Many of us upon hearing the word Basilisk mentally transported ourselves to the «Secret Chamber» of the Harry Potter book and imagined the immense snake they faced the little wizard and his friends.However, like several of the fantastic creatures that JKRowling describes in his novels, they are not entirely the fruit of his imagination, but are based on beings from the Greco-Roman or Nordic mythology .The writer acknowledged that he made a deep study of these fantasy beings before introducing them in his writings.In Mysterious we have seen other settlers of the mythological universe such as Caladrius and on this occasion we want to approach the Basilisk.
Basilisk.10 curiosities about this being
1.The word basilisk comes from the Greek «basiliskos» and means «little king» He was considered the king of snakes.
2.His origin is a in Greek mythology that described him as a small snake, bearer of a lethal poison, which also could kill with his eyes .
3.In the first Greek descriptions, the basilisk was born from a chicken egg , but this must have been feathered by a toad and was a snake that wore a kind of crown on its head, measuring approximately «20 fingers» according to Pliny the Elder.
4.In the thirteenth century, issues related to his birth were further refined and it was concluded that was born from a deformed egg that would have put a 7-year-old rooster of age.This egg should be incubated for 9 years by a toad and therefore, when the basilisk was born, it had the head of a rooster, the body of a toad and the tail of a snake.
5.Not only was it a lethal animal, but its simple breath was so harmful that it provoked that the stones should be cracked and the plants withered.It was said that for that reason he lived in desert areas, he undid the rocks and killed all the vegetation.
6.As JKRowling collected in his novels , mythology gave the basilisk the power not only to kill with his eyes, but to petrify anyone who saw his reflection in a mirror or another similar surface.
7.In the Old Testament the basilisk is cited 7 times in 4 different books : Isaiah, Proverbs, Jeremiah and Psalms.
8.To kill a basilisk there were few methods.The two most common were: making sing to a rooster , since it was thought that this sound terrified the basilisks, or with the smell of a weasel , which although it killed him, meant the sacrifice of the exposed animal.
9.Currently, when talking about an animal called basilisk, naturalists refer to the « common basilisk », a lizard that is native to Central America and is capable of walking on water.
10.When we say that someone" has become like a basilisk "or" put on a basilisk "we mean that someone is very angry or very furious and he is even able to kill with his eyes.
Do you know any more curiosity about basilisks? Share it with us!
If you were interested This article, you may want to meet other mythological beings by reading the post:
-4 creatures of Greek mythology that you wish existed
Images: JoJan, Solbaken
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