born in Tingentera and died c. AD 45.His short work occupies less than one hundred pages of ordinary print. It is laconic in style and deficient in method, but of pure Latinity, and occasionally relieved by pleasing...
writes that they lived near the Orkney IslandsOrkney IslandsOrkney also known as the Orkney Islands , is an archipelago in northern Scotland, situated north of the coast of Caithness...
, sharing an island with other creatures: OeonaeOeonaeOeonae or Oönæ were a mythical human race, said to subsist exclusively on birds' eggs and oats, and sharing an island with the Panotti and Hippopodes....
(who eat only oatsOATSOATS - Open Source Assistive Technology Software - is a source code repository or "forge" for assistive technology software. It was launched in 2006 with the goal to provide a one-stop “shop” for end users, clinicians and open-source developers to promote and develop open source assistive...
and marsh bird eggs) and HippopodesHippopodesThe Hippopodes in Medieval bestiaries were a race of humanoids with horses' hooves. According to Pliny the Elder, they shared an island with two other legendary races: the Panotti and Oeonae....
(who possess the feet of horses).
- Isidore of SevilleIsidore of SevilleSaint Isidore of Seville served as Archbishop of Seville for more than three decades and is considered, as the historian Montalembert put it in an oft-quoted phrase, "le dernier savant du monde ancien"...
also mentions the Panotii.
- They appear in the novel BaudolinoBaudolinoBaudolino is a 2000 novel by Umberto Eco about the adventures of a young man named Baudolino in the known and mythical Christian world of the 12th century.Baudolino was translated into English in 2001 by William Weaver...
by Umberto EcoUmberto EcoUmberto Eco Knight Grand Cross is an Italian semiotician, essayist, philosopher, literary critic, and novelist, best known for his novel The Name of the Rose , an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory...
.
- One of the four narrators in the novel The Habitation of the BlessedThe Habitation of the BlessedThe Habitation of the Blessed - subtitled A Dirge for Prester John, Volume One - is a fantasy novel by Catherynne M. Valente, published in November of 2010.-Summary:...
by Catherynne M. ValenteCatherynne M. ValenteCatherynne M. Valente , is a Tiptree–, Andre Norton–, and Mythopoeic Award–winning novelist, poet, and literary critic. Her short fiction has appeared in Clarkesworld Magazine, the World Fantasy Award–winning anthologies Salon Fantastique and Paper Cities, along with numerous Year's Best volumes...
is a panotii by the name of Imtithal, a storyteller and nanny to three royal children.