Noun
strix (plural strixes or striges)
- (mythology) A bird-like demon feeding on human flesh and blood.
2017, Ronald Hutton, The Witch, Yale University Press, published 2018, page 69:What was distinctive about the strix was that […] it resembled an owl, or (to a lesser extent) a bat, being a winged, clawed creature, which flew by night and had a hideous screeching cry.
Etymology 1
Borrowed from Ancient Greek στρίξ (stríx, “screecher”), which also gave strī̆ga (“evil spirit, nightmare; vampire; witch”), itself likely of onomatopoeic origin and related to Latin strīdō (“to screech”).
Noun
strī̆x f (genitive strī̆gis); third declension
- A kind of owl, probably the screech-owl (considered a bird of ill omen).
191 BCE, Plautus, Pseudolus, archived from the original on 2022-10-08, act 3, scene 2, lines 30–32:eī hominēs cēnās ubi coquont, cum condiunt,
nōn condīmentīs condiunt, sed strīgibus,
vīvīs convīvīs intestīna quae exedint.- Those people, when they cook dinners, when they season them,
season them not with seasonings, but with screech-owls
that would eat up the living guests' guts.
(This is in iambic senarii.)
16 BCE, Ovid, Amores, archived from the original on 2017-01-06, 1.12, lines 17-20:Praebuit illa arbor miserō suspendia collō,
Carnificī dīrās praebuit illa crucēs;
Illa dedit turpēs raucīs būbōnibus umbrās,
Vulturis in rāmīs et strĭgis ōva tulit.- That tree offered a hanging to an unfortunate neck;
it offered dreadful crosses to the executioner;
it gave foul shade to hoarse owls;
it held the vulture's and screech-owl's eggs on its branches.
(This is in elegiac couplets.)
8 CE,
Ovid,
Fasti 6.139–140:
- est illīs strĭgibus nōmen; sed nōminis huius
causa, quod horrendum strīdere nocte solent.- Screech-owls they're called; but the reason for this name is that they are wont to screech dreadfully at night.
(This is an elegiac couplet; “strī̆x” was associated with and in fact indirectly relates to the Latin strīdō, “to screech”.)
c. 90 CE, Statius, Thebaid, archived from the original on 2023-02-18, 3.506-512:nōn comes obscūrus tripodum, nōn fulminis ārdēns
vector adest, flāvaeque sonāns avis unca Minervae
nōn venit auguriīs melior; quīn vultur et altīs
dēsuper accipitrēs exultāvēre rapīnīs.
mōnstra volant: dīrae strīdunt in nūbe volucrēs,
nocturnaeque gemunt strĭgĕs et fērālia būbō
damna canēns.- No the dark companion of the tripods [the raven], no burning lightning-bearer [the eagle]
is there, and no hooting and clawed bird of golden-haired Minerva [the owl]
comes auspiciously to the auguries; instead, a vulture and
hawks up above have rejoiced at their lofty plunder.
Evil omens are aflight: ominous birds shriek in the clouds,
and the nocturnal screech-owls and the death-like horned owl cry,
singing of loss.
(This is in dactylic hexameters.)
- (by extension, according to popular belief) An evil spirit, a vampire or a harpy who sucked the blood of children and caused nightmares.
- Synonyms: volātica, malefica, venēfica, strī̆ga
References
- “strix”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “strix”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- strix in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.