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.
1398. Trevisa, 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 towarde the erth.
1587. Golding, De Mornay, xvi. 299. Ye eye of the beast of Ægipt which killeth those whom it looketh vpon. Marg. The catopleb and also the cockatryce.
1601. Holland, Pliny, VIII. xxi. A wild beast, called Catoblepes.
1613. Purchas, Pilgr., I. VI. i. 467. The Catoblepas is said to bee of like venemous nature.
1616. Bullokar, Catoblepa, a strange beast … some thinke it to bee the Basiliske, or Cockatrice.
1725. Pope, 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.
