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Seps (legendary creature)

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For similar terms, see Tetradactylus and SEPS.
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Find sources: "Seps" legendary creature – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (February 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
Seps (Bestiary Harley MS 3244, ff 36r-71v, 13th century, British Library).
Seps (Royal Bestiary MS 12 C XIX; 1200-1210).

A seps is a legendary snake from medieval bestiaries. They were said to have extremely corrosive venom that liquefied their prey.

The seps is described as "a small snake which consumes with its poison not just the body but the bones" in the medieval Aberdeen Bestiary. Lucan's Pharsalia refers to its appearance and the effects of its poison.

Shelley in Prometheus Unbound writes:

...all my being,
Like him whom the Numidian seps did thaw
Into a dew with poison, is dissolved...

See also

References

  1. Badke, David (2011-01-15). "Seps". The Medieval Bestiary. Retrieved 2008-12-28.
  2. Aberdeen Bestiary, folio 69v.
  3. Tennant, Roy (date unknown). Lucan's Pharsalia Book 9 ll. 723, 764 (line numbers in the original Latin). Retrieved from http://mcllibrary.org/Pharsalia/book9.html.
  4. Shelley, Percy Bysshe (1820), Prometheus Unbound, Act III, scene 1.


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