| Cerastes |
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Cerastes Latin name: Cerastes Other names: Carastes An exceptionally flexible serpent with horns
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| General Attributes |
The cerastes is the most flexible of all serpents, so flexible that is seems to have no spine. It has either two horns, which are like a ram's horns, or four pairs of small horns. The cerastes hides in the sand so that only its horns show; animals, thinking the horns are food, come close and are killed by the serpent. |
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Isidore of Seville [7th century CE] (Etymologies, Book 12, 4:18): The cerastes is a snake with horns like a ram's on its head; from this it gets its name, fro the Greeks call horns kerata. It has four horns, which it displays as bait, and instantly kills the animals it attracts. It covers itself with sand, leaving exposed only the part with which it catches allured birds and animals. It is so flexible that it seems to have no spine. |
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