Panotti

The Panotti (also sometimes referred to as Panotii or Panotes) were a mythical race of people described in classical and medieval literature as inhabiting remote and often unspecified islands. Their defining characteristic was their enormous ears, which they could use as blankets to sleep in or as wings to fly.

Historical accounts place them in various far-flung locales, often alongside other fantastical races and creatures. Pliny the Elder, in his Natural History, is a prominent early source for their description, placing them in Scythia. Other writers located them in India or other remote regions of Asia.

The etymology of the name "Panotti" is believed to derive from the Greek "pan" (all) and "ous" (ear), literally meaning "all-ears." This directly references their exaggerated auditory organs.

The Panotti serve as an example of the ethnographic imagination of the ancient and medieval world, reflecting a blend of factual geographical information, traveler's tales, and pure fantasy. Their existence was never substantiated, and they are now considered purely mythological figures. Their presence in literature highlights the desire to populate the edges of the known world with strange and wondrous beings.