| 释义 |
‖ catoblepas Zool.
[L. catōblepas, Gr. κατῶβλεψ, f. κάτω downwards + βλέπ-ειν to look; see quots.]
In ancient authors, some African animal, ‘perhaps a species of buffalo, or the gnu, a species of antelope’ (Lewis & Short, s.v.). Now made the name of a genus including the gnu.
1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xviii. xvi. (1495) 776 A wylde beest that hyghte Catoblefas and hath a lytyll body and nyce in all membres and a grete heed hangynge alway to⁓warde the erth. 1587Golding De Mornay xvi. 299 Y⊇ eye of the beast of ægipt which killeth those whom it looketh vpon. Marg. The catopleb and also the cockatryce. 1601Holland Pliny viii. xxi, A wild beast, called Catoblepes. 1613Purchas Pilgr. I. vi. i. 467 The Catoblepas is said to bee of like venemous nature. 1616Bullokar, Catoblepa, a strange beast..some thinke it to bee the Basiliske, or Cockatrice. 1725Pope Odyss. xi. 777, note (ed. 1753), In the same region the Catoblepon is found, a creature like a bull, whose eyes are so fixed as chiefly to look downward. |