---
title: Catoblepas
description: A mythological beast related to the basilisk.
author:
  name: Graciela Paula Caldeiro
  url: http://graciela-caldeiro.idoneos.com
canonical: https://mitosyleyendas.idoneos.com/en/bestiario_mitologico/catoblepas/
source: en/bestiario_mitologico/catoblepas/index.md
---

<h2 id="catoblepas">Catoblepas</h2>

Related to the [basilisk](/en/bestiario_mitologico/basilisco/), it also possesses the ability to kill with its gaze alone. The Catoblepas keeps its eyes turned toward the ground because, in truth, it does not wish to use its deadly power; yet anyone who looked it in the eyes would be struck dead on the spot.

**Pliny** includes the catoblepas in his Natural History, describing it as a beast of medium size and sluggish gait, with a heavy head—which is why it remains bowed toward the earth—a circumstance that prevents many deaths.

George Cuvier, a naturalist of the late eighteenth century, associates this beast with a real animal, the wildebeest, albeit with mythical influences drawn from fantastic creatures.

Other sources say that the catoblepas is a beast resembling a black buffalo with a pig's head, so heavy that it would be utterly incapable of lifting it from the ground, its body being too thin and weak. As for its habits, it is said to live buried in the mud, its legs hidden beneath a thick mane of coarse hair.