A cockatrice is a mythical beast, essentially a two-legged dragon, wyvern, or serpent-like creature with a rooster's head. Described by Laurence Breiner as "an ornament in the drama and poetry of the Elizabethans", it was featured prominently in English thought and myth for centuries. They are created by a chicken egg hatched by a toad or snake.
The first English mention of the cockatrice was in the 14th century John Wycliffe translation of the Bible. The word was used for the translation of various Hebrew words for asp and adder in the Book of Isaiah 11, 14 and 59.
The Oxford English Dictionary gives a derivation from Old French cocatris, from medieval Latin calcatrix, a translation of the Greek ichneumon , meaning tracker. The twelfth century legend was based on a reference in Pliny's Natural History [1] that the ichneumon lay in wait for the crocodile to open its jaws for the trochilus bird to enter and pick its teeth clean. [2] An extended description of the cocatriz by the 15th-century Spanish traveller in Egypt, Pedro Tafur, makes it clear that this refers to the Nile crocodile. [3]
According to Alexander Neckam's De naturis rerum (ca 1180), the basilisk (basiliscus) was the product of an egg laid by a rooster and incubated by a toad; a snake might be substituted in re-tellings. Cockatrice became seen as synonymous with basilisk when the basiliscus in Bartholomeus Anglicus's De proprietatibus rerum (ca 1260) was translated by John Trevisa as cockatrice (1397). [4] This legend has a possible Egyptian folk root; the eggs of the ibis were regularly destroyed for fear that the venom of the snakes they consumed would cause a hybrid snake-bird to hatch. [5]
It is thought that a cock egg would hatch a cockatrice, and this could be prevented by tossing the egg over the family house, landing on the other side of the house, without allowing the egg to hit the house.
The cockatrice has the reputed ability to kill people by either looking at them—"the death-darting eye of Cockatrice" [6] [note 1] —touching them, or sometimes breathing on them.
It was repeated in the late-medieval bestiaries that the weasel is the only animal that is immune to the glance of a cockatrice. [7] It was also thought that a cockatrice would die instantly upon hearing a rooster crow, [8] and according to legend, having a cockatrice look at itself in a mirror is one of the few sure-fire ways to kill it. [9]
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The first use of the word in English was in John Wyclif's 1382 translation of the Bible [10] to translate different Hebrew words. [11] This usage was followed by the King James Version, the word being used several times. [12] The Revised Version—following the tradition established by Jerome's Vulgate basiliscus—renders the word as "basilisk", and the New International Version translates it as "viper". In Proverbs 23:32 the similar Hebrew tzeph'a is rendered "adder", both in the Authorized Version and the Revised Version.
In Shakespeare's play Richard III (c. 1593), the Duchess of York compares her son Richard to a cockatrice:
O ill-dispersing wind of misery!
O my accursed womb, the bed of death!
A cockatrice hast thou hatch'd to the world,
Whose unavoided eye is murderous. [13]
A cockatrice is also mentioned in Romeo and Juliet (1597), in Act 3, scene 2 line 47, by Juliet.
Hath Romeo slain himself? Say thou but 'Ay,'
And that bare vowel 'I' shall poison more
Than the death-darting eye of cockatrice. [6]
Nathan Field, in the first scene of his play The Honest Man's Fortune (1647), also uses the idea that a cockatrice could kill with its eyes:
... never threaten with your eyes, they are no cockatrice's ... [14]
In Second Nephi 24:29, a Cockatrice is mentioned.
In E. R. Eddison's high fantasy novel The Worm Ouroboros (1922), Chapter 4 has King Gorice show a cockatrice to Gro:
"Behold and see, that which sprung from the egg of a cock, hatched by the deaf adder. The glance of its eye sufficeth to turn to stone any living thing that standeth before it. Were I but for one instant to loose my spells whereby I hold it in subjection, in that moment would end my life days and thine ..."
Therewith came forth that offspring of perdition from its hole, strutting erect on its two legs that were the legs of a cock; and a cock's head it had, with rosy comb and wattles, but the face of it like no fowl's face of middle-earth but rather a gorgon's out of Hell. Black shining feathers grew on its neck, but the body of it was the body of a dragon with scales that glittered in the rays of the candles, and a scaly crest stood on its back; and its wings were like bats' wings, and its tail the tail of an aspick with a sting in the end thereof, and from its beak its forked tongue flickered venomously. And the stature of the thing was a little above a cubit. [15]
The cockatrice has also been used as a staple enemy creature in arcade combat games like Golden Axe , in fantasy RPGs such as Fighting Fantasy and Dungeons and Dragons or computer RPGs like Dragon's Dogma (2012).
A cockatrice is mentioned in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2000) by Hermione Granger in chapter fifteen. A cockatrice involved in one of the tasks of the 1792 Triwizard Tournament escaped and injured the headmasters of the three participating schools, an incident cited as the cause for the cancellation of Triwizard Tournaments until 1994. Some translations instead state the cockatrice to be a basilisk [note 2] or an "occamy", [note 3] an in-universe relative of the snallygaster. [16] Additionally, heraldry of a white cockatrice holding a broomstick on a blue and beige background is shown to be the emblem of the French National Quidditch team in the 2003 video game Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup . [17]
In the video game Boktai: The Sun Is in Your Hand (2003), cockatrices are among the enemies the player faces in Sol City. [18]
In the animated series My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (2010-2019), a cockatrice is stated to live in the Everfree Forest. In the 2011 episode "Stare Master", the cockatrice turns Twilight Sparkle and one of Fluttershy's chickens, Elizabeak, to stone using its gaze, but reverts them back after being intimidated by Fluttershy's own stare. [19]
On the SCP Foundation collaborative writing project, cockatrices are shown in the story SCP-1013 - Cockatrice (2011). An SCP-1013 instead paralyzes its prey by staring at them, only turning their skin to stone upon biting them, after which it will peck through the calcified skin to eat their prey's fleshy innards. SCP-1013 reproduce from growths budding off of the tail of a well-fed adult. [20] The story SCP-1013 - Cockatrice won fourth place in the site's SCP-1000 Contest, a contest that prefaced the opening of the site's second series. [21]
A cockatrice is shown as the main antagonist in the first episode of Netflix's anime adaptation of Little Witch Academia (2017), "Starting Over". [22] The cockatrice is also a dungeon boss in the underground labyrinth gameplay section of Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time (2017), a video game for PC and PS4. [23]
The Swedish Black Metal band Funeral Mist has a song named Cockatrice, in their 2018 album Hekatomb.
The third chapter of the Japanese manga series Delicious in Dungeon (2014) and the second episode of the anime adaptation (2024) feature the party killing and cooking a cockatrice. The cockatrice cannot kill with a stare, but instead has a powerful venom, the antidote to which can be found by eating the meat of the creature. [24]
Arthur Fox-Davies describes the cockatrice as "comparatively rare" in heraldry, and as closely resembling a wyvern outside of possessing a rooster's head rather than a dragon's. The cockatrice, like the rooster, is often depicted with its comb, wattles and beak being of a different colour from the rest of its body. The cockatrice is sometimes referred to as a basilisk, but Fox-Davies distinguishes the two on the basis of the heraldic basilisk possessing a tail ending in a dragon's head, although he does not know of any arms depicting such a creature. [25]
In continental European heraldic systems, cockatrices may be simply referred to as dragons instead. [26]
The cockatrice was the heraldic beast of the Langleys of Agecroft Hall in Lancashire, England, as far back as the 14th century. [27]
It is also the symbol of 3 (Fighter) Squadron, a fighter squadron of the Royal Air Force.
A dragon is a magical legendary creature that appears in the folklore of multiple cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in Western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as winged, horned, and capable of breathing fire. Dragons in eastern cultures are usually depicted as wingless, four-legged, serpentine creatures with above-average intelligence. Commonalities between dragons' traits are often a hybridization of reptilian, mammalian, and avian features.
A golem is an animated anthropomorphic being in Jewish folklore, which is created entirely from inanimate matter, usually clay or mud. The most famous golem narrative involves Judah Loew ben Bezalel, the late 16th-century rabbi of Prague. According to Moment magazine, "the golem is a highly mutable metaphor with seemingly limitless symbolism. It can be a victim or villain, man or woman—or sometimes both. Over the centuries, it has been used to connote war, community, isolation, hope, and despair."
A monster is a type of fictional creature found in horror, fantasy, science fiction, folklore, mythology and religion. They are very often depicted as dangerous and aggressive, with a strange or grotesque appearance that causes terror and fear, often in humans. Monsters usually resemble bizarre, deformed, otherworldly and/or mutated animals or entirely unique creatures of varying sizes, but may also take a human form, such as mutants, ghosts, spirits, zombies, or cannibals, among other things. They may or may not have supernatural powers, but are usually capable of killing or causing some form of destruction, threatening the social or moral order of the human world in the process.
The European dragon is a legendary creature in folklore and mythology among the overlapping cultures of Europe.
The wyvern is a type of mythical dragon with two legs, two wings, and often a pointed tail.
The Ziz is a giant griffin-like bird in Jewish mythology, said to be large enough to be able to block out the sun with its wingspan.
The catoblepas is a legendary creature from Aethiopia, first described by Pliny the Elder and later by Claudius Aelianus.
In medieval literature, the ichneumon or echinemon was the enemy of the dragon. When it sees a dragon, the ichneumon covers itself with mud, and closing its nostrils with its tail, attacks and kills the dragon. The ichneumon was also considered by some to be the enemy of the crocodile and the asp, and attack them in the same way. The name was used for the pharaoh's rat, mongoose, or Egyptian mongoose, which attacks snakes; it can also mean otter. The ichneumon is shaped similarly to a ferret, although much slimmer in its shape, and the head is elongated. Also, it is an animal that can move swiftly and is able to jump a couple of yards with a single leap.
A variety of magical creatures are depicted in the fictional universe of Harry Potter, which is drawn from various types of media. Magical creatures appear in the Harry Potter novels and their film adaptations, in the Fantastic Beasts film series, in other books by J. K. Rowling, and on the website of the Wizarding World media franchise. In 2001, Rowling released Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which serves as a guidebook to the creatures described in the fictional universe. Some of these creatures were invented by Rowling. Others are derived from sources such as Greek mythology, English and Celtic folklore, and the works of Roman historians.
The common basilisk is a species of lizard in the family Corytophanidae. The species is endemic to Central America and South America, where it is found near rivers and streams in rainforests. It is also known as the Jesus Christ lizard, Jesus lizard, South American Jesus lizard, or lagarto de Jesus Cristo for its ability to run on the surface of water.
The Book of the Dun Cow (1978) is a fantasy novel by Walter Wangerin Jr. It is loosely based upon the beast fable of Chanticleer and the Fox adapted from the story of "The Nun's Priest's Tale" from Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. It has two sequels.
Over 120 species of animals are mentioned in the Bible, ordered alphabetically in this article by English vernacular name. Animals mentioned in the Old Testament will be listed with their Hebrew name, while those mentioned in the New Testament will be listed with their Greek names. This list includes names of mythical creatures such as the griffin, lamia, siren and unicorn, which have been applied to real animals in some older translations of the Bible due to misunderstandings or educational prejudices of the Greek and Latin translators. In the following list D.V. stands for Douay Version, A.V. and R.V. for Authorized and Revised Version respectively.
The griffin, griffon, or gryphon is a legendary creature with the body, tail, and back legs of a lion, and the head and wings of an eagle with its talons on the front legs.
In European bestiaries and legends, a basilisk is a legendary reptile reputed to be a serpent king, who causes death to those who look into its eyes. According to the Naturalis Historia of Pliny the Elder, the basilisk of Cyrene is a small snake, "being not more than twelve inches in length", that is so venomous, it leaves a wide trail of deadly venom in its path, and its gaze is likewise lethal.
The Talking Parcel is a 1974 book by Gerald Durrell in which children are transported to the fantasy land of Mythologia to save it from cockatrices. They are aided by a talking parrot and encounter many other magical creatures, including a mooncalf.
A legendary creature, also called a mythical creature, is a type of extraordinary or supernatural entity that is described in folklore and may be featured in historical accounts before modernity, but has not been scientifically proven.
Nephesh, also spelled nefesh, is a Biblical Hebrew word which occurs in the Hebrew Bible. The word refers to the aspects of sentience, and human beings and other animals are both described as being nephesh. Bugs and plants, as examples of live organisms, are not described in the Bible as nephesh. The primary meaning of the term נפש is 'the breath of life' instinct in the nostrils of all living beings, and by extension 'life', 'person' or 'very self'. There is no term in English corresponding to nephesh, and the (Christian) 'soul', which has quite different connotations is nonetheless customarily used to translate it. One view is that nephesh relates to sentient being without the idea of life and that, rather than having a nephesh, a sentient creation of God is a nephesh. In Genesis 2:7, the text is not that Adam was given a nephesh but that Adam "became a living nephesh." Nephesh when put with another word can detail aspects related to the concept of nephesh; with רוּחַ rûach it describes a part of mankind that is immaterial, like one's mind, emotions, will, intellect, personality, and conscience, as in Job 7:11.
There are numerous cultural references to chickens in myth, folklore, religion, and literature. Chickens are a sacred animal in many cultures, being deeply embedded in belief systems and religious worship practices.
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