| Catoblepas | |
|---|---|
 | |
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Real Name |
Catolepas |
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First Appearance |
Greek Myth |
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Created by |
Unknown |
Origin[]
The catoblepas is a legendary creature from Aethiopia, first described by Pliny the Elder and later by Claudius Aelianus.
One known description of the Catoblepas is said to resemble a cape buffalo, with its head always pointing downwards due to its great weight. Its stare or breath could either turn people into stone, or kill them. The catoblepas is often thought to be based on real-life encounters with wildebeest, such that some dictionaries say that the word is synonymous with "gnu". Other depictions have it sporting the head of a hog and the body of a cape buffalo. It is sometimes known as an African version of a Gorgon.
Pliny the Elder (Natural History, 8.77) described the catoblepas as a mid-sized creature, sluggish, with a heavy head and a face always turned to the ground. He thought its gaze, like that of the basilisk, was lethal, making the heaviness of its head quite fortunate.
Pomponius Mela (Chorographia, 3.98) echoes the description given by Pliny the Elder though also notes that the creature is fairly passive and not known to physically attack others.
Timotheus of Gaza (On Animals, 53) says that the catoblepas emits fire from its nostrils.
Claudius Aelianus (On the Nature of Animals, 7.6) provided a fuller description: the creature was a mid-sized herbivore, about the size of a domestic bull, with a heavy mane, narrow, bloodshot eyes, a scaly back and shaggy eyebrows. The head was so heavy that the beast could only look down. In his description, the animal's gaze was not lethal, but its breath was poison, since it ate only poisonous vegetation.
Constantine Manasses (2, 39) mentions the "fire-breathing katobleps".
Public Domain Appearances[]
All published appearances of Catoblepas from before January 1, 1930 are public domain in the US.
Public Domain Literary Appearances[]
- Natural History
- Chorographia
- On Animals
- On the Nature of Animals
- The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci
- The Temptation of Saint Anthony (1874)
- The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia (The New Arcadia) (c. 1570–1586)