Monsters with horns and crossbows

On each of the two broader sides of the double capital a monster with animal head and naked human body is crouching below the console block. His feet rest on a crossbow, whose bowstring he is tensing with both hands and all his physical strength. Between his teeth he is holding two feathered arrows, pointed in opposite directions. In the corners similar figures blow vertically held horns. In the middle of each side, placed below two small curling motifs joined together on the console block, an animal head with pointed teeth seems to be blowing an identical horn. According to Marcel Durliat, the monsters on this capital are demons, whose destructive power is exemplified by that of their crossbow; they are connected with a series of similar monsters who blow their oliphants, and thus announce the return of evil after a series of capitals glorifying the works of God.
The same subject is treated in a very similar way in the nave of Saint-Sernin in Toulouse. The origin of this iconography, however, has still to be elucidated.

evil oliphants horn hybrid crossbow Saint-Sernin Toulouse