Basilisk (mythological creature)
The basilisk (from the Latin basiliscus, and this from the Greek βασιλίσκος basilískos: ' little king') was a fabulous being created by Greek mythology that was described as a giant snake loaded with lethal venom and that could kill with a simple look, which they considered the king of snakes. Subsequently, he has been represented in various ways, always with reptilian characteristics.
In the 8th century, the basilisk was considered a serpent with a crest shaped like a crown or miter on its head. head, the animal itself being of varied size.
It had a white marking on its head that resembles a diadem.
His influence was so noxious that his breath withered the surrounding flora and cracked the stones.
Isidore of Seville defined the basilisk as the king of snakes, due to its lethal gaze and poisonous breath.
General characteristics
Birth
According to Pierre de Beauvais in his Bestiary of 1206, it is born from a deformed egg, laid by a rooster or a hen when it reaches the age of 7, hatched by a toad for 9 years.
Therefore, at birth it keeps all the characteristics of its parents, the head of a rooster, the tail of a snake and the body of a toad.
The Venerable Bede was the first to establish the legend of the birth of the basilisk from a rooster's egg hatched by a toad in a nest made of dung.
The most accepted is that it is born from an egg laid by a rooster and incubated by a snake and it is said that it is born with the body of a rooster, snake's tongue and crest.
Teofilo Presbítero gives a long recipe in his book for creating a basilisk to use to turn copper into "Spanish gold" (from auro hispanico).
In the Middle Ages, it becomes a rooster with four legs, yellow feathers, large spiny wings, and a serpentine tail, which could end in a hook, snakehead, or another rooster's head.
There are versions of this mythological creature with eight legs and scales instead of feathers.
Way of Life
The basilisk lives in the desert that it creates by breaking rocks and burning grass.
This happens because the Basilisk breathes fire, dries up the plants, and poisons the waters.
According to Pliny the Elder in his Naturalis Historia, the basilisk was a native of Cyrene, and measured no more than 20 fingers in length.
Ways to kill the Basilisk
Her characteristic is her ability to kill with her gaze.
The safe methods of killing it were with the crowing of the rooster, which terrified the basilisk or with its main enemy, the weasel, which was the only animal capable of defeating it with its scent, but it died trying.
Alexander Neckam was the first to speculate that this creature killed not by looking, but by "corruption of air" that his breath generated, a theory also developed by Pietro d'Abano.
It is said that whoever looked into the eyes of a basilisk would die and if they saw it through a reflection they would be petrified.
If the Basilisk saw itself reflected in a mirror instead, it would kill itself.
For this reason, carrying a mirror was recommended.
Legend has it that Alexander the Great killed one this way.
It is said that a knight went in search of basilisks, because there was a plague in his country, so he put on a mirrored armor and thus killed all the basilisks. Later, they named him the knight of mirrors.
Evolution and history of the basilisk figure
Ancient Age
Like most mythological beasts, the basilisk's origins are lost to time.
Ancient cultures left clear signs of belief in their existence.
The Egyptians believed that the basilisk hatched from the eggs of ibis.
In the Old Testament we can find seven references to the basilisk, in four different books.
Until I century d. C., is seen as an exceptionally harmful snake, but physically they do not differ much from other snakes. It is important to note that knowledge of zoology allowed most people, including elites and scholars, to believe in this class of creatures well into the century XVIII.
In Naturalis Historia the Cyrene basilisk is described as a small snake (no more than twelve fingers in length) with so much venom that it left a trail behind its trail, and was capable of to kill with a look
In the Greco-Roman tradition, a clear distinction is made between the basilisk and the catoblepas, a heavy-headed quadruped that kills whoever looks into its eyes, and which is cited, among others, by Claudius Aelianus, Athenaeus and Archelaus among the Greeks, and among the Latinos Pliny the Elder, Cayo Julio Solino and Pomponio Mela.
Pliny the Elder makes probably the most famous mention of the beast in his Natural History, repeated over and over again by later authors, often misinterpreted or misrepresented.[quote required]
Other authors who cite him are Marco Anneo Lucano or the doctor Dioscorides.
Solino and Claudio Eliano talk about the monster in the III century.
Arnobio and Aecio in V. Aeliano introduces the rooster into the myth, a detail that will grow in importance to the point of enormously modifying the creature in the Middle Ages.
Middle Ages
Throughout the Middle Ages, bestiaries were common in Europe, most of them adulterated copies.
Isidore of Seville copied Pliny the Elder with his own modifications in the VII century, widely imitated throughout Europe and which it will cause classical knowledge to be diluted behind a fog of secondary sources and bad translations, uniting the basilisk with other beings such as the catoblepas or the cocatrix.
Before the X century, we already found legends of European basilisks, an animal that in ancient times was exclusive to Libya, except for a few apocryphal stories.
This use of classical sources is also observed in the Muslim world.
In 1230 Bartolomé Glanvilla, known as Anglico, published De Proprietatibus rerum, the most popular Natural History of the Renaissance.
In it the medieval myth is configured in its fullness, its birth and evolution, properties and way of killing it.
This information, together with various legends of events that are taking place in Europe, are collected by multiple authors, such as Vicente Beauvais or Thomas Aquinas.
Modern and Contemporary Age
With the Renaissance and the appearance of the first lights of reason, the focus of the natural sciences became more scientific, and the knowledge about living beings was raised in a more critical way.
During the XVI century the existence of the basilisk and the truth of its properties, for which wise men and doctors dedicated themselves to philosophizing about the reason for their visual poison or the logic for this beast.
In the Aldrovandi Encyclopedia there is an engraving of a stuffed basilisk, a common forgery at the time that was made from the bodies of an angelfish and a stingray.
The basilisk, along with many other wonderful beings, was fully integrated into popular lore until well into the XVII century.
The last naturalist to mix real and imaginary animals is Jan Johnston and her Historiae Naturalis.
In 1728, Feijoo denied that an animal could kill with its sight, which caused great controversy, which did not end until a tired Ferdinand VI ordered it in 1750 >.
Nevertheless, the common people continued to believe in this serpent and its evil properties for at least another century.
During the 20th century we can observe the use of traditional bestiaries in Tolkien-influenced streams of fantasy literature, such as the Harry Potter saga by J. K. Rowling, as well as pulp, comics and fantastic illustration by authors such as Frank Frazetta or Luis Royo.
Variation of the myth in other cultures
In America, especially in the folklore of the Southern Cone, there are also variants of the myth that are also called basilisk. It is obvious that the denomination comes from Europe, although in the case of the American variants of the myth there are elements of syncresis with aboriginal beliefs. For example,
- In the chilota mythology stands out the belief in the chilote basilisco, a half-cock and half-brain that is characterized by drinking saliva, which can only be killed by burning it.
- In folklore gaucho it was believed that basilisco It was described as a kind of giant worm with a single eye that caused death with his gaze, and which could only be killed by making him see his "rostro" in a mirror or other reflective surface.
- In the New Kingdom of Granada (today Colombia) it was known with the name of a Jew or a Jew. It was like a big snake ·
- In Colombia, a sinister creature of similar characteristics, which is commonly heard but rarely seen is known as the "bad dust" or the "poly of the devil", a common fable in many mountains. His singing announces death and in general brings misfortune to anyone who has contact with him.
- In El Salvador, it is said that the hens before dying put a small last egg and that if it is incubated by a sap or snake, the basilisco is born, and if the person sees the basilisco first in the eyes, he dies. But if he looks at the person first, he dies.
- In Paraguayan mythology the Basilisco, it has the shape of a short snake, with horns pointed in its head, less than one meter long and with the thickness of a trunk. He lives in swamps and estuaries of Paraguay, he is not attributed the title of protector of some other species of animal or plants, it is a myth of horrible appearance that scares people. Some claim that seeing Moñái in the eyes produces death.
- It is said that in the city of Lima-Peru during the government of the virrey Conde de Superunda, was born on the street of the Huevo (today Avenue Tacna) an augury basilisco of the Tsunami that destroyed the Port of Callao and affected the city of Lima in the same way.
Basilisks in art
Basilisks in sculpture
In sculpture, the figure of the basilisk was used mainly on the capitals of churches, occasionally it can be found in ivory carvings and applied arts.
There are legends about this mythological figure that lead to the creation of sculptures, for example, in Vienna, the figure can be found on a street facade.
Basilisks in Literature
Abundant mention of the basilisk is made by all kinds of Spanish authors in verse and prose.
During the Golden Age, Spanish literature is dotted with references to the beast, usually to compare it to the gaze of the beloved. Lope de Vega, Quevedo and Cervantes use the creature in their texts.
It is described as a snake that breeds in the deserts of Africa and scares away others with its whistle and others as a creature that kills with its eyes. Francisco de Quevedo mocks this as well as other myths in a famous Romance:
- If he is alive who saw you / your whole story is a lie, / for if he did not die, he ignores you; / and, if he died, he does not say it.
20th century
In book 2 of the comic character Inodoro Pereyra, by Argentine author Roberto Fontanarrosa, there is a duel between a basilisk and the protagonist, where he himself kills the basilisk by reflecting his gaze, in an ophthalmologist's mirror placed on his forehead.
Appears in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling, as well as the film version of him, where the protagonist faces off against one.
It appears described in The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan, book of the saga The Heroes of Olympus, in chapters XXII to XXIV where Frank a demigod faces three of them to save his friends.
In the Saint Seiya manga, Basilisk is one of the 108 specters of Hades' army.
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