Катоблепас: Мифический зверь с опущенной головой.

Legendary creature, buffalo whose head always looks downward

The catoblepas (from Latin catōblepas, ultimately from Greek καταβλέπω (katablépō) "to look downwards") is a legendary creature from Aethiopia, first described by Pliny the Elder and later by Claudius Aelianus. One known description of the Catoblepas is said to resemble a cape buffalo, with its head always pointing downwards due to its great weight. Its stare or breath could either turn people into stone, or kill them. The catoblepas is often thought to be based on real life encounters with wildebeest, such that some dictionaries say that the word is synonymous with "gnu". Other depictions have it sporting the head of a hog and the body of a cape buffalo. It is sometimes known as an African version of a Gorgon.

Pliny the Elder (Natural History, 8.77) described the catoblepas as a mid sized creature, sluggish, with a heavy head and a face always turned to the ground. He thought its gaze, like that of the basilisk, was lethal, making the heaviness of its head quite fortunate. Pomponius Mela (Chorographia, 3.98) echoes the description given by Pliny the Elder though also notes that the creature is fairly passive and not known to physically attack others. Timotheus of Gaza (On Animals, 53) says that the catoblepas emits fire from its nostrils. Claudius Aelianus (On the Nature of Animals, 7.6) provided a fuller description: the creature was a mid sized herbivore, about the size of a domestic bull, with a heavy mane, narrow, bloodshot eyes, a scaly back and shaggy eyebrows. The head was so heavy that the beast could only look down. In his description, the animal's gaze was not lethal, but its breath was poison, since it ate only poisonous vegetation. Constantine Manasses (2, 39) mentions the "fire breathing katobleps".

The Catoblepas appeared in the roleplaying game Dungeons & Dragons in two distinct forms. It first appeared under the name "Catoblepas" in 1976, in the TSR published magazine The Strategic Review, issue #7 and continued to appear in various editions of the game rules with evolving attributes. TSR also included a creature in its game called the gorgon based on the catoblepas of legend, but resembling iron scaled cattle. This interpretation of gorgon appears as a unit in Heroes of Might and Magic III as well. The catoblepas appears as creature cards in the Theros and Theros Beyond Death expansion sets of the collectible card game Magic: The Gathering. The catoblepas appears as a common enemy in the Castlevania video games. Its description varies in different games where it can resemble a gray ox and an armored bull. The catoblepas has a weaker counterpart called the gorgon which can breathe poison. In Rick Riordan's 2013 The Heroes of Olympus book The House of Hades, the catoblepas appears with the name Katobleps (Ancient Greek κατῶβλεψ) in the form of creatures resembling cow monsters. They are shown to have a poisonous gaze and a poisonous breath. An invalid binomial name for the Black wildebeest is Catoblepas operculatus as coined by Brookes (1828), likely in reference to both its horns and downturned head. The Catoblepas inspired several Monster Cards in the collectible card game Yu Gi Oh!. The Catoblepas appears in Runescape with the name "Catablepon". Catoblepas meat is mentioned as preferred food of a spoiled princess in The Witcher (video game).