The Panotti (also called Phanesii, Panotii and Panotioi, from the Greek words πᾶν and οὖς for "all ears") were a mythical race of people, described as possessing large ears that covered their entire bodies.[1][2]
Pliny the Elder
In AD 77–79, the classical writer Pliny the Elder 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 Scythia. 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.[1] Their ears were used in lieu of clothing.[2]
The map of the world drawn by Henricus Martellus Germanus in about 1491 describes the "Panotii" as living in southern Asia.[3]
Antonio Pigafetta recorded that the Moluccan pilot of the ship Vittoria told a story about the people of Aracheto. The men and women were 1.5 feet high; their food was the pith of a tree; and they dwells in caverns under ground. Their ears were as long as their bodies; so that, when they lay down, one ear served as a mattress and the other as a blanket.[5]
A depiction of the Panotti appears on the cover of the self titled album (1996) by the polish avant-folk band Księżyc.
↑Rowland, Edward (1875). Ocean's Story; or Triumphs of Thirty Centuries Maritime Adventures, Achievements, Explorations, Discoveries and Inventions etc. Philadelphia, Boston, Cincinnati: Hubbard Bros. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
