KATOBLEPAS.
Pliny (VIII, 21) reports that somewhere near the borders of Ethiopia, near the headwaters Nile live the "wild beast called the" katoblepas, small, clumsy and slow in all his movements, but his head was so great that it is difficult it is, and always walks, lowering her to the ground, and if he so did, they could iznichtozhit the entire human race, for anyone who looks into his eyes, instantly killed. "
The Greek "katoblepas" means "looking down". French naturalist Cuvier assumed that the image appeared katoblepasa the ancients under the influence of wildebeest (with an admixture of the basilisk and the Gorgon). At the end of "The Temptation of St. Anthony" Flaubert describes it and gives a monologue:
«... (Black buffalo with the head of a boar, which trailed along the ground, with a thin neck, long and loose, like empty gut, lying on his belly. His legs closed long stiff mane, hiding the same face). - Puffy, dull, sluggish, I'm not doing anything, just enjoy, feeling under his belly, a warm mud. My head was so heavy that I could not her raise. I only slow it tossed and with difficulty opening his jaw, tongue unearth poisonous grass, wet my breath. One day, without knowing, I gobbled up his front paws.
Nobody has ever seen my eyes, Antony, or rather, those who saw them die. If I had raised his purple swollen eyelids - you immediately would fall down dead. "
http://myfhology.narod.ru
Other gnazvanie beast - katofleb.
KATOFLEB.
In Greek mythology, a huge animal that lives in Ethiopia. Name katofleba translated means "one who looks down" and because the beast is very heavy head: he could not keep it straight, but because his head all the time is on the ground. Katofleb, like the basilisk can kill a look or breath, because it eats poisonous herbs, a scent which can be fatal for humans. When katofleb particularly hungry, he starts to devour its own feet.
["Encyclopedia of supernatural beings' status. K. Korolev]
