Cockatrice
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A cockatrice is a legendary creature, "an ornament in the drama and poetry of the Elizabethans" (Breiner). The cockatrice was invented in the late twelfth century based on a hint in Pliny's Natural History, as a duplicate of the basilisk or regulus, in appearance resembling a giant rooster, with a lizard-like tail. It was supposed to be born from an egg laid by a cock<ref>This impossibility is at the root of the originally pejorative term "Cockney" ("cock's egg") for a Londoner.</ref> and incubated by a toad or serpent. Attempts to identify it with any particular biological species, often of snakes, are fruitless: it is a bogey of the wasteland.
Its reputed magical abilities include turning people to stone or killing them by either looking at them—"the death-darting eye of Cockatrice"<ref>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."</ref>—touching them, or sometimes breathing on them. The cockatrice is very similar (if not identical) to another legendary creature, the basilisk; the Jewish Encyclopedia (1906) considers them identical.
It is said in the 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<ref>OED notes a sixteenth-century association of cockatrice with crocodile.</ref> that there is a connection with crocodile is not supported by OED which gives a derivation from Old French cocatris, from medieval Latin calcatrix, or caucatrix, used to render Greek ichneumon
In the King James Version of the Old Testament cockatrice 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 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 identified the uses of the cockatrice in alchemy (Breiner1979).
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[edit] Cockatrice in modern fantasy fiction and games
- Cockatrice is Monster in My Pocket #7. It appears only briefly in the comic book and shoots out deadly beams in the stage five oriental garden of the video game.
- Cockatrices are the main villains in Gerald Durrell's fantasy story "The Talking Parcel"
- In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, there was once a cockatrice (confused for the basilisk) loose at the triwizard tournament.
- In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, there was also a basilisk; but the creatures were very different.
- In Dungeons & Dragons, there is a cockatrice (classified as a Magical Beast) in the Monster Manual.
- There is also a Magic: The Gathering cockatrice card, similar to the basilisk.
- In the console role-playing game Final Fantasy IV, the cockatrice (or "cocatrice") is both a random enemy and a summoned monster with the power to turn an enemy monster into stone. It appears as a random encounter enemy in most other Final Fantasy games and can petrify party members.
- In the computer role-playing game RuneScape, a cockatrice is a monster which requires 25 Slayer (a skill) and a Mirror Shield in order to kill.
- As a creature in the roguelike game NetHack, its petrification capabilities make it a particularly fearsome monster. A vanquished cockatrice will leave a poisonous corpse that petrifies anything it touches; the player character can pick up this corpse and wield it as a weapon, if he or she has proper protection. This is extremely dangerous for any creatures the player character attacks, as well as the player him or herself
- It can also be found as a DDS card in Castlevania: Circle of the Moon video game for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance. It gives the player powers of petrification and stronger attacks. Cockatrices are also found in other Castlevania games as enemies.
- Cockatrice are in the game EverQuest.
- 2 Digimon (Kokatorimon and Akatorimon) are based on the cockatrice.
- In Power Rangers Mystic Force, the Clawbster is scaled cockatrice-based monster.
- In the 1988 WonderWorks Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, a cockatrice fights in Aslan's army against the White Witch.
- In the video game Star Ocean: Till the End of Time one of the bosses and normal monsters are cockatrice. They are deadly without proper items due to their petrification attacks.
- Cockatrice appear in Tales of Symphonia as an enemy with a wind elemental capability.
- In Konami's Boktai: The Sun is in Your Hand, the Cockatrice is a common enemy (which can turn Django into stone with its beams) found in Sol City and the Wind Tower.
- In the first part of the original campaign in Neverwinter Nights, the cockatrice is one of the four magical beasts the player need find. The player is repeatedly warned of how dangerous it is, but in the end the player finally finds the creature killed by a dog in the street.
- In Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber, Cockatrices are a beast class with an area of effect breath attack that can petrify enemies. This effect can only be reversed by a Revive Stone, which is made from a Cockatrice tail.
- In Master of Magic it is one of the creatures that a player or his opponents may summon.
- In the tri-Ace game Valkyrie Profile, a Cockatrice is one of the beasts the player must defeat in the Forest of Spirits. It resembles a chicken and breathes fire that can turn one of the player's party members into stone. In Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria, the player can buy Cockatrice Eggs, which will heal any member of the player's party that has been turned to stone.
- In the World of Warcraft expansion The Burning Crusade the new Horde Race, the Blood Elves, were initially going to ride cockatrices for their race-specific mount, but the mounts were renamed Hawkstriders in the game's beta.
- Also in World of Warcraft, visitors to the Darkmoon Faire can see Pygmy Cockatrices running around the petting zoo area of the faire. These use the same character model as the average in-game chicken.
- In Final Fantasy XII, the cockatrice is one of the most prominent monster species, first encountered as livestock in the Giza Plains Nomad village. After having acquired a key item named "Feather Of The Flock", one can understand what a cockatrice is trying to say to the main character.
[edit] Notes
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[edit] References
- ChristianAnswers.com: "Cockatrice"
- The Medieval Bestiary: "Basilisk" (includes Cockatrice)
[edit] Further reading
- Laurence A. Breiner, "The Career of the Cockatrice", Isis 70:1 (March 1979), pp 30-47
- P. Ansell Robin, "The Cockatrice and the 'New English Dictionary'", in Animal Lore in English Literature (London 1932).fr:Cocatrix
