(no subject)

[sigmaleph]

so there's this mythical beast called the ant-lion (there's also a non-mythical animal called the antlion, but this is not about that)

on the subject of it, wikipedia says that

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.[6]

which. like.

how exactly do your mistranslate an odd word for lion as 'ant-lion' if the idea of ant-lions is not pre-existing? how can this possibly be the origin of it?

I tried to go back to the source linked but it turns out that section is copypasted directly from it and it has nothing more illuminating to say. I am puzzled.

Anyway this is all aside from the fact the reason i was looking it up is that I recall hearing some reference to the mythical antlion in some anime but I forget which version of the myth it invokes.

(Update: I am fairly confident there was an antlion B't in B't X and that's what I was remembering, but I am not gonna watch through however many episodes of that anime to confirm)