Ceras (1)
Ceras sed melius keras grece cornu inde cerastos quidam serpens cornutus.
Apparatus:
inde | Idem ms. e
Cerastes B efp {rubricated in B ef} | cerastos AC j {'e' misread as 'o'}
serpens cornutus | serpentes cornuti B
Translation:
Ceras, better keras, is Greek for Latin cornu {"horn"}, and derived from it is cerastos, a certain horned serpent.
Commentary:
Greek κέρας /kéras/, like Latin cornu, means "horn".
κεράστης /kerástēs/ means "horned" and as a noun also refers to a horned serpent.
Zoological remarks:
According to LSJ the snake is Cerastes cerastes L. (syn. Cerastes cornutus Forskål ), the "horned desert viper" [[1]], with a distribution from the deserts of North Africa to parts of the Middle East. The snake is easily recognised because of its supraorbital horns, one over each eye, which can however be absent in certain specimens. C. cerastes is not very aggressive and its bite is only mildly toxic.
WilfGunther (talk) 18:46, 26 December 2015 (GMT)
