Amphisbaina

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A legendary serpent from Greek and Roman mythology having a head at both ends of its body, capable of moving in either direction
2. A fabulous two-headed serpent from classical mythology, with a head at each extremity allowing it to travel forward or backward
3. A mythological creature depicted as a snake with a head at each end, enabling it to move in both directions along its length

Etymology: In Greek myth, the amphisbaena was a serpent with a head at each end, and its name is built from "amphis", meaning "on both sides" or "both ways", and "bainein", "to go". The name describes its supposed ability to crawl equally well in either direction, a belief that Roman writers repeated. Pliny the Elder described it in his "Natural History", and the Roman poet Lucan placed it among the venomous snakes that plagued a army marching through the Libyan desert in his epic "Pharsalia". The creature stayed in medieval bestiaries, where it was often shown as a dragon-like beast with two heads. The name later passed to the natural sciences. Carl Linnaeus used it for a genus of legless, burrowing reptiles, the worm lizards, whose blunt tails and rear-facing shape led naturalists to see a link to the ancient myth.

Synonyms: amphisbaena, amphisbene