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Dave's Mythical Creatures and Places |
Catoblepas
| Description | A
four-legged bull-like creature with a head that is large for its body, and
blood-shot eyes that always look down. (Catoblepas is Greek for "that
which looks downward.) It has a "high and thick" eyelids,
and a long hanging mane.
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| Features | It eats
poisonous plants, and if frightened, it will open its mouth and emits a
"certaine sharpe and horrible breath, which infecteth, and poysoneth
the air above his head." (Topsell)
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| Might be | A Gnu
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| Described By: | Pliny- "In
other respects of moderate size and inactive with the rest of its limbs,
only with a very heavy head which it carries with difficulty and it always
hanging down to the ground. Otherwise it is deadly to humans, as all who
see its eyes expire immediately."
Topsell- "Pliny calleth this beast Catablepon, because it continually looketh downwards, and saith all the parts of it are but smal excepting the head, which is very heavy, and exceedeth the proportion of his body, which is never lifted up, but all living creatures die that see his eies. By which there ariseth a question whether the poison which he sendeth foorth, proceede from his breath, or from his eyes. Whereupon it is more plausible, that like the cockatrice, he killeth by seeing, than by the breath of his mouth, which is not competible to any other beasts in the world." (The Historie of Foure-Footed Beastes)
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