Catoblepas
The catoblepas in Pliny’s Natural History: its heavy head, fatal eyes, and reported location.
What is the catoblepas?
Pliny describes an animal whose heavy head hangs downward; people who see its eyes die immediately. Natural History 8.32
Source status
This profile treats Pliny’s account as textual evidence, not zoological verification. The consulted translation is an online adaptation of Rackham, explicitly marked as containing minor alterations. No alternate names or details from other versions are incorporated. Edition notice
- record type
- creature
- tradition
- Roman natural history
- source scope
- Pliny the Elder, Natural History, Book 8, chapter 32 (§77); chapter 33 (§78) for comparison. H. Rackham translation (1952), as reproduced with minor alterations by Attalus.
Source account and description
The creature is moderately sized and sluggish. Its head is difficult to carry. The passage supplies no measurements, colour, or detailed anatomy. Death through seeing its eyes is the stated danger; petrification is not described. Natural History 8.32
Source realm
Pliny places it near the Nigris spring in western Ethiopia, which he says many considered the Nile’s source. This records his geographical account without assigning modern coordinates. Natural History 8.32
Related account
The next chapter attributes the same deadly power to the basilisk. This comparison does not establish kinship. Natural History 8.33