Supernatural lore: What exactly is a musca?

Supernatural lore introduced the musca in Season 14, Episode 6. What exactly is this fly-man hybrid and does it have any connection to real lore?

It’s been a long time since we’ve really had a new creature introduced. We’ve had developments of our favorites but not new Supernatural lore to consider. In Season 14, Episode 6, the muska was introduced.

The creature didn’t get much focus. It was really just some sort of easy monster-of-the-week to get rid of so Sam and Apocalypse Charlie could be on the same hunt together. While there is a star constellation known as the Musca, it’s likely the name of the common house fly that this Supernatural lore was adapted from.

The Supernatural musca

More from Supernatural

• Jensen Ackles and The Winchesters cast kick off #SaveTheWinchesters campaign
• Will The Winchesters be saved? (Can Supernatural fans save the prequel?)
• Did The Winchesters get renewed? (Is The Winchesters season 2 happening?)
• Is a new episode of The Winchesters on tonight? (March 14, 2023)
• The Winchesters Season1 finale explained: Did it connect to Supernatural?

According to Charlie, the musca is a giant fly monster. Born from a bad egg, it spends its time alone and looks for a place to lay its eggs. More importantly, when the fly fails to find a mate, it will nest inside of humans that it’s killed. Great!

The books in the show point out that a brass nail dipped in sugar water is needed to kill this monster. Of course, Sam and Charlie don’t have that but fortunately just shooting it in the head is enough.

Like I said, the show doesn’t really touch on the lore that much. The focus is on the bonding between Sam and Charlie and a chance to learn more about Apocalypse Charlie.

The real lore behind the musca

In real life, the real musca is a house fly. “Musca domestica” is the Latin name given to the most common species of fly around the world. You’ll find them around animals, garbage, and just generally around homes.

Flies will lay eggs in rotting meat, which is possibly where the idea of killing humans and laying eggs within the bodies comes from. After all, a dead body is just a lot of rotting meat, right?

There’s also plenty of real lore surrounding flies. In the Babylonian period, they were considered the symbol of the God of Death. But what about the connection to the fly-man? This is linked to Native American lore in a way.

Native Americans viewed flies as lazy. A person who was lazy would be turned into flies in the Native legends. In fact, there’s a story of two tribes. One would scavenge for food and the other would sing and dance all day. The scavenging tribe was rewarded by being turned into bees and the lazy tribe turned into flies.

Where do you think the musca Supernatural lore comes from? What did you think of the episode “Optimism?” Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Follow SPN Hunters on Twitter for more Supernatural lore explanations.