As for the upcoming of the second installment of the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. I did a deep dive into a few of these magical creatures. In this post I have taken a closer look at the Basilisk.
The basilisk in Harry Potter books
Physical appearance & characteristics
A very old library book at Hogwarts describes the basilisk as a fearsome beast, which roams the country besides other beasts but none is more curious or more deadly than the basilisk. This very frightening creature is also known as the King of Serpents.1
Breeding
Herpo the Foul finds out how to breed such a gigantic snake. So this Greek Dark wizard and Parselmouth in one person becomes the creator of the species of the basilisks. He has to do a lot of experiments before he succeeds. The King of the Serpents is born from a chicken’s egg, hatched beneath a toad.2 Only by using this procedure the enormous monster “possessed of extraordinarily dangerous powers.”2 is produced. It may live hundreds of years but there are also records of a lifetime of a thousand years. In the wizarding world the creation of basilisks has been illegal since medieval times but the practice can easily be concealed by removing the chicken egg when the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures comes along. The reason for the prohibition is that basilisks
“are uncontrollable except by Parselmouths, they are as dangerous to most Dark wizards as to anybody else.”2
Harry’s schoolbook explains that there have not been any sightings of basilisks in Britain for at least four hundred years except for Harry’s fight against Salazar Slytherin’s monster.
Characteristics
“The basilisk is a brilliant green serpent that may reach up to fifty feet in length. The male has a scarlet plume upon its head.”2
The basilisk’s methods of killing are very different. Its deadly fangs contain very powerful poison and there is1 only one known antidote – phoenix tears, which are incredibly rare.3
The basilisk’s venom is such a destructive substance that it can even destroy Horcruxes3 and kill a man within minutes, making him drowsy and blurry-visioned before he dies.1 Even after the basilisk’s death the venom remains effective up to five years.3
Besides the venomous fangs, the Basilisk has a murderous stare. All who look straight into its large yellow eyes suffer instant death. But if somebody does not directly look into the monster’s eye he just gets petrified: The first example is Colin Creevey, who sees it through his camera and the second one is Hermione Granger who just looks at the serpent through a mirror.
As the basilisk is a very fearsome monster spiders flee from it, for it is their mortal enemy, the Basilisk itself flees only from the crowing of the rooster, because that sound would k.1
Important action for plot
First appearance
When Harry gets into contact with the basilisk for the first time, he does not know that he communicates with this very dangerous beast, he just hears its voice:
„It was a voice, a voice to chill the bone-marrow, a voice of breath-taking, ice-cold venom.“1
It turns out that Harry alone is able to hear the frightening and threatening voice saying: „Come … come to me … let me rip you … let me tear you … let me kill you …”1 So at first Harry thinks it is just imagination but when he hears the voice for the second time he tries to follow it accompanied by his friends Hermione and Ron. They find the petrified cat of Argus Filch, the caretaker. This is the first indication for the presence of a special beast.
The Basilisk attacks students
During Harry Potter’s second year at Hogwarts several students are attacked and get petrified. No one dies because no one looks the monster straight in the eye: Colin sees it through his camera, Justin sees the basilisk through Nearly Headless Nick and Hermione as well as Penelope Clearwater get sight of the monster in a mirror. When Harry and Ron visit the petrified Hermione in hospital wing they find a piece of paper scrunched inside her fist. When they get the paper out of her hand it turns out to be a page torn from a very old library book. The text is about basilisks and now Harry knows the answer to his burning question: The monster in the Chamber of Secrets is a basilisk – a giant serpent. Harry alone has heard its voice because he understands Parseltongue.1
The Chamber of Secrets
When Harry enters the Chamber of Secrets to rescue Ginny Weasley he suddenly comes face to face with Tom Riddle, who reveals to him that he is the heir of Salazar Slytherin and that he has always wanted to become the greatest sorcerer in the world. To Harry’s great horror he tells him his new name: Lord Voldemort.1 When Harry insists that Albus Dumbledore is the greatest sorcerer Fawkes suddenly appears carrying the Sorting Hat. As the heir of Slytherin Lord Voldemort is able to speak Parseltongue, he can unseal the Chamber of Secrets, unleash the horror within, which is in fact the basilisk and use the dreadful monster to1 „purge the school of all who were unworthy to study magic“1
This was the original goal of the basilisk but it was changed by Lord Voldemort:
“Haven’t I already told you”, said Riddle quietly, “that killing Mudbloods doesn’t matter to me anymore? For many months now, my new target has been — you.”1
So Harry alone is the one he wants to kill.
Fawkes heeling Harry Potter
When Lord Voldemort calls the basilisk to kill Harry, the young wizard backs away until he hits the Chamber wall and closes his eyes. Dumbledore’s phoenix punctures the basilisk’s yellow eyes and blinds the king of serpents. Now it is no longer able to kill Harry with its gaze. Harry looks for help and suddenly the basilisk sweeps the Sorting Hat into Harry’s arms. He grabs it and puts it on his head. Suddenly something very hard and heavy falls on top of Harry’s head – it is a precious silver sword. In his despair he starts fighting and finally he is able to drive the entire sword to the hilt into the roof of the serpent’s mouth. The mighty beast dies but Harry is wounded by one long poisonous fang and only survives because of the phoenix tears’ healing powers.1
What Harry does not know is that the sword imbibes the basilisk’s venomous power, which turns out to be a great advantage for his fight against Lord Voldemort.3
Harry Potter stabbing Riddles Diary
Although Harry is able to kill the basilisk its venom goes on playing a very important role for the plot. Five out of six Horcruxes can be destroyed because of its deadly poison: The first Horcrux is Tom Riddle’s diary. It is destroyed when Harry seizes the Basilisk’s fang on the floor in the Chamber of Secrets and plunges it straight into the heart of the book. The Basilisk venom burns a sizzling hole right through it and then there is a long, dreadful, piercing scream and suddenly Tom Riddle is gone.1
Five years later Ron and Hermione enter the Chamber of Secrets again and take away several fangs of the dead Basilisk to get rid of Horcruxes. But in the end they succeed in destroying only one: Helga Hufflepuff’s Cup.3
The sword, which has got the basilisk’s venom power, destroys Salazar Slytherin’s Locket3, Marvolo Gaunt’s Ring3 and Lord Voldemort’s snake Nagini.3
Other sources
In antiquity the basilisk was a small snake living in the Libyan desert, probably identical to the Egyptian cobra. The cobra is famous for the white marking on its head, for its deadly venom, and for its ability to move with its head held upright. Such a snake appears on the foreheads of Egyptian pharaohs and gods. Therefore it is sometimes identified with the basilisk.4
Our word basilisk comes from the Greek basiliskos, meaning „little king“. The term is taken over into Latin as basiliscus. Since the late Middle Ages the word „cockatrice“ and similar terms have been mistakenly used as synonyms for „basilisk“.4 This legendary beast is the King of the snakes and the most poisonous creature on earth. The antique Romans use the term “king” not only because of the special spot on its head, but because the basilisk terrorizes all other creatures with its deadly look and poison. Its appearance is disputed because it is very dangerous to see a basilisk. According to legend whoever sees its eyes dies at once.5
One of the earliest accounts of a legendary serpent called the basilisk comes from Pliny the Elder’s Natural History, written by the Roman officer and encyclopaedist in 79 AD. He describes that this small snake is produced in the province of Cyrene, being not more than twelve inches in length. It has got a white spot on the head resembling a diadem.4
The old Greek called this creature basiliskos, „little king“ because of this crown-shaped crest on its head. When it hisses, all the other serpents flee. Unlike a normal snake the basilisk moves forward with its middle raised high.
This legendary beast is in spite of its smallness highly venomous. It leaves a wide trail of deadly venom in its wake and destroys bushes not only by its touch but also by its breath, and it burns up grass and bursts rocks. It’s effect on people and other animals is disastrous; it has been a general belief that its poison is so deadly that if a man on a horseback kills a basilisk with a spear the venom will run up the spear and kill the man as well as the horse.4
However, to this powerful creature the crow of a rooster is fatal and a weasel can kill it by its odour; the serpent is thrown into weasel hole, and the very unpleasant smell of its urine kills the basilisk at the same time as it kills the weasel. It shows that in nature there is nothing without its antidote.6
During the Middle Ages
With the end of the Roman Empire, Europe lost regular contact with Africa and so the basilisk became more and more fabulous. Medieval Europe came to imagine the basilisk not as a marvel but more and more as a monster, which you might stumble upon with fatal consequences. The transformation of the basilisk into a fabulous monster begins with the story of its birth. You find a corresponding passage in the Bible Isaiah 59,5. – “They break the eggs of asps and weave the spider’s web; he who would eat their eggs, having crushed the wind egg (ourion) finds in it a basilisk.”4 This translation of the text says that the birth of a basilisk is anomalous and it produces a monster. The context in Isaiah also makes an association of the creature with evil possible. Therefore the basilisk is treated as an appearance of the Devil, a wickedly fascinating serpent in Christian commentary.4 The view of the creature as diabolic spread during the next hundred years. The basilisk is also depicted in a few illuminated manuscripts but appeared much more often as an ornamental detail in church architecture, decorating capitals and medallions.5
We do not really know why the story of the serpent’s birth was changed into being hatched by the ordinary rooster in the Middle Ages. Maybe this is part of the general shift of the basilisk into a domestic European monster. About 1200 you can already read the legendary story about an egg that
“begins to form in the body of an aged cock. He lays it secretly into a dung heap, where it is hatched by a toad. The animal produced from the egg has the upper body of a rooster and the lower body of a snake.”4
Now the outward appearance of the basilisk has changed significantly, it is part serpent and part cock. At about the same time the word “cockatrice” comes into play and finally it is also used for the basilisk born of a cock’s egg although it has got its own tradition.4
The idea that a basilisk can be overcome with a mirror also appears at the High Middle Ages. The idea is probably of ancient origin since it recalls the myth of Medusa, who is defeated by her own reflection in the shield of Perseus. The dreadful cockatrice in the Viennese legend “Der Basilisk in der Schönlaterngasse” is defeated right this way in 1212. And the legend also refers to Pliny the Elder to confirm that the monster in the well is in fact a basilisk.7
The legends of the basilisk are as well linked to alchemy at this time; a story emerges about the basilisk’s ashes being able to convert silver into gold. Albertus Magnus, one of the greatest German philosophers and theologians of the Middle Ages rejects both the story of birth from a cock’s egg and the idea of a basilisk with wings. The same statement mentions that in alchemical writings the elixir or Philosopher’s Stone is called “the basilisk”.4
The Renaissance
The climax of the Basilisk’s story comes with the Renaissance. It seems no pure accident that the last documented appearance of a basilisk occurs in Warsaw in 1587. When the new science investigates the lore of the basilisk a final comment in 1646 says:
“Nor is this Cockatrice only unlike the Basilisk, but of no real shape in Nature; and rather a Hieroglyphical fantasie”4
So the once very feared monster was declared as a creation of pure fantasy.
When the basilisk reappears among the romantic poets it finds a place in the realm of imagery, its function (as in the plastic arts) is ornamental. The same is usually true in modern fantasy. The basilisk is not well known today but is often mistaken for a dragon, which enjoys a longer history and richer lore.4
Symbolism
Most authors agree, that Africa is the homeland of the Basilisk and that the monster has arisen from nothing more than the tales of the Egyptian cobra.4 The Egyptians themselves think that this indigenous creature symbolizes eternity. They call it Ouraion, whereas the Greeks call it Basilisk. As it seems to have power over life and death, they put it on the heads of the gods. So its primary feature seems to be a kind of kingliness.4
As the dreadful monster is so utterly cruel – its odour, voice and even look can kill – the basilisk has nearly almost been an icon of fear and a symbol of death. For the medieval Christians it represents the sin, evil or the devil itself, as the “ancient serpent” in the Garden of Eden persuades Eve and causes the fall from grace. Therefore the basilisk can be found on church walls often being defeated by a Christian knight to symbolize the ability to overcome evil.
Actually, a basilisk cannot be defeated by physical strength but through reversing the direction of the evil glance back with the help of a mirror.
In alchemical writings, the basilisk plays dualistic roles. It can either symbolize the destructive fire, which precedes the transmutation of metals, or as in Basel’s coat of arms an elixir the so called Philosopher’s Stone, that was said to turn everything it touches to gold, cure illnesses and confer eternal life.5
Towards the end of the Middle Ages, the basilisk in the physical appearance of the cockatrice becomes incorporated in heraldry, specifically in the town of Basel, Switzerland. The basilisk holding Basel’s coat of arms with the black crosier reminds of the fatal earthquake in 1356, which destroyed the city almost to the ground. The fabulous beast was blamed for causing that disaster:
“Basilisk, you poisonous worm and fable, now you shall hold the shield of the dignified city of Basel.”8
In this way the basilisk becomes the symbol of Basel and still is. It can be found in variations on numerous fountains, doors, monuments and on the famous “Wettsteinbrücke”.8
In general, the basilisk is not well known today because “such chimerical creatures are difficult to associate clearly with a symbolic valence.”4 The fabulous beast has form but no content.
Summary
The basilisk is a very fearsome and deadly beast. It is a loner and does not reproduce. Its only task is to kill. In the Harry Potter books it can be stabbed to death but in legend the basilisk can only be murdered when putting a mirror in front of its face. The dreadful creature does not stand its own ugliness like the evil in general, which always avoids the light.
Lego Products
- LEGO Harry Potter The Chamber of Secrets 4730.