Basilisk or Cockatrice is the king of snake. It's the mystic creature from European and Middle Eastern Folklore. It was told to be a half snake, half chicken mystic creature. The legend of its birth was developed and added from many people from many century. Venerable Bede was the first person that said it was born from yolk-less egg. Then other authors added more story about laying in Sirius days by 7 years old rooster and hatch by a toad.
According to legend, there are 2 species for this creature. One is the kind that burn everything in the way that they go and another kind, the famous one, can kill everything by just looking. Both kind can weak plant, rot fruits from distance, pollute water that it drank for centuries and shatter the stone by its breath. Its poison was so dreadful that if a man who riding a horse try to kill it with the spear, the poison which conduct through weapon will kill both the man and his horse.
The ways to kill Basilisk are to hold mirror for it to see its own reflection, the fight with the weasel, the animal that immune to Basilisk glance and if it was bitten it will retreat to eat rue plant that wasn't weak with Basilisk breath and come back to fight with Basilisk again. The arch enemy of Basilisk is a cock because if Basilisk hear its crow, it will die immediately.
Although from the description, it suppose to be giant snake but for some place like Cyrene that was record by Pliny the Elder in Natural's History in 79 AD, Basilisk is just a small snake not more than 12 fingers in length but its venom is deadly.
Basilisk's corp was used for keep spider away by hanging it in the building just like the temple of Apollo and Diana. It's also the guardian city of Basel in Swiss.
It was also become part of ingredient for alchemy until 17th century. Theophilus Presbyter mentioned in his book about creating Basilisk in order to get copper for Spanish Gold. Hermes Trismegistus said that Basilisk's ash had ability to convert silver into gold
To see more about what the symbol of Basilisk is, please visit Symbolic Collection.
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