The cerastes (

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

: κεράστης, transliteration: ''kerastēs'', meaning "having horns"Perseus (Liddell-Scott-Jones Lexicon of Classical Greek)
- kerastês, ou, ho, ''horned'', elaphos Soph. El. 568; kantharos IDEM=S.''Ichn''.300; of a ram, ô kerasta Eur. Cycl. 52 (lyr.); Pan Antip.ti=E. ''Oxy''.662.49, Corn. ''ND27''; Saturoi Luc.''Bacch''.1:-- # fem. kerastis, idos, of Io, Aesch. PB 674. II. as Subst., ''horned serpent'' or ''asp'', ''Cerastes cornutus'', Nic. ''Th''.258, LXX Pr.23.32, D.S.3.50, Ael.''NA''1.57; hoi k. opheis Call.Hist. 3. 2. ''pest which destroys fig-trees'', Thphr.''HP''4.14.5, au=Thphr. HP 5.4.5.) is a creature of

Greek legend A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities of de ...

, a

serpent Serpent or The Serpent may refer to: * Snake, a carnivorous reptile of the suborder Serpentes Mythology and religion * Sea serpent, a monstrous ocean creature * Serpent (symbolism), the snake in religious rites and mythological contexts * Serp ...

that is incredibly flexible—so much so that it is said to have no spine. Cerastae can have either two large

ram Ram, ram, or RAM may refer to: Animals * A male sheep * Ram cichlid, a freshwater tropical fish People * Ram (given name) * Ram (surname) * Ram (director) (Ramsubramaniam), an Indian Tamil film director * RAM (musician) (born 1974), Dutch * Raj ...

-like horns or two pairs of smaller horns. The cerastes hides its head in the sand with only the horns protruding out of the surface; this is meant to deceive other animals into thinking it is food. When the animal approaches the cerastes, the cerastes promptly kills it. The legend is most likely derived from the habits of the horned viper, whose genus, '' Cerastes'', is named after the mythological creature. They are desert-dwelling animals, which can have horn-like protrusions over their eyes, and are

ambush An ambush is a long-established military tactic in which a combatant uses an advantage of concealment or the element of surprise to attack unsuspecting enemy combatants from concealed positions, such as among dense underbrush or behind mo ...

predators, though not nearly large enough to take prey items much larger than a mouse or small lizard. Leonardo da Vinci wrote the following on the cerastes:

Notes

Greek legendary creatures Legendary serpents {{Greek-myth-stub

See also

Notes