Do you know the Ampisbaena? It is very strange and mysterious creature…. Last month I tried to pick some information about it and to draw its picture. My image of the Amphisbaena you can see in my gallery :
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And here you could read, what I found about it :

Amhisbaena, also called the Mother of Ants, is a mythological, ant-eating lizard or serpent with a head at each end. According to Greek mythology, the mythological amphisbaena was spawned from the blood that dripped from the Gorgon Medusa's head as Perseus flew over the Libyan Desert with it in his hand.
It has one head in the normal position, and another at the end of its tail. It can therefore run in either direction. Its eyes shine like lamps, and has no fear of cold.
If cut in half, both halves will rejoin. If the heads hold each other, the amphisbaena can roll along like a hoop.

Pliny the Elder [1st century CE] (Natural History, Book 8, 35) write, that the creature is poisonous: „The amphisbaena has a twin head, that is one at the tail-end as well, as though it were not enough for poison to be poured out of one mouth“.

Though the amphisbaena is poisonous, it had some uses in medieval folk magic and medicine. Wearing a live amphisbaena around the neck was said to promote safe pregnancy, perhaps suggestive of just how dangerous pregnancy was in those days. The skin of an amphisbaena was said to help with arthritis or a cold. Killing an amphisbaena or eating its flesh were powerful forms of magic, allowing the practitioner to become pure of heart or to attract a lover.

The amphisbaena is often depicted as having wings and two feet, with horns on its head.
Medieval bestiaries also document the Amphisbaena as a two-headed lizard, and even a two-headed dragon with bird's wings. A similar creature said to inhabit mythical southern isles in the far south had a tortoise-like body and legs.

The heraldic form of the amphisbaena dates from the Elizabethan times (Bossewell's Armorie, 1572).
I found only one black and white picture depicted the Amphisbaena in the heraldry. It is show as the creature with the lion´s legs, dog´s head on the front and eagle´s head at the tail end. Despite its being mentioned by heraldic writers, it was never actually used in mundane armory.

A real animal that takes its name from the amphisbaena, the amphisbaenia, is a "worm lizard" native to South America and parts of Africa, the Middle East, and Mediterranean Europe. Novelist T. H. White suggested that this creature may have inspired the mythical amphisbaena. The amphisbaenia is similar in color and appearance to a worm, but is actually a relative of lizards and snakes. Like its mythical cousin, the amphisbaenia can slither equally well in either direction, and its head and tail are difficult to distinguish at a glance.

Sources of information :
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Special thanks : and for give me some information about the Amphisbaena




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