Cockatrice

A cockatrice is a legendary creature, resembling a large rooster with a lizard-like tail, "an ornament in the drama and poetry of the Elizabethans" Laurence Breiner described it; "the cockatrice, which no one ever saw, was born by accident at the end of the twelfth century and died in the middle of the seventeenth, a victim of the new science".^[1] when the cockatrice was first described in the late twelfth century based on a hint in Pliny's Natural History,^[2] as a duplicate of the basilisk or regulus, though, unlike the basilisk, the cockatrice has wings. The cockatrice is very similar (if not identical) to another legendary creature, the basilisk; the Jewish Encyclopedia (1906) considers them identical.

According to Alexander Neckam's De naturis rerum (ca 1180), it was supposed to be born from an egg laid by a cock^[3] and incubated by a toad; a snake might be substituted in re-tellings. The translation from basiliscus to cockatrice was effected when the basiliscus in Bartholomeus Anglicus' De proprietatibus rerum (ca 1260) was translated by John Trevisa as cockatrice (1397).^[4] Attempts to identify it with any particular biological species have proved generally futile.

Its reputed magical abilities include turning people to stone or killing them by either looking at them — "the death-darting eye of Cockatrice"^[5] — 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. It was also thought that a cockatrice would die instantly upon hearing a rooster crow. According to legend, having a cockatrice look itself in a mirror is one of the few sure-fire ways to kill it. The cockatrice was also able to fly with the set of wings affixed to its back.

Like the head of Medusa, the cockatrice's powers of petrification were thought still effective after death.

The widespread and long-standing perception that there is a connection with crocodile in texts transmitted in Late Latin and Old French^[6] was traced in detail by Laurence Breiner (1979) from Pliny's assertion that the ichneumon lay in wait for the crocodile to open its jaws for the trochilus bird^[7] to enter and pick its teeth clean, to Brunetto Latini's remark in Li livres dou tresor (ca 1260)

In England the town most associated with the Cockatrice is the village of Wherwell, near Andover in Hampshire. The story is that the Cockatrice terrorised the village until it was imprisoned in the dungeons below Wherwell Priory. A prize of land was offered to anyone who could kill the creature. None was successful, until a man named Green lowered a mirror into the dungeon. The Cockatrice battled against its own reflection until exhausted, at which point Green was able to kill it. Today there is an area of land near Wherwell called Green's Acres. For many years a weather vane in the shape of a Cockatrice adorned the church of St. Peter and Holy Cross in Wherwell until it was removed to Andover Museum.

In the King James Version of the Old Testament, following a tradition established in John Wyclif's bible (1382)^[8] the word is used several times, to translate Hebrew tziph'oni:

Isaiah 11:8 And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den.

Isaiah 14:29 Rejoice not thou, whole Palestina, because the rod of him that smote thee is broken: for out of the serpent's root shall come forth a cockatrice, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent.

Isaiah 59:5 They hatch cockatrice' eggs, and weave the spider's web: he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper.

Jeremiah 8:17 For, behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, saith the LORD.

In all these instances, the Revised Version— following the tradition established by Jerome's Vulgate basiliscus— renders the word "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.

Laurence Breiner also identified the uses of the cockatrice in alchemy (Breiner 1979).

Popular culture

The cockatrice is the heraldic symbol of 3 (Fighter) Squadron, a Fighter squadron of The Royal Air Force.

File:3 Squadron RAF.jpg

Squadron Crest

Modern literature

The Cockatrice is the villain of The Book of the Dun Cow, a novel by Walter Wangerin, Jr.

The Cockatrice is also mentioned in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, a novel by J. K. Rowling, as one of the tasks of a previous "Triwizard Tournament."

Modern fantasy fiction and games

The cockatrice has provided magical or neo-medieval colour for much fantasy fiction, Dungeons & Dragons role-playing games and commercial entertainment. For most people, these provide the main encounters with the imaginary cockatrice.

The cockatrice is a regularly encountered creature in the popular Final Fantasy XII game. Unlike the traditional description, this cockatrice looks like an oversized balloon of a chick with a small tail and ranging from 3 to 8 feet tall, and is kept as livestock.

In the video game, Final Fantasy VI, a cockatrice appears in the form of the Esper, Tritoch (Valigarmanda). It also appears as a common monster early in Final Fantasy IV, on Mount Hobs. In the Japanese version of the game, they drop a summon spell which can be given to one of the characters. The summoned cockatrice will stone one enemy. In all, they appear in at least 12 different Final Fantasy video game titles.

The cockatrice is also a slayer monster from the game RuneScape. Players need to wear a Mirror Shield to protect themselves from their gaze, otherwise their attacking skills would drop to dangerous levels and die an untimely death.

Cockatrice is Monster in My Pocket #7. He is an enemy in the video game, sending powerful blasts from his eyes.

The cockatrice is one of the most notorious hostile creatures in NetHack; there are estimated to be 47 distinct ways for the player character to be turned to stone by a cockatrice, its corpse or its eggs.^[9] Its corpse makes a devastating weapon, petrifying most monsters with a single blow, but gloves must be worn and extreme caution exercised. In this role the corpse is referred to as a "rubber chicken."

Cockatrices appear as controllable characters in Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen. They are large characters (limiting the amount of characters available in a party) that can move through the sky. Their units are fast moving and will be high sky unless a heavy dragon is in the party. They are "evolved" from Gryphons, so long as they have low enough alignment.

Cockatrices also appear in Ogre Battle 64. In this sequel, they remain large characters, but no longer "evolve" from any other creature. They are notorious for their "Petrify" ability, which can quickly disable a unit.

The Digimon Kokatorimon is based on a Cockatrice, as shown by its Japanese name, appearance and attacks.

Cockatrices make appearances as monsters in the game The Witcher, although it is stated in the game that they lack the ability to turn their victims into stone.

Analogous creatures

Pyrolisk - A relative of the cockatrice in the "Advanced Dungeons and Dragons" game; trading a petrifying gaze for one that immolates its surroundings.

Chickatrice – A juvenile cockatrice in some games, such as Final Fantasy XII and NetHack.

Duckatrice – Features in John Heath-Stubbs' droll poem The Duckatrice of Netley Abbey ^[10]

Notes

^ Laurence A. Breiner, "The Career of the Cockatrice", Isis 70.1 (March 1979: 30-47) p. 30.
^ Historia Naturalis viii.37.90.
^ This impossibility is at the root of the originally pejorative term "Cockney" ("cock's egg") for a Londoner.
^ Breiner 1979:35.
^ Romeo and Juliet, iii.ii.47. The idea of vision in an "eye-beam", a stream emanating from the eye was inherited by the Renaissance from Antiquity; it forms an elaborately-worked-out simile in John Donne's "The Exstacie": "Our eye-beames twisted and did thred/ Our eyes, upon one double string."
^ "The texts in which the cockatrice appears as a crocodile were transmitted chiefly in Latin and French" (Breiner 1979:33); OED gives a derivation from Old French cocatris, from medieval Latin calcatrix, or caucatrix, but asserts that cocatris and its equivalents were used to render Greek ichneumon; Breiner demonstrates how this erroneous connection came about.
^ Trochilus has been applied by modern ornithology to an entirely unrelated hummingbird.
^ The first instance of cockatrice in English.
^ David Corbett (2006-02-23). "Cockatrice spoiler for NetHack 3.4.3". Retrieved 2007-12-23.
^ John Heath-Stubbs Pigs might fly, Carcanet, ISBN 1 857548 19 1

References

ChristianAnswers.com: "Cockatrice"
The Medieval Bestiary: "Basilisk" (includes Cockatrice)