Basilisk
Artwork by Benedetta Fiore. ArtStation | Instagram
Origin: Greek and Roman mythology
Other names: Cockatrice
The basilisk appearance varies greatly depending on who you ask. Sometimes it’s a giant snake or lizard, or a cockatrice with the head, feathers, and legs of a rooster, and the tail and leathery wings of a reptile. Most would say that it has the power to kill its victim with a simple glance, while others claim it also breathes fire, poisons its prey with venom, and even fly. Whatever its cocktail of powers, all would agree that the basilisk is an entity of pure evil whose ire is best avoided.
A basilisk can either be hatched by a cockerel from a serpent’s egg, or the reverse; hatched from a hen’s egg after incubating in a serpent’s nest.
The best ways to kill a basilisk are to have it look at itself in a mirror or listen to a rooster’s crow. Supposedly the former is how both Alexander the Great and Saint George defeated a basilisk. The only living creature immune to its death glare and venom is, strangely enough, the weasel.
Going further back, the earliest recording of a basilisk-like creature exists in Pliny the Elder’s 79 C.E. manuscript, The Natural History. The catoblepas, a cow-serpent creature, is described as routing other snakes with its hiss, raising itself high from its midsection like a cobra, and kills not only with a glance, but a touch or a breath. If a mounted man kills a basilisk with a spear, its poison is so noxious it will travel through the spear to both man and horse.
Sources:
The Natural History | The Serpents Called Basilisks
Appearances in media:
Movie:
Anime:
Basilisk: The Kouga Ninja Scrolls
Television:
Video Games:
…and so many more.